r/Lapidary

A closer look at some Maligano Jasper slabs. I really enjoy the combination of orange, yellow, red, and gray, along with the intricate natural patterns running through each slab. Every piece has a different pattern, which makes this material really interesting to work with.

As the title states, I inherited all of this (and more) today! The circumstances of this happening are a little serendipitous! Back in 2022-2024, I used to work at a wine shop with a grab and go deli section. This older gentleman by the name Henry used to come in regularly to get food for him & his wife. One day we struck up a conversation about turquoise because he would always compliment my rings. After that day, every time he would come in he would bring some of his cabochons with him to show me. He’s gifted me a few raw specimens, and both a turquoise and variscite cabochon (all of which I still have with me to this very day). I carry a raw tumble of turquoise with me in my purse for luck and protection.

I was always so happy to see Henry and was grateful for our conversations about turquoise and jewelry. He encouraged me to pursue my dream of becoming a silversmith, or even going to a jewelers school. Seeing him & having our conversations were always the highlight of my day. Unfortunately, some time had passed, and after a few months of not seeing Henry, I had learned that he passed away suddenly. His wife, who I had helped previously as a customer, informed me of the news & shared that it was a shock to everyone. I cried when I learned of this. I know it sounds weird, considering he was just a customer at my job, but I really did care for him.

I now work at a restaurant. Around April or May, I served a couple that I knew I knew somehow. I put the dots together and realized I had met them both as customers at my previous job. The three of us made that connection & the wife mentioned how much her stepfather, Henry, loved the food at my old job. I was shocked! I mentioned I had known him & told them both how I cared for him + the conversations we had, and was upset to hear of his passing. I was very grateful to have the chance to see them again. We caught up and talked for the remainder of their visit.

Come Father’s Day, I get sat a larger table; lo and behold it’s Henry’s wife, their daughter, and her husband (plus children/other family)! His daughter mentions to her mom that I knew Henry and how we knew each other. She realized she had met me previously from the wine store as well. I am so lucky to have been able to serve their family. His wife called me over to chat, and asked me for my contact information. She has had all of Henry’s collection sitting for years, and she asked me if I was willing to take any of it. I was so surprised!

We just connected this past week, and I went over today to pick everything up. It was a little emotional for me; to be able to be in the space and see all of the love and passion someone had poured into a hobby. I am so unbelievably thankful for their kindness as a family. I am still in shock that this is all mine now. I can’t believe that a small connection I made at a minimum wage job led me to this. I am a tiny bit overwhelmed with the sheer volume of materials I inherited, but it has been such a fun few hours sifting through everything!

As of today, I am now a silversmith & have been pursuing an education in the craft for almost a year and a half. Henry’s encouragement had always stuck with me, and his words were the driving force that pushed me into silversmithing. I plan on pursuing the craft of lapidary next. I cannot express how special it will be for me to incorporate an old friend’s love and passion into my work. I now always keep the words of encouragement from a kind old man in the back of my head whenever I am in my studio. Thank you, Henry.

About a year ago, my six year old son asked me how the opal on my necklace became so pretty so I showed him one of blackopaldirect's videos and he became absolutely fascinated with the fact that seemingly ugly rocks can be turned into something totally different. For half a year he used my nail polishing tool to polish bigger pieces of fluorite basically every morning. He's almost 7 now and has shown amazing dedication to this hobby so I'm trying to slowly improve his tools. He got a battery powered rotary tool and I tried to find some suited bits. I don't know a lot about lapidary but I'm trying to learn enough to support him. I made my own DOP-wax cause it's hard to find where we live and it works...ok I guess. Any hints on decent materials, web pages, stores (we live in Europe) what to look for, what to practice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Askgeology helped narrow it down, it's gabbro that evolved into Amhobofite, or Amphibolite, or something. Twas used a long time ago by a guy named Logan Sills as road filler underneath old streets, so those who said asphalt were close by proxomity. 10 Points for the Civil Engineers in the room.

I assume this is as good as the polish will get given the high amount of various crystals within.

Still not exactly sure what it is. Have never seen a unit like this around the northwestern shore of Superior. A diabase or gabbro or diotite something or other. I've seen someone mention black amethyst but I don't believe it to be such.

And damn, some of them are REALLY cool. Lots of colors, some have druzy crystals, bubbles and rings and waves of color. So cool. I guess over tens of millions of years, this happens 😂🤷‍♂️

Still images don't do these justice! They sparkle like diamonds in the sun 🤙🌴

Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper, Lions Den Variety
50cts

This came from an old timers collection that hadn't seen the light of day in decades and immediately caught my attention. I had never seen such a clean and beautiful piece of Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper. I took time to read the slab and decided this scalene triangle shape was perfect.

I have another slab of this same material to play with someday. Hopefully it'll be as epic as this piece.

First. I am writing this on behalf of family. My brother tried to talk reason with this guy, *I will not call his name out but go to his Etsy lsagates sight and you can find it there. * This guy thinks it it cool to steal others credit, glory, and story of a stone. This stone has never been to a show. It was traded once for a vw van and then my brother bought it back after. This was a known associate that never took it out of his home...yet what do we see here. He put his damn watermark on my family's wrist. Any of you would be pissed if this happened to one of your family's find and reputation. Do your own research on LSAgates and don't trust this absolute lowlife or his business.

I know some people dip rocks in clr and other chemicals but I wanted to ask before I did anything. I've got it as clean as I can with a toothbrush and water.

A quick look at these Golden Flame Jasper cabochons. I really enjoy the natural golden tones and unique patterns in each piece.

Rutilated Quartz.

Most rutilated quart has a golden color to the needles, but occasionally you can find rutile colors of silver, black, and reddish-copper colors. This piece is pretty unique in that it has almost every variation of rutile colors. The composition of the rutile needles is Titanium Dioxide.

This image contains 20 focus stacked photos.
Second pic is the full slab.

One of the rare plume materials from central Oregon.
Whole piece photos after the macro images.
This piece came out of an old collection here in Bend Oregon. It was collected sometime between the late 1950s and late 1980s.

✨ Discount Offer! ✨

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Valid across our collection of natural opals, aquamarines, morganites, aquamarine cat's eye, amethysts, tourmaline, citrine and moonstones.

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cost of shipping is 10$ USD Only

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Here is a bit of a different flavor of gembone. This partial vertebra was loaned to me so I could check it out with my macro setup. The amount of cell types and orientation variety in a piece like this, is so cool to see!!!
Haversian canal, compact bone, osteons, etc!
All signs of this most likely belonging to a carnivorous dinosaur. Full piece pictured at the end of the photos.

Each one is over 2 carats in weight. Very chunky.
I would like to cabochon or facet some of these (I have access to the equipment) but I have little experience and no one around who can look at these in person.

Not even necessarily looking to sell these after cutting/cabbing either, this is more of a passion project/ something to keep my mind occupied.
I’m giving this context because I know it’s obviously not top tier stuff, but if there’s a good chance I can get anything settable / wearable It would be worth it to me.

I’d be happy to upload more pictures/video once I get back to my shop, I just had to do it now or I’d forget 😂.

If you made it this far thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Shoutout to fellow collectors/ rockhounds ❤️❤️

This is for sure a reach but if anyone has some some spinel that started off looking like mine I’d love to see the finished project, I’ve hardly seen people take pictures of rough spinel and upload before and after.