DirtManicure
Greenie
First official brag post, because I can’t not with these stunners! Not mad at today, today! Finally sifted through some bags of dirt we brought home a while ago after a San Diego/Julian (Mom’s Pies!) day trip, and the land of tourmaline certainly did not disappoint, I must have been a good girl that week!
First out was this one, just over a pound of rainbow moonstone (plagioclase feldspar) with muscovite mica, black, green and white tourmalines, and a little standard orthoclase moonstone.
Took me a minute to see but thankfully I noticed the shape before I got the dremel started up- that’s an extra sparkly crinoid fossil right there! Well, about 1/3 of one anyway, but it’s still a crystallized quarter billion year old carnivorous marine flower monster thing. So that’s cool.
And then came this little lithium loaded delight, just along for the ride in another dirt scoop... 80.5ct of pale pink tourmaline with gorgeous rainbow play!
Not too bad a day IMO.
This leads me to my question: where does one go to sell rough precious stone? I mean, I could toss it on my Etsy page with whatever number I decide is appropriate attached to it, but I’d rather find someone who knows what’s what. I have a few more items which could stand to be appraised if not sold off, and might even want to have a bit faceted up for personal use.
Do I look for a lapidary, vs a gem dealer? Wander on over to CSUF and bug the geology department? You’d think it would be simple here in the OC (yes, like the housewives tv show- the shinier part of “Los Angeles” for any non-US folks) but everything around here tends to focus on retail-ready prefab stuff.
Thanks for taking a peek and any guidance, guys! Have a great night!
RJ
First out was this one, just over a pound of rainbow moonstone (plagioclase feldspar) with muscovite mica, black, green and white tourmalines, and a little standard orthoclase moonstone.
Took me a minute to see but thankfully I noticed the shape before I got the dremel started up- that’s an extra sparkly crinoid fossil right there! Well, about 1/3 of one anyway, but it’s still a crystallized quarter billion year old carnivorous marine flower monster thing. So that’s cool.
And then came this little lithium loaded delight, just along for the ride in another dirt scoop... 80.5ct of pale pink tourmaline with gorgeous rainbow play!
Not too bad a day IMO.
This leads me to my question: where does one go to sell rough precious stone? I mean, I could toss it on my Etsy page with whatever number I decide is appropriate attached to it, but I’d rather find someone who knows what’s what. I have a few more items which could stand to be appraised if not sold off, and might even want to have a bit faceted up for personal use.
Do I look for a lapidary, vs a gem dealer? Wander on over to CSUF and bug the geology department? You’d think it would be simple here in the OC (yes, like the housewives tv show- the shinier part of “Los Angeles” for any non-US folks) but everything around here tends to focus on retail-ready prefab stuff.
Thanks for taking a peek and any guidance, guys! Have a great night!
RJ
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