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Let's Rock => Mineral Specimens => Topic started by: Kenpachi on June 22, 2024, 05:54:25 AM

Title: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: Kenpachi on June 22, 2024, 05:54:25 AM

Hey folks!  Not sure if this is the *right* place to post these..

Some recent finished pieces.. the first was pretty hard stuff.. felt like grossular garnet to me, maybe with chrome diopside?  Found @ Deer Creek, near Oso, WA. 
Second might be vesuvianite?  Also from Deer Creek.  The bands were full of metals.. and between the fractures seem to be gold.. it took a lot of work to cut it back this far, she suffered quite a bit and had a lot of deep fractures, pieces falling off.. eventually I got there.  The green is translucent, much of the rest on the front side is transparent... all broken up, the fractures filled and block the light.. this guy also spins. 
Third.. rodingite?  Deer Creek..  It's got really hard green bits, garnet or chrome diopside?  some of it is light blue green, some of it is more olive color.  Almost looks like peridot in places.  Still more to go, this is at 1000.

Title: Re: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: WingnutAndAPrayer on June 22, 2024, 08:10:53 AM

Personally, I'm ejoying seeing your work- please don't hesitate to continue sharing!

Title: Re: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: R.U. Sirius on June 22, 2024, 09:35:53 AM

Very interesting, and beautiful. I like the first example the most, but fractures are too much to deal with.

Title: Re: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: lithicbeads on June 22, 2024, 11:11:03 AM

Forget the gold idea, I have collected Deer  for 40 years and there has never been any test showing gold in the rodingites and serpentines. such as you have.Grossular -vesuvianite - chrome diopside mizes with more vesuvianite  than grossular, perhaps no grossular. If you want excellent id's from the most experienced collector - analytical tester look for Global jade on facebook.Superb advice and a huge amount of examples.Do you have Lanny Ream's new Washington jade book? It is quite helpful on ids.

Title: Re: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: Kenpachi on June 23, 2024, 06:38:51 PM

Thanks everybody for the kind words!

Lithicbeads, on second thought I think that one came from near Darrington, but I'm not sure exactly where.  It's pretty weird.. I'll have to look for the detailed photos that show what I'm talking about, but it might just be an optical illusion..

Title: Re: Some very hard mountain candy..
Post by: lithicbeads on June 24, 2024, 02:35:17 PM

I have seen pieces of Darrington rodingite collected as far south as the Raging river. The glaciers spread a small amount widely.