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Month: January 2022

Lava Lamp Agate

Lava Lamp Agate

By /January 25, 2022 /0 comments /Geology

Lava lamp agate. I found it. I named it. Here is what you are really looking at. Rock #4526 This is agate on the right side and lava matrix in which it is formed on the left side, cut and polished and set as a pendant in gold-fill wire wrap. This is a free form designer cut of an agate nodule still attached to the lava in which the nodule formed. If you rotate the specimen 45 degrees counter clockwise, you will see the classical amygdaloidal shape. Rock #4526 rotated 45 degrees For those who may not have the word amygdaloidal on the tip of their tongues or in their lexicon, “amygdaloidal” generally means almond-shaped, typically with a flattened bottom and rounded top. This shape comes from the gas bubble pocket formed in lava which filled in with silica material which formed the agate. This specimen is natural and not […]

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Flower Garden Agates

Flower Garden Agates

By /January 17, 2022 /1 comment /Geology

This is why I love cutting material from The Carver! Rock 4582 Rock 4538 The oval flower garden agate cab has a white fortification agate in the center. A fortification agate is named for the pattern that would be seen on the ground if one were looking down from above upon an old-fashioned fortress—think Fort Ticonderoga. (See Gemstones of the World, by Walter Schumann, page 134, 1977 edition, for discussion and photos of the fortification agate.) The point of this blog, beyond the beauty of these flower garden agates, is that it is very complicated and difficult to exactly identify a particular type of agate, particularly when many agates contain within them several identifiable specific types of agate. Ergo, this is a flower garden agate with a fortification agate in it. Rock #4538 Detail

Brecciated Lava Agate

Brecciated Lava Agate

By /January 15, 2022 /0 comments /Geology

This stone was cut as a geological oddity, rather than as a gemstone. I doubt it will ever be set as part of a piece of jewelry. First, you notice three jagged shards or pieces on the left side of the rainbow shaped stone. These shards are from hardened lava that was broken and fell into a crack in the lava surrounding the shards. The lava, which was initially molten and then hardened, was at some later point in time broken by tectonic forces or by volcanic explosion or lifted by rising magma. The crack and the shards were later (How much later, you ask? How the hell would I know?!!) filled in by a silica solution or silica gel that subsequently crystallized and formed the brown material surrounding the three shards. The surrounding material is chalcedony (a micro-crystalline quartz structure). Chalcedony is a common material in many agates and […]

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Winter Stone Cutting and Wood Cutting in Maine

Winter Stone Cutting and Wood Cutting in Maine

By /January 12, 2022 /3 comments /Cut Rocks

My cutting of the voluminous Carver material continues between wood cutting activity to heat my home. Rock #4604 Rock #4606 Winter is wood cutting time in Maine as the swamps and low places, which are otherwise filled with water, freeze hard, leveling out the low muddy places. I access these frozen places on my ATV and cut and haul out my firewood. I split the wood with my wood splitter and then stack it on my porch (a 2 to 4 day supply), move it inside, and then ‘feed’ my wood stove as needed. Stove and Woodpile Splitter and Woodpile Why do I store wood inside when it is piled conveniently on the porch? Because this morning at 5 a.m. it was 7 degrees above zero and at 9:30 a.m. it had dropped to 0 degrees! Warm wood burns easier than cold wood. Cutting rocks is much easier than cutting […]

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Blue Filigree Agate

Blue Filigree Agate

By /January 10, 2022 /4 comments /Cut Rocks

I found it. I cut it. I named it. This is another ‘one off’ from The Carver agate field. The stone is so spectacular, different, and beautiful, that I wish I had another stone or more of the same stone. I do not. Rock #4576: Blue FiligreeClick on the image to enlarge This is a slab from a single geode I cut around Christmas 2021. I strongly urge the viewer to enlarge the photo, if possible. The stone has various shades of blue and there are tiny light blue bubbles that give the agate opalescence, which is to say, it shimmers like an opal. Although the stone is not opal, I believe the same cause of opalescence in opals has caused this specimen to opalesce, e.g., the tiny grayish blue bubbles seen in this stone under magnification create the strong opalescent effect. Rock #4576: Blue Filigree Detail The gold filigree […]

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