Lapidary Blog

My wife Rain and my cousin recently met with Janet and George Sechler, owners of Oasis Prospecting, in their Washington home.  Their visit was twofold:  Rain is creating a new Royal Sahara Jasper website for the Sechlers (who discovered RSJ), and was showing them the ins and outs of adding items to it, while my cousin was given the opportunity to sort through countless barrels of fine Royal Sahara Jasper®, so I’d have some of the very best rough material from which to cut cabochons.  And WOW, what they brought home to me is truly outstanding!  Feast your eyes on this sampling:

Believe me when I say, these pieces are even more fascinating in hand…  Here’s a closer look at some of my favorites:

George and Janet were absolutely wonderful!  Both Rain and my cousin found them to be very warm-hearted folks, who kindly entertained with plenty of adventurous stories about their discovery of Royal Sahara Jasper®, and what it’s like in the Sahara Desert.  Rain and Janet whipped up a scrumptious dinner for everyone too.  And they were certainly very VERY generous to my family!  George dumped out a couple of extra special barrels of his ‘King’s Choice‘ material, and Janet did the same with several barrels labelled ‘Janet’s Choice‘.  They contained outstanding NEW top grade nodules, part of the long-awaited shipment delivered that same day.  Great timing, I must say!!  Check out the beauty below, complete with shiny METALLIC dendrites!

I am excited beyond words to have these fine examples, thanks to George and Janet.  These pieces are truly future heirlooms, especially the scenic ones, destined to take part in your finest wearable art creations.  The composite pic below will surely whet your appetite:

No doubt you can see the great potential in these! 

Royal Sahara Jasper® is a hard, fine grained porcelain-like material that takes a fabulous glassy shine.   You can read more about it in the Feb. 2008 issue of Lapidary Journal, featuring this amazing new find.  RSJ is the perfect starting place if your aim is to create totally UNIQUE jewelry, as every piece is just naturally one-of-a-kind.  There are several cabbed examples in the SOLD gallery of my Designer Gems site, in case you’d like to see them, and I will endeavor to include a new cabochon or two each time new stones are added.  So please stay tuned, friends!  

-Sam

Wow, have you seen the new Sonora Sunrise?  Fresh from this year’s shows, this vivid chrysocolla / cuprite blend is the most eye catching material, ever!  It has striking blood red and greenish blue colors, and it cuts astonishing cabochons that are perfect for today’s fine designer jewelry.  Takes a surprisingly nice polish too, a lot better than one might expect.  I hear the deposit was found in a Mexican copper mine, but details like that have a way of changing, over time.  The only facts I’m 100% sure of are that I LOVE THIS STUFF, it’s to-die-for GORGEOUS, and YOU will love it too!!  Below are a couple photos showing 7+ pounds of hand selected rough I now have here to work with:

Choice pieces of Sonora Sunrise rough

Viewed close up:

Very exciting material, indeed. No doubt these remarkable pieces will make excellent cabs (and jewelry!), and I hope you’ll be watching for them so you can make them yours. You won’t be disappointed!

Last week, someone sent me a link to an eBay auction. There, I saw that skyesgems was using, word-for-word, text copied from an old page of my website, which I had written to describe one of my Tahoma jasper cabs offered for sale. Wow, that was really upsetting to find… I mean, why didn’t she just ASK, instead of TAKING? I would certainly have considered helping her. Perhaps she thought no one would ever know what she had done…

My email to Skye got no reply, so I contacted the auction site’s copyright agent, and the auction was promptly deleted. Then, within days, yet another skyesgems auction was found to be using the same stolen text, and eBay ended that one too. Sadly, it seems some are slow to learn, and the idea of being original in word and deed, honest work by one’s own efforts, and thinking for oneself can be a long time coming.

It isn’t the first time something like this has happened; the growing problem of plagiarism is an ugliness that’s all too rampant,  especially on the internet, as is copyright infringement.  To be perfectly frank, I am still struggling with resentment over these incidents, but another friend sent something that has helped me to put things in a better perspective. With her permission, I am sharing that wisdom with those of you reading this blog:

Long ago, an old Grandfather spoke to his grandson, who had come to him angry about an injustice done to him by someone.

“Come, sit by the fire with me and I will tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hatred for those who have taken so much, with no shame for what they do. But hate only wears you down, and does nothing to hurt your enemy. It’s like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die.

Many times, I have struggled with these feelings. It is as if there are two wolves inside me, locked in a terrible battle. One wolf is good and does no harm, living in harmony with everything around him, never taking offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.

But the other wolf… ah! The smallest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights with everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his hate and anger are so great. His is senseless anger, for his anger changes nothing.

It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, and their raging battle for control of my spirit.” Intently, the boy looked into his Grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which wolf wins, Grandfather?”

The Grandfather smiled to himself, and said thoughtfully, “The one I feed.”

 -An old Cherokee legend, author unknown

Lately, my lovely and talented wife Rain has had to deal with some very frustrated customers, many of which have complained about not getting the stones they wanted.  I, too, often read comments that ‘Everything is always ‘SOLD‘!  So I’d like to take a moment to soothe some of that disappointment, while explaining our position. 

First and foremost, and I cannot stress this enough, Rain and I bend over backwards, jump through flaming hoops, and leap tall mountains of rock just to see that you are pleased!  We are constantly striving to do our very best, and to do right by everybody.  Always have, and always will.  It’s of the utmost importance to us, as it should be.

We want you to be aware that we’re not some giant faceless corporation here at Silverhawk’s Creations; it’s basically just the two of us, Rain and I, sometimes including my youngest son, Christopher, who is still a full time student.  And my cousin helps out whenever possible, doing all she can to smooth the way.  -smile-  But that’s it!   And for those who didn’t already know it, the little plot of forested land we call home (and shop and studio) is waaaaay way out in the wilds, miles from the nearest town, in the North Idaho panhandle.  Moose, elk, whitetail deer, wild turkey, and eagles are our nearest neighbors.

We WANT you to be happy, and to have everything your heart desires.  You can help us to satisfy your needs by doing one simple thing:  Sign up to receive notices whenever there are new cabs added.  I encourage you to do so!  It’s easy, you can opt out at any time, and you may rest assured your email address is NEVER sold or shared.  You will not be spammed due to joining our mailing list.  About once a week, you’ll get an email announcing new cabs and listing the types.  That’s all, just a paragraph or so, with no pictures to overwhelm your inbox.  The notice will include a clickable link to the page with available new cabs we hope you’ll like.   

We try to add a group of new cabochons each week at differing hours of the day and night, sending out notices the instant they’re available.  That way, depending upon where folks live, they’ll have first opportunity to view the group of new stones.   Yes, it’s true, the most unique ones do tend to be snatched up rather quickly,  on a first come - first served basis, and we are grateful beyond words that our cabs are so popular!  The proceeds mean food on our table, and keep the power on that runs our saws and cabbing machines.  My family joins me in giving our sincere thanks to each and every one who has ever bought from us, or even offered a kind word.  So if you’re ever disappointed by not getting the stone(s) you wanted most, I encourage you to please keep trying!   You can always shoot an email to Rain or to me and tell us what you’re hoping for, and we’ll endeavor to oblige.  But please bear in mind that exact duplication would be strictly a feat of pure magic, because of the very character of natural stones.  When a rock is sliced into slabs, the pattern changes with each pass of the saw, often quite dramatically.

Oooh, I almost forgot to mention that there’s an extra added bonus that comes with joining our mailing list:  Reduced sale prices!  Yup, every few months or so, we offer a discount to our list members, but it is not announced on the Designer Gems website itself.  By holding a sale, we can free up space for new goodies, which helps keep things fresh.  So if there’s ever a particular stone you’ve had your eye on, but just couldn’t quite afford, please be sure to watch for those sales!

Happy crafting to you all, and many thanks.   -Sam

Montana dendritic moss agate (Yellowstone agate) is a great favorite around here, and both Rain and I love to cab it, carve it, and knap it into arrowheads and spearpoints.  We can never get enough of it.  So, toward that end, I often travel around Montana, stopping at all the rockshops.  And sometimes, I stumble onto less likely sources that turn out to be brimming with joys.

One day last September, on the long drive home from Chicago, I stopped in a small town to fuel up and ask if there were any lapidaries nearby.  The fellow behind the counter did know of one, and gave detailed directions.  So off I went.  After following the street down to the numbered address at the edge of town, I was disappointed to find it was a humble little residence unmarked by any ‘Rock Shop’ or ‘Lapidary’ sign.  But I decided to knock on the door anyway.  At the front porch, I saw a note directing me to the shop out back.  Ah, a tiny glimmer of hope!!  Cute little dogs with shrill barks escorted me as I made my way down the drive and around to the back.  Better than any doorbell.  Sure enough, I was greeted by a cane-carrying senior gentleman, who explained that the old rock shop had gone out of business and the couple who’d owned it passed away quite a number of years back.  I must’ve looked visibly deflated, but perked right up when the man went on to say he had a couple of buckets’ worth of rocks ’somewhere’, and how he’d be glad to get rid of them.  He said there used to be a huge pile of them when he bought the place, right in the spot his garden now occupied.  Then he slipped away into his garage, leaving me standing there.  Sure enough, he soon called me in and directed me to a cluttered corner where two large 10gal. containers sat on a palette, much too heavy for him to budge.  It was about then that I really took a close look around, and noticed the place was literally falling down around us.  The roof leaked badly.  The old fellow himself didn’t look any too new either, as he told me he’d been waiting all day for his daughter to bring his weekly groceries and take him to the pharmacy.  As I rummaged through the large Montana agate nodules, he went on say he felt like a terrible burden to her, since losing his pension, and that his wife of 59 years had just died the past summer.  He was stooped, gaunt and thin, very sadly so, and though I didn’t see anything at all of any merit in the buckets, I became determined to buy them no matter what price he asked.  So I put on a little animated excitement, pulled out a $100 bill, and held it out to him.  “Is this enough to buy these?”  His eyes got big and round, and he said, “Mister, that’s ten times what I was going to quote you!”.  I countered by telling him that some of the pieces were really special, that it was my business to know, and that I was only offering a fair price we could both be happy with.  “Besides, it’s all I have.”, and that much was true.  So the deal was done.  I wound up driving him to the pharmacy and the store, fixing us dinner, and spending the evening with Bill.  We talked and talked, late into the night, and I found out he’d done quite a bit of rockhounding before going into the Navy.  By morning, Bill and I were like old friends, and I sure felt great about that. 

When I arrived home, Rain, our son Chris and my cousin dragged out every single one of those agates, wetting them and holding them up to the light.  No fancy dendrites, hardly any bands, nothing but frowns.  So I quickly explained the events of the day before, and got a chorus of awwwws all around.  Later on, when Chris got the majority of the nodules sawn up, there were few surprises, but the large sizes did make for excellent blanks with which to knap spearheads.  It wasn’t until several weeks later that I finally cut the last two smaller pieces, and found the thin, fine, almost invisible banding characteristic of iris agate.  The next cuts I made extra thin, and sure enough, when held to the light, bright rainbows of color leaped out!  Wow!!!  Oh my, I was awestruck, completely astonished.  Nearly every one was a brilliant high calibre specimen, close to forty of them in total.  And I knew of an iris collector who would be thrilled to take them all…

That was how Chris and I came to drive back over to Bill’s one November weekend, with tools and a couple rolls of asphalt sheathing to fix the roof.  Had to employ a lot of persuasion to cajole him into letting us help out, cuz he ‘don’t take no charity’, you know, but he did finally relent after hearing about the rainbows.  heh   Really jamming, Chris and I were able to get new sheetrock up also, mud and tape it, and the paint was almost dry before we left.  Just in time too, for it snowed like crazy two days later…  The other thing we brought Bill was a few dozen or so pounds of trimmings from our family cabbing operations, on a hunch, because I had spied an old tumbler in the garage when we first met.  Lemme tell you, it was as if we’d brought GOLD, the old gent was so excited!  His eyes fairly gleamed.  And a few weeks ago, I finally found out exactly why.  My friend had whiled away the long winter tumbling those pieces into beautiful glistening wonders, and had set them in some of the most creative wire settings I’ve ever seen.  He said they’d been selling like hotcakes, almost faster than he could make them!  It sure was wonderful to see him again, standing up straight and tall, proud to tell us how he’d been able to raise enough to take his daughter down to witness and help with his granddaughter’s wedding.  Now THAT really misted me up, and the lump in my throat seemed absolutely enormous.  Gee, it seems mighty large right now, too. 

                **************

Yes indeed, rocks are truly magical things, in more ways than I can count.  Like the warmth of true friendship, they’re GIFTS, gifts that come straight from the heart of our Creator, Who really does work in mysterious ways.

Wow.  Last weekend’s gem show was awesome!!  It brought me a boatload of new goodies to work with, and that has had me oh so eager to pass the days away happily cabbing up a storm.  Might as well, since it’s been snowing here, as it is this very moment, every single day for the last week or more.

Winter boredom  -  EXIT, stage left.

This year, the fabulous new additions include Australian Pilbara jasper with its wild criss cross patterns, Mexico’s gorgeous Berrendo RED agate, which looks much like the old Tabasco thundereggs, pink chalcedony (think extra gemmy confetti agate),  and the knockout Sonora Sunrise, a stunning blend of blue green chrysocolla with blood red cuprite.  

In the great haul, I also lucked into an extraordinary piece of Strawberry Patch Paint Rock agate, a genuine rarity from Tennessee.  It’s a translucent agate with countless tiny peachy pink colored ‘bubbles’.  Just marvelous stuff, I sure wish I had a lot more.

Other recent acquisitions are mushroom picture jasper, snake eyes agate, red crazy lace agate,  and some truly outstanding tourmalinated quartz.  Plus, MORE Prudent Man plume agate, the new Australian brecciated mookaite, Polish flint, and a great big bag full of hand picked sparkly Oco geodes.   Some KILLER chrysoprase and spiderwebbed variscite in the rough, as well as a few nice slices of ocean jasper, wave dolomite, and Nipomo marcasite too.  And plenty more! 

But the real highlight of last weekend’s show was finally being able to get my hands on a decent selection of Janet and George Sechler’s Royal Sahara jasper, exciting NEW rough from North Africa.  It’s a fine grained porcelain jasper, a lot like Biggs and Deschutes jaspers, but with even more exotic patterning.  Polishes like a dream, too.  Simply amazing stuff!  If you haven’t yet seen it, you should click here, and buy the next piece that tickles your fancy!  I’ll have some new and unique cabs up next week, and for sure will include at least one cab of RSJ.  -shamelss plug-

The exhiliration won’t wear off for at least a month, but already I’m chomping at the bit for next year’s show.  The good news is, spring is really just around the corner now, which means travelling down to Richardson’s Ranch is too.  Can’t wait!!

Last month, someone sent me a link to the designing divas blogspot, where I was nonplussed by the following: 

“I love cabochons!  They’re so unique. They’re organic. They’re part of the natural world—created in nature with no human involvement. The colors speak to my earthy side. The textures are awe-inspiring. Did I tell you I love cabs?”

 LOL, LOL!!  ‘No human involvement’, eh?  Well, cabs don’t just create themselves, people create them!  I’ve been involved with lapidary work, cutting cabochons, for nearly 50 years now, looking forward to the next 50!  And I’ve had plenty of great company in the happy joys of lapidary.  In addition, then, as now, the only ‘texture’ I ever want on my cabochons is more precisely a lack thereof.  In other words, I’m always striving for smooooothness, with no lumps, bumps, pits or waves.  Just glass slick and shiny, the so-called liquid polish.  No doubt all cabbers want to achieve that same thing. 

So, I wrote to the only address I could find on the blog, but have received no reply, as yet.   Ok, I can understand that, and I can guess what the blogger meant to say, in essence, but still… that’s not what got said.  

Forgive me for revealing this, but such embarassing nonsense is a pet peeve of mine… 

Like the expression ‘hand cut’, ‘hand polished’ or ‘handmade’, when refering to cabochons.  Or to jewelry, if it isn’t.  It’s an all too common wording; so common that, in fact, it would be almost impossible to surf around the web looking for cabs and not come across it.  Now, my hands are pretty rough, tough, and hard, as a result of doing many kinds of work with them, from concrete to carpentry, wood cutting, rock sculpture, welding, and more.  (Ya can’t count cabbing, that’s a labor of love.)  They’ve been smashed, burned, hammered, sawn, punctured, abraded, broken and worse, so my hands are what you’d call abused.  But they are definitely NOT rough or tough enough to cut stone.   No one’s are.

Now perhaps what these folks really mean is hand held, in that their cabs are cut while being held in the hands.  Great!  Wonderful!!  Then one should say that, instead.   The term handmade denotes something made entirely by hand, rather than by machine, as defined here:  

Handmade jewelry is jewelry which has been assembled and formed by hand rather than through the use of machines. According to the guidelines of the FTC, in order to be stamped or called “handmade” the work must be made without the use of electricity.   

The Federal Trade Commission says:    § 23.3 Misuse of the terms “hand-made,” “hand-polished,” etc.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that any industry product is hand-made or hand-wrought unless the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the construction, shape, design, and finish of each part of each individual product. 

 Elsewhere, a definition of handmade jewelry is as follows:  Much jewelry that is marked or sold as “hand made” often is not truly so, though it may be essentially so. It can be difficult to do some tasks such as drilling without electricity, but to be truly handmade, every task must be done by human power alone.

If it weren’t for my own jewelry-making, I might not have been aware of the above criteria.  I’ve been a silversmith for many years, even longer than I’ve been cabbing, and though I use very low technology in my ’smithing,  my jewelry today cannot be correctly termed handmade.  That’s because my shop includes several tools powered by electricity, including one that’s battery-powered, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!   My lapidary studio also contains many electric tools, including rock saws, a carving unit, drill, and cabbing machines.   I’m sure other lapidaries today also have and use these same types of equipment, all powered by electricity.    Duh.

Back in the day, when I first began working with turquoise to set in my jewelry, I actually used sticks with emery paper to shape stones.  Then I polished them on a tautly pulled strip of leather, one end nailed to my bench, stropping the dopped stones briskly back and forth on the leather, dampened with a pasty mixture of tin oxide and water.  It required a lot of time comsuming effort, and I sure don’t recommend it!  I would never have attempted it with agate or other hard materials, though I know there are those who have, and do.  It is mostly done, out of sheer necessity, by lapidarists in third world countries…  and I respectfully tip my hat to them, because I know firsthand (no pun intended) just how difficult such work truly is.

   ***

A customer of mine confided that he, too, is bothered by the next pet peeve on my list, which is the rampant use of the term ‘museum quality’, or ‘museum grade’.  Sellers on eBay and countless others use it to extremes, more and more these days, whenever and wherever they figure it might garner one more click.  (Hmm, they’re not museum curators… )    Personally, I NEVER click when I see that, so I guess at least some of the time, they’re in the red.        -grin-

No doubt this topic will be continued, later…