Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

I like this one, sort of crispy mineral

It does look crispy, part of its charm.

This is another piece: Photo #69

Orange Dream throws a lot of Iridescence in my photos, in shed, or out.

Closeup of the Marcasite formation in the center below:

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #70


Interesting color/pattern for a Lesser.
I have been attempting to get her to produce eggs for several seasons with no success. I am no amateur-I have lots of tricks.
She has rejected all my project orientated males (squabbling, teeth marks, and blood).
I have confirmed her gender multiple times.
After testing nearly all my males this season: she will only tolerate and lock with one of my Super Black Pastel Spiders (Photo #34).
I strongly suspect no eggs again this season.
Will try again next year exclusively with her preferred male...

[Lord Sorril]

Photo #71A


GHI/Fire and Red Corundum (Ruby) in Quartz matrix.
Corundum is supposedly outside the realm of tumbling due to the hardness (Mohs 9) being too close to the hardness of the grit, but, not in the case.
I do admit I have had many failed several attempts to tumble Red Corundum (Ruby) and Blue Corundum (Sapphire) in different crystallization formations. These remain pending.
Someone suggested that I put the stones under Black Light to actually confirm if they are rubies as they would fluoresce pink. Yep.

Photo #71B


Here is what the original material looked like:

[richardhind1972]

Wow that's so cool

Sent from my ELS-NX9 using Tapatalk

[Bogertophis]

Beautiful- & very interesting.

[Ascended]

Photo #71A


GHI/Fire and Red Corundum (Ruby) in Quartz matrix.
Corundum is supposedly outside the realm of tumbling due to the hardness (Mohs 9) being too close to the hardness of the grit, but, not in the case.
I do admit I have had many failed several attempts to tumble Red Corundum (Ruby) and Blue Corundum (Sapphire) in different crystallization formations. These remain pending.
Someone suggested that I put the stones under Black Light to actually confirm if they are rubies as they would fluoresce pink. Yep.

Photo #71B


Here is what the original material looked like:

You had to do the UV thing You know how I love it.

[Lord Sorril]

Wow that's so cool

Beautiful- & very interesting.

You had to do the UV thing You know how I love it.

Thank you all!

Photo #72

[Ascended]

Nice work. Keep them coming

[Lord Sorril]

Nice work. Keep them coming

You bet!

Photo #73

There is a story with this photo:
The dark stones I received in a box of mixed material from the SouthWest U.S.A., it was just one large 6lb. nodule.
It appeared to be a solid stone so I tumbled it 'as is' in its full size (using a rotary tumbler).
When I finished the polish process I took it out and examined it and it appeared to have a textured surface. I had failed to polish it.
I backed up the tumbling process to an early state and repeated it through polish with the same effect.
Discouraged: I smashed the stone into smaller pieces and then shaped them and polished them with my vibe tumbler (which is very effective at polishing).
The result was the same: textured surface, so I tossed the stones into a redo bucket and I noticed that they were mirroring the stones around them....They were polished!
The textured surface I was observing was embedded in the rock and dispersing the light, and the polish could only be seen at the correct angle.
Now I will always wonder if the large nodule I had polished in the beginning was perfect...and I had smashed it after months of work...

[Bogertophis]