Almost there........

I'm going to backtrack a little here. I've been talking about the shipment of rock I'm getting from Africa, but not how that whole thing got started. Someone asked me today how on earth I got into this, so I may as well go back to the beginning.

Back in the early 1990s, I traveled to South Africa four consecutive years to hunt and fish and gather information for stories. (As a writer, I’m always looking for something new to write about.)

Looking back over a distance of 15 or so years, I can’t remember why we ended up where we were, but we stopped by a wholesale gemstone dealer one afternoon. On the grass behind the building were piles of malachite and sodalite about 6 feet across and 3 feet high, pieces from fist-sized to the size of a flagstone, all just in big heaps.

I’ve loved both stones ever since, and in fact that afternoon bought gemstone strands of both. Little did I know at the time how much those piles were worth, or how impossible it would be to get malachite out of Africa today!

Several months ago, I made a connection through my fiance to the wife of one of his colleagues. She's from Kenya, and worked there as a prospector for many years. Somehow the three of us hatched the idea of importing a shipment of lapidary rock from northern Africa for sale here in the states.

We weren't able to get anything set up from northern Africa, so I started digging around and looking for my own sources.After many hours of research, and many e-mails, I narrowed my potential suppliers down to three, and then to two, and finally to one. I still may order from the second one, but one metric ton of rock at a time is enough!

I formally placed my order today--August 6--and it should be here around the middle of September. The rock will arrive in four 55-gallon drums, which will take up residence in my driveway until I can get them sorted out! Meanwhile I’ve been scrounging milk crates and every other hard plastic basket I can find so I can stack the rock on shelves in my shade house.

I've already written about the chrysocolla. I’ll also be getting blue lace agate (some with druzy), red aventurine, Orange River Voorsite chalcedony, 17 different jaspers, sodalite (couldn’t pass that one up), banded jasper matrix with tiger eye, and unakite. Malachite is unavailable due to the political situation in southern Africa at this time. :-(

But, the order is placed, the wire transfer goes out tomorrow, and the rock should be on the way in the next few days. I'll start putting it on line sometime around the end of September, both as rough and as slabs.

All sorted out.......

After weeks of having boxes of rocks just sitting around in my office I finally have them all sorted and catalogued and put away. Well, more or less. The ones I'm still cutting are in a flat box until I have time to get a full day to sit on the porch and cut slabs on the small saw.

Now if it would just stop raining I could uncover the slab saw and cut some of this picture jasper I unearthed in one of the boxes! Four rocks, all different, each one a different color, and I have no idea which picture jasper any one of them is.

I'm in a holding pattern waiting for my supplier in Africa to have my order ready. He's sending me a sample of African turquoise to have analyzed so we both know exactly what it is. The gemologist I've talked to is guessing either real, honest-to-goodness turquoise or azurite; it will be a couple weeks before I know. Just in time to finalize the order, I think.

I do know it will have two kinds of picture jasper in it. Fun stuff. The picture in this entry is Kalahari picture jasper. I haven't had time to cut any of it yet, but I'd like to find the time.

African rocks

Well, it looks like the African shipment I've been working on is really going to come together. I have the wholesaler lined up, I have the Customs broker, and I'm waiting for shipping information.

I know I'm going to order some nice picture jasper, and some Orange River chalcedony. I'm not sure what else yet.

I expect it to arrive in four 55 gallon drums that will sit in my driveway until I have time to sort them out. But that's a couple months away yet.

But I'm eagerly waiting.........