Tag: jasper

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Paisley Agate?

The winter storms tree damage is all cleaned up, processed to saw logs and split firewood. Three large fires that I lit burned up all the brush. So, I had a bit of time to cut and polish more of The Carver agates. Rock #5171 : Paisley AgateI found it, cut it, and named it The paisley agate was named by me. It is a bit dark for inclusion in jewelry, but I liked it because the pattern reminded me of the paisley so popular in my childhood. Rock #5161 Photo 5161 is a heel grind of a small agate nodule which yielded ‘sunflowers’ in a pretty blue-appearing stone. The blue color of the stone was enhanced greatly from a pale white to the blue that you see due to my photographing the stone on a very foggy Maine day. When photographed in my shop on a sunny day, the […]

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A Ghost and Four Other Carver Agates Cut This Week

A Ghost and Four Other Carver Agates Cut This Week

The most interesting of the five stones is the “ghost,” shown below in two different angles. Click each image to see an enlarged version. Rock #4910 Rock #4909 Next we have a yellow fortification agate in an “octopus garden beneath the sea.” Rock #4894       Photo 4906 below is the slab from another nodule creating a cut and polished agate which looked blue before being cut and more red to orange after being fully polished.      Rock #4906 Rock #4906 close-up Photo 4896 is a jasper/agate free form designer cab. I just liked the colors.     Rock #4896 For the lapidists out there, photo 4899 below, which I call the flower garden agate. is the most interesting cut that I have done in a while. Usually I take a nodule, cut a thin slab from a crosscut of the nodule, and then grind and polish, as is the case in all […]

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Maine Coast Plasma Jasper: New Video

Maine Coast Plasma Jasper: New Video

Maine coast plasma jasper is not a native stone. It was carried here by the continental glaciers that covered Maine with 10,000 feet of ice a mere 14,000 years ago. When the ice melted, it left behind on parts of the Maine coast this greenish plasma jasper. The stone is many shades of green to grey, with white flecks and an ‘other worldly’ plasma pattern, similar to a space nebula as seen through a powerful telescope. The jasper is hard and fracture resistant. It polishes, but not easily. It has a waxy texture which is key to identification. It shows a conchoidal fracture. I don’t know the bedrock source of this material except that it is north of here in Maine or Canada. Rock #4337 : Click to enlarge Rock #4338 : Click to enlarge Rock #4367 : Click to enlarge

Green plasma jasper from the shore of the Penobscot Bay, Maine

Green plasma jasper from the shore of the Penobscot Bay, Maine

So far this is the only stone not from The Carver and displayed on this website. Green plasma jasper is found on the shore of many (but not all) Penobscot Bay islands. It is a visitor to the Maine coast, carried by gigantic glaciers nearly two miles thick that came down from Canada to the Penobscot Bay and then melted approximately 10,000 years ago, leaving the green plasma jasper behind. The bedrock source of green plasma jasper has not yet been determined by me, but my guess is that its source is hundreds of miles north of the Penobscot Bay. This uniquely shaped pendant is approximately 3 inches long and set in goldfill. I think it would look good with a heavy gold chain or leather. Green plasma jasper Oval plasma jasper unset

Finally: New Shop Up and Running! AND a new Photo Gallery!

Finally: New Shop Up and Running! AND a new Photo Gallery!

Months behind schedule, the shop is making rocks shiny again, although the building is not yet complete. So much for ‘getting done before the snow flies!’ The silversmith shop is built, but I have yet to find my smithing tools which are in ‘below zero’ storage. I have so many 5 gallon buckets of as yet uncut ‘Carver’ stones, it will no doubt take a few years to complete the intensive high grading. Not a problem I mind having, since the most fun (after collecting in the field) is cutting the stones open and seeing the amazing beauty and diversity of colors and agate/jasper types awaiting my eyes. I’ll be sharing this amazing diversity of color, patterns and agate types as I cut and polish. For now, I am showing the new discoveries so far since the shop reopening. These are the result of opening just ONE tub of rocks […]

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Metallic Mystery Agate

Metallic Mystery Agate

This agate formed in association with a yellow jasper (which is predominantly comprised of silica). Before I cut this Carver find, it displayed a curious metallic sheen which was in fact what initially drew my attention to it.  The sheen was very different from the sheen observed from other quartz and jasper materials.  This metallic sheen appears quite clearly on the bottom of the pictured cabochon. The rounded surface of the cabochon shows agatization and two visible “vugs.”  The stone from which this cab was cut also had a curious and unexpected heft (weight) that, combined with the metallic sheen, suggested a metallic component had mixed with jasper and formed  a metallic mystery agate that had not been previously observed on The Carver agate field. If I can find out what metal is involved I will update you.  

New from the Carver Agate Field: Is It Jasper? Agate? Jasp-Agate?

New from the Carver Agate Field: Is It Jasper? Agate? Jasp-Agate?

These definitions will help us decide! Jasper:  opaque (light does not penetrate); any color of chalcedony which is a micro-crystalline (requires magnification for crystals to be seen) form of quartz. Agate:  a banded translucent (lets light through) chalcedony of any color, most often found in nodules, geodes, or cracks in silicaceous volcanic rocks. Jasp-agate:  a chalcedony with characteristics of both agate and jasper.  The basic component is silica (quartz) which may be either micro or macro crystalline (crystals can be seen without magnification).  It can be opaque, transparent or translucent (sometimes all three appear in the same specimen).  It can be banded like an agate or it can be like a jasper with agate structures which form within cracks or fractures or vugs (small cave-like voids) in jasper. If you would like to see some of the Carver Agate Field jaspers and jasp-agates, take a look at the new JASP-AGATE […]

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Rare Large Jasper Nodule from the Carver Agate Field

Rare Large Jasper Nodule from the Carver Agate Field

This posting is more about geology than a pretty specimen. Bear with me as I ‘get into the weeds’ to explain why this is rare and is the subject of this posting. How nodules form Gas bubbles in molten lava sometimes, after hardening, leave a bubble or void in the hardened lava which may fill with a silica solution. The silica often creates banded agates or crystal lined voids in the center of the nodule which are called geodes. What is rare and unusual in this large specimen, is that the nodule formed in the gas bubble is essentially jasper, not agate, quartz, or other crystals.  While The Carver agate field has lots of jaspers, they are almost always formed separate from, and outside of, gas bubbles that have formed in the lava. The process by which jasper would completely fill a large gas bubble is apparently uncommon. I have […]

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Brecciated Jasp/Agate from The Carver Agate Field

Brecciated Jasp/Agate from The Carver Agate Field

The Carver has produced red and yellow jaspers, sometimes mixed with green.   Yellow and red are seen in this photo.  After the jasper had initially formed, volcanic forces cracked/fractured the jasper into angular shards. Eventually a silica solution in either a liquid or semi-liquid state filled the fractured shards and then hardened, cementing the jasper back together.  These shards that are cemented back together are called brecciated.  Since some of the silica filling in the areas between the shards took on a banding (see particularly the upper left corner of the stone), we see a fortification agate which has formed within the brecciated jasper. For this reason, this specimen can be described as jasp/agate (part jasper, part agate) which is brecciated.

Designer Free Form Gem Stones from ‘The Carver’ Agate Field now for sale at Texas Amethyst Agate Shop

Designer Free Form Gem Stones from ‘The Carver’ Agate Field now for sale at Texas Amethyst Agate Shop

This is the Carver agate field jasper “Grotto.” This jasper has beautiful coloration and pattern and more. It has a totally unique and unexpected crystal-filled grotto which is shown enlarged in the photo above. Be sure to visit the Shop to see the designer gem stones now available for sale!