Tag: Maine

From Western Europe to Northport, Maine

From Western Europe to Northport, Maine

Eons ago, the featured stone was part of western Europe. It was part of the European plate which, according to plate tectonic scientists, crashed into the North American plate. When this occurred, a small portion of the European plate broke off and was left stranded. It attached to the North American plate when the two plates subsequently parted again. This plate movement slowly increased the distance between Europe and North America, which created the Atlantic Ocean. As these plates continued to move apart, there was a ripping of the ocean floor in the Atlantic, which explains the volcanic activity that is still going on in Iceland and the mid-Atlantic Ocean area. Amphibolite / Rock #5142 So……what about this stone? The featured stone is from that part of the European crustal plate which rammed into what is now Northport, Maine, where my son Josh lives and I have a small camp. […]

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TexasAmethystAgate Islesboro, Maine, Studio Tour

TexasAmethystAgate Islesboro, Maine, Studio Tour

I recently joined the Islesboro Arts Collective and participated in the group’s first annual studio tour held July 9, 2022. While Texas Amethyst Agate is dedicated to researching and documenting The Carver Agate Field of West Texas, I expanded this focus to participate in this event by adding Maine gemstones to my lapidary/jewelry works. The main stones featured included two handmade sterling silver cuff style Maine tourmaline bracelets. as well as jewelry incorporating three other gemstones found by me on Islesboro. These included green plasma jasper, brown/beige jasp-agate, and white Pripet Wharf marble included with ‘fools gold’. I crafted fancy designer freeform gemstones from each of these Maine stones and set them in a gold fill wire wrap to create pendants. I really loved the green plasma jasper which contrasts beautifully with the wire wrap. The three pendants prepared for the studio tour as well as the Maine tourmaline cuff […]

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Odd Fellows "All Seeing Eye" Agate

Odd Fellows “All Seeing Eye” Agate

Folks looking at my polished stones often comment on seeing an image in the stone. Usually, I see the image they point out, but I did not see it until it was brought to my attention. It is much like seeing faces or images in the clouds. Well, this week after I cut and polished a cabochon, I saw the Odd Fellows ‘All Seeing Eye’. A bit of history and personal history is in order. Rock #4698 The “Eye” The Odd Fellows were a very popular fraternal organization with over 1,000,000 US members ‘back in the day’. They were social, secretive and ritualistic, much like the Masonic order. They were also charitable and had one basic requirement in order to belong: the belief in a supreme being (God). Their primary and most famous symbol was the ‘All Seeing Eye’ which was also a Masonic symbol. In fact, our founding fathers, […]

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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

Winter Stone Cutting and Wood Cutting in Maine

Winter Stone Cutting and Wood Cutting in Maine

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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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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TexasAmethystAgate World Headquarters Takes Shape

TexasAmethystAgate World Headquarters Takes Shape

The new shop is incorporating a west facing wall which is nearly all glass. This will allow lots of westerly afternoon light and expansive views over the West Penobscot Bay located in mid-coast Maine. The south shop wall has five 3×3 foot windows to maximize morning sunlight. Natural sunlight is great when you are cutting and polishing stones, or undertaking fine silver- smithing activities. Lots of windows also help with the short Maine winter days which have, at best, dim diffuse sunlight even on the clearest of days. The shop takes shape The shop’s interior will be sheathed in white pine boards which are locally sourced. Heating, cooling, and humidity control are done by an environmentally sensitive heat pump. For backup when the electric fails, there is a wood stove which I ‘feed’ with dead and dying trees which I cut from the property. It sure is not West Texas, […]

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