barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 29, 2013 11:56:33 GMT -5
I have gone a-hunting in this area twice. I got a couple of pieces of so-so Blue G. Most of my pieces had inclusions of a yellow flakey material that left a pitted surface. I got some nice brick red jaspers with clear and milky quartz lines running through them and a similar material in olive green. My two favorite finds were a dark blue material with a brecciated pattern and a green moss agate with a cross of quartz running through the whole stone. I also found a softer light blue material with brown/purple dots which I think are hematite. It takes a satiny sheen so I would not call it useful yet. I am still playing with it.
The first time I went up in April I camped out and froze my tail off. The second time I stayed in a hotel in Los Banos which is about 10 miles away. Los Banos is a small town but they have a Walmart, Starbucks and all the amenities of home. This is an easy field trip. It is close to gas, hot food and real restrooms. It is close to the highway, it has short and pretty flat dirt roads to travel on. It is not very hilly and you don't have to do a lot of digging to find good stuff. I filled up two milk crates with rocks just on the east end of Area 54. I did not make it to the middle before I caught my limit of rocks :) Next time I go up I will explore further. I can post some photos if anyone is that interested.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 18, 2013 22:08:22 GMT -5
What a cool looking piece! Are those termite tubes in the wood?
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 18, 2013 18:41:45 GMT -5
I am glad to see that piece come out so well. Everything came together.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 18, 2013 15:35:16 GMT -5
Very technically difficult (from what little I know about wire) but the green stones kind of unbalance the design. They draw my eyes away from the beautiful center stone. Then again I am a guy who does not wear jewelry so what do I know :). Your plan sounds good, if someone loves it and buys it you will both go away happy. If it lingers and you have to strip it down a bit you still have a wonderfully intricate piece.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 17, 2013 10:42:17 GMT -5
Pinto that is right neighborly of you, I may just take you up on that. There is no shortage of tourist things to do in old NM. Growing up in Santa Fe I am "turquoised out". Peruano and I traded flat rate boxes of rocks. He sent me some really neat agates he collected. Once I am done with my crosses I can't wait to dive in and make something out of the stones he sent me. There is the Harding pegmatite and the town of Bingham with their mines. I think I can safely drag the family to those
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 12, 2013 22:26:55 GMT -5
Looks like some bug eye rhyolite I picked up at an estate sale last month. Can't we just call a rock a rock?
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 12, 2013 18:02:57 GMT -5
If I have fallen and can't get up, it is probably because I have too many rocks in my pockets :)
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 12, 2013 17:36:48 GMT -5
I will be spending time in Santa Fe (north) and visiting White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns. That is all we have planned so far. We are driving in from CA so we may come in from the south and head back taking the northern route. Pretty much anything is fair game at this point.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Oil
May 9, 2013 21:39:44 GMT -5
Post by barclay on May 9, 2013 21:39:44 GMT -5
Before you look at any of the anti-freeze products take a look at the warnings on the label and read the MSDS. The MSDS is usually pretty to find online. If it says something like "always wear gloves" or "hazardous" you probably don't want to use it in my opinion. I like mineral oil. It is readily available, reasonably cheap and it is meant to go inside your body it is probably ok on the outside, within reason. I wouldn't bathe in it. Another issue is your stone absorbing some of the color from the antifreeze.
On the asbestos issue, just one word...DON'T. I have been in the air pollution arena for close to 20 years now and have had to tell people that they have been exposed to something that could kill them horribly and painfully sometime in the next 20-40 years. Asbestos is just a group of minerals that frequently come in thin chemically resistant fibers. When they get down in your lungs your body continually attacks them and that leads to cancer. One fiber can kill you. There is no known safe level of exposure to asbestos fibers. How many of us have lapidary machines that are clean enough to eat off of? Every one I have seen has rock dust on them. Oil sounds like a good fix, the only problem is that you don't leave the rock in oil forever. Eventually you will take that slab out of the oil in your saw and try and make something out of it. To do that you have to clean it off. Yes golden tiger eye is converted blue tremolite asbestos, but remember Mother Nature is many things, but she is rarely perfect. Can you be sure that every fiber has been changed? None of us have x-ray vision. It is still a small diameter mineral fiber. I have no idea how chemical resistant tiger eye is. It is still mostly silicon and oxygen, just like sand and just like tremolite.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 9, 2013 21:00:28 GMT -5
Ye gods! That is a lot of wrapping. It is a fabulous design, but it must have taken you forever to make it. Do you have any wire left? :)
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 9, 2013 20:38:08 GMT -5
Beautiful work. My personal fave is the one below the Woodward Ranch stone. It reminds me of a snow cone....It is making me hungry :)
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 5, 2013 17:29:26 GMT -5
Scott, Now those are hot dogs! Maybe you could put the pot in the freezer and chip it off. You could probably use dry ice if you need more umph. Our local big box grocery stores carry dry ice. My wife used to work with an esthetician who did waxing and she said that they used Goo Gone to help clean wax off the floor. If that does not work maybe a methylene chloride based paint stripper may help. Your local Home Depot, Lowes, etc should carry it. Warning, MeCl is highly toxic, smells bad and will burn you if you get any on you. I used some to remove 50 year old shellac and paint from a dresser and bedroom set.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 3, 2013 21:06:28 GMT -5
I don't see a Jason nmonyx on the member list. Does he go by a different nick?
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 3, 2013 20:52:35 GMT -5
That is the plan, although I still think most of them will end up in a sock drawer unless they have an iPOD glued to them
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 3, 2013 17:51:16 GMT -5
My first "big" jewelry job. My Pastor asked me to make him 10 cross pendants for him to give to kids who have good attendance at Sunday school. This is the first one I completed as a demo piece for what I proposed. He liked it. Choosing the stone for the project was challenging. I did not want to just make a cross shape out of rock. I wanted to find a stone that had a design that worked on the small surface area of a cross. It also has to be strong enough for a kid to use and abuse. The second requirement knocked out a lot of contenders. I found this piece of agate from Mexico. The design in the rock reminds me of a man and blood. I will get 7 crosses out of the original rock and have to find another for last 3.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 2, 2013 21:29:21 GMT -5
Thank you all for the good info! I am down in San Diego and have been looking for good rock stores somewhere in SoCal.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 2, 2013 20:59:35 GMT -5
It looks like me before I have my morning coffee
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on May 2, 2013 20:56:57 GMT -5
I love the delicate design on the coral. Your polishing really brings it out!
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Apr 30, 2013 8:19:48 GMT -5
I really love what you did with the dunes jasper. The shape you chose really fits with the pattern of the rock.
I googled solar quartz and your piece seems to match most of those pictures. If the yellow material in the middle is significantly harder could it be topaz or yellow sapphire? I have seen specimens of quartz crystals with topaz, not sure about quartz and sapphire. Just a thought.
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barclay
has rocks in the head
Lowly Padawan of rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 510
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Post by barclay on Apr 29, 2013 8:13:06 GMT -5
The Oceanview and Himalaya mines in northern San Diego County let people sift through material from the mines. The cost is about $70 per person. I have done each mine and came away with a couple of good pieces from each. You can find green, pink and black tourmaline, kunzite and quartz. Oceanview's website is www.digforgems.com. I think the digs are usually on the weekend.
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