January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 7:49 am 
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How about a nice vanadium chrysoberyl, and of course a cobalt spinel from Vietnam, but with affordable prices. These are hard to find !!!


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:05 am 
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Isi wrote:
How about a nice vanadium chrysoberyl, and of course a cobalt spinel from Vietnam, but with affordable prices. These are hard to find !!!


No, I have enough... \:D/

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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:15 am 
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On my colored stones list:

red and/or blue Taaffeite, red Musgravite

FCD list

a fancy blue(ish)-green or green(ish)-blue intense or vivid diamond.

So expensive...

I am so modest.

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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:50 pm 
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I have both of them : a vivid blue an a green one \:D/

Oh, did you mean naturally colored, nor irradiated ? This is a different story.

There is only one solution : :smt053


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:05 am 
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Yes, natural untreated....

So only a tiny one with a few points...

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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:33 pm 
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dchallener wrote:
I am also looking for some of that Vietnamese transparent "Amazonite".


Or there's the similar mint-green transparent oligoclase from Kenya/Tanzania. AFAIK this is very rare but not too expensive. I have a chunk of rough that shows obvious pleochroism from bluish-green to yellowish green.


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 8:10 pm 
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I'd love to see a picture of that rough.
Please post it. :D


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:52 am 
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The pale green stuff from Tanzania is often sold as sunstone, though much of it has a slightly murky tone to it. I have some pale rough somewhere which I picked out from a cab parcel, waiting to be faceted.
Apparently there was some spectacular material from Canada at some point, according to the GIA's documentation of the Gubelin collection:
Image
Though who knows if there was ever more than just the one, he was apparently pretty good at tracking down real rarities.

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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:17 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
I'd love to see a picture of that rough.
Please post it. :D


Here you go Barbra:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

This piece is about 35 mm by 24 mm and about 17-19 mm thick. The weight is about 25 grams.


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:03 am 
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Impressive pleochroism indeed ! Especially for a pale stone.
I wonder what it would look like if it were cut ?


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 4:09 pm 
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Isi wrote:
Impressive pleochroism indeed ! Especially for a pale stone.
I wonder what it would look like if it were cut ?


Thanks Isi. The pleochroism is very pronounced using the LCD monitor as a source of polarised light. See below:

Image

Image


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:10 pm 
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Holy guacamole!
Are you quite sure this is feldspar.


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:31 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Holy guacamole!
Are you quite sure this is feldspar.


Yes. The base has the typical striations as a result of repeated lamellar twinning. Another pic illustrating this:

Image

I actually bought this specimen about 8 years ago at a mainstream crystal shop in Salisbury. This was something out-of-the-ordinary as I've never seen anything like it for sale since, even at the Kempton Park Rock & Gem shows.


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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:18 pm 
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This tucson I picked up a crystal of feldspar (raman scan best matches albite, so likely at least plagioclase rather than k-spar of some sort) with very blue zones. It was mixed into a parcel of Madagascar sanidine. I've seen blue cleavlandite before but never this gemmy or this blue.
Image
Image
I also saw some of the classic 'masai sunstone' priced not that awful
Image
and some light blue oligoclase, priced who knows but given the seller definitely high
Image
I also found my baggie of green facet rough pulled from a parcel of cab-grade Masai sunstone. Small and mostly pale, but worthy.
Image

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 Post subject: Re: Looking for Hard to find stones
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:57 pm 
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Oh! I like that Masai sunstone....where does it come from and does it have anything to do with the Masai?


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