Worth Buying this 70.77ct Whopper?

[Richard M.]

I''m innocent! I already have one! It''s a Baby Black Thing.

Richard M.

 

[snlee]

Wow, what a gorgeous stone! I love all the colors. I like the bangle idea.

ETA, I just noticed...Someone bought it!? What a bummer!

 

[Pandora II]

Good god Richard, what on earth is that?

In your pet rocks do you have minerals or just gemstones? I have a mineral pet rock collection (to FI''s horror - it''s large) all of which I have either dug up or swapped with people. I really want a pet gemstone collection, but I''m not sure I will be allowed one!

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 6/3/2007 8:06:36 AM
Author: Pandora II
Good god Richard, what on earth is that?


In your pet rocks do you have minerals or just gemstones? I have a mineral pet rock collection (to FI''s horror - it''s large) all of which I have either dug up or swapped with people. I really want a pet gemstone collection, but I''m not sure I will be allowed one!

It''s a section of blue-green tourmaline crystal with a black core. It came in a parcel of gem-grade tourmaline rough and is just one of nature''s oddities. It''s a perfect example of tourmaline''s trigonal crystal habit.

Nearly all gems are minerals although not all minerals are gems! Rocks differ only in being made of more than one mineral, but I know what you mean. Some attractive rocks, like lapis lazuli, are used as gems too. Most of my items are gems of one kind or another but I love beautiful mineral specimens -- I''d have a warehouse full just to look at and study if I could. I''m especially fascinated by the beauty and variety to be found in the quartz family of gems/minerals: chalcedony, agate, jasper, crystalline quartz.

Richard M.

 

[Pandora II]

Sadly, most of mine are in no way gem-like bar a couple of "cornish diamonds" - which are totally transparent quartz crystals.

My collection is all chunks of Cornwall. I have some huge pieces of galena and iron pyrites and then some pieces that are very rare not because of what they are in particular but because of where they were found - like a tiny chunk of molybdonite. I spent much of my childhood bashing the hell out of old minedumps and nearly falling off cliffs with 15lb sledgehammers!

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 6/3/2007 10:35:13 AM
Author: Pandora II
I spent much of my childhood bashing the hell out of old minedumps and nearly falling off cliffs with 15lb sledgehammers!

Me too, but in America''s Rocky Mountains. Cornish tin was crucial to Western civilization''s Bronze Age and I''m sure you must have some samples of cassiterite in your collection. Do you know that in its purest crystalline form cassiterite is faceted into gems?

It sounds as if you''re a living example of the old miner''s saying: "wherever you may go in the world, if you see a hole in the ground, you will find a Cornishman [or woman] at the bottom of it."

Richard M.

 

[Pandora II]

Lol, I do indeed have rather a lot of cassiterite crystals, I have very vague memories of some jewellery made with them in the Truro museum.

The Rocky Mountains must have been great hunting ground - I''m very jealous!

I''m not strictly Cornish - my parents are Scots and I was born in Devon, my parents having just made it back from Cornwall in time - my mother went into labour on a boat in the Solent. But it''s so true about the Cornish and holes in the ground - there''s a great Mining School there which my BIL went to (he''s a hydrogeologist).

I''m hoping I can go and bash some bits of Sri Lanka on our honeymoon!

I found a 5th Ed copy of Edwin Streeter''s book on gemstones which is amazing. I had no idea that Borneo had so many gems for example, and I am really getting the bug to go hunting again.

 

[Richard M.]

I haven''t had time to read it yet but Streeter''s book is available on-line at: Streeter

Quite a number of years ago I was ready to sell or mortgage everything I owned to travel to Madagascar in search of gems, based on a hunch I had about plate tectonics, the geology of Africa''s Great Rift, and the great associated gem occurrences in neighboring Kenya and Tanzania. My wife said "No, absolutely not!" Oh well...now that other people have the rubies and sapphires, at least it''s comforting to know my hunch was right.

Indonesia, along with India, was one of the earliest sources of diamonds. Borneo produces diamonds too, along with gold, sapphires and other gems. But careful! You can literally lose your head prospecting in some areas there!

I believe there are many great gem discoveries yet to be made, in places most people would never associate with gem potential.

Richard M.

 

[Pandora II]

I can really recommend Streeter''s book - I found a copy on ebay and I am enthralled. He and his mates appear to have spent rather a lot of time burning diamonds

and he has lots of info on how you can tell which country diamonds come from depending on the colour and ease of cutting.

He was also one of the first europeans in the burmese ruby mines and the 5th Ed talks about his travels there. He also handled some of today''s most famous stones.

His pages on the "modern" brilliant cuts are great. Well worth a read.

I hope your wife is kicking herself now! My parents went off to Micronesia for an adventure when I was 3 for 5 years. I had a very odd childhood and missed a lot of normal schooling, but wouldn''t swap my experiences for anything. I would love to convince FI to do something similar - but he''s far too responsible and sensible to listen to me.

There''s a woman I work with who met a man at a party - he told her after an hour that he had to go back to South Africa in a week and would she like to marry him! She said yes, they married 3 days later, left for Africa at the end of the week and spent the next 3 years living in a tent studying hyenas! They now have 3 kids and just celebrated 30 years of a very happy marriage.

 

[Richard M.]

Just glancing through a few pages of Streeter''s book I can see it''s pretty dated in many respects. His dissing of "Balas rubies" (red spinels), while understandable in his time when fine rubies were available, appears misguided in hindsight. But I love old gem books like his because they lend a wonderful perspective, and sometimes valuable insights, to today''s gem trade. In this age of high-tech labs, certificates, "branded" cuts and gem names, etc., I think we''ve lost much of the old sense of romance and adventure surrounding gems.

That marriage didn''t last, predictably I suppose. But things wouldn''t have been much different if I''d found my present Lady first -- she loves gems but only when they''re cut, set in precious metal...and belong to her. To have adventures of the kind I wanted I think you''d need to be young, full of bravado -- and single! Not many modern marriages would survive 3 years in a tent surrounded by hyenas and creepy-crawlies like boomslangs.

Richard M.

 

[chrono]

Date: 6/1/2007 4:53:59 PM
Author: Harriet
Terima kasih!

Sama sama.

I forgot to add that I''ve also used these vendors in the past:
Wink at www.winkjones.com
Allen at www.atggems.com

 

[chrono]

It's me. I was away for the weekend so he held the stone for me. However, a little wrench was thrown into the mix. The stone has a pretty large window and my personal principal is to never buy a stone with a window. Then again, the colour is so arresting that I am torn about whether to buy it or not. It's not too expensive. Only $300. Or perhaps it's better spent on these moonstone earrings?

Description:

5.1 mm round near transparent, near colorless high dome cabochons with silvery blue shiller are set in a sterling body with an ornamental covering of lacy 22k yellow gold, the ear locking back wires are 14k gold.​

 

[widget]

Chrono...when you say "it''s me"...do you mean it''s you who have reserved The Whopper???

Wow....I wish you''d get it just to hear if the colors are as fantastic in real life. Window? maybe because it''s more a specimen type thing than an actual piece of jewelry, it would bother me less. But I must say, with so much material, you''d think they could have figured out a way to cut it without one!

Richard and Pandora....I''m LOVING eavesdropping on your conversation! Carry on!

Richard....boomslangs????

Chrono...well the moonstone ERs aren''t as thrilling as the Whopper, but certainly more likely to be regularly worn and enjoyed...

widget

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 6/4/2007 11:22:45 AM
Author: widget
boomslangs????

A really nasty, very fast venomous African snake that lives mainly in trees. I was first acquainted with them a long time ago when interviewing Dr. Louis Leakey about his paleontological work at Olduvai Gorge in Kenya. He related a very scary story about a boomslang that decided to pay him a visit on the ground. For more see: Boomslang[/i]

Richard M.

 

[Pandora II]

Oh my god, you interviewed Dr Leakey!

I am so jealous - that man was my hero for years and I was frankly devastated aged 11 when I found out that Richard was married! My first degree was in archaeology - big disappointment: chose the course for the prehistory modules, the year I got there the guy running them goes off on a 2 year sabbatical so it was all Romans and Hadrian's wall that I wasn't frankly very interested in.

I dreamt about Lucy and dinosaurs for years and years and get landed with roman merceneries.

Is he as nice in person as he seems in his books? Why were you interviewing him?

Snakes actually don't worry me (I have two) although I'm wary with venemous - and boomslangs are pretty nasty. My parents house was always full of weird beasties and bedraggled refugees - a reef heron with a broken leg, giant coconut crabs, large spiders and loads of geckos. My mother always said no, but then relented when they appeared - she was probably the worst for bringing things home!

 

[chrono]

Date: 6/4/2007 11:22:45 AM
Author: widget
Chrono...when you say 'it's me'...do you mean it's you who have reserved The Whopper???

Wow....I wish you'd get it just to hear if the colors are as fantastic in real life. Window? maybe because it's more a specimen type thing than an actual piece of jewelry, it would bother me less. But I must say, with so much material, you'd think they could have figured out a way to cut it without one!

Richard and Pandora....I'm LOVING eavesdropping on your conversation! Carry on!

Richard....boomslangs????

Chrono...well the moonstone ERs aren't as thrilling as the Whopper, but certainly more likely to be regularly worn and enjoyed...

widget

Yes, I had the Whopper on reserve.

Richard,
You can have it. After much though, I decided to let it go. It would be an awesome specimen to play with but hubby will not be too pleased. I guess I earned the nickname Liz Taylor for even reserving this item on the other website.

I'm now waiting on those moonstone earrings to get here.

No snakes for me. Not thanks.

 

[Harriet]

Chrono,
Imagine wearing that whopper around JB!

 

[chrono]

I''ll get mugged for sure!

As it is I already stand out like a sore thumb when I go home. Something must be tipping off the locals.

 

[Harriet]

What''s JB like now? I haven''t been there since the early 80s.

 

[chrono]

It has changed by leaps and bounds. My old favourite eating haunts are no longer there (torn down to make way for fancier businesses) and there are no many new roads that have been constructed. Some are even one way now! I can't drive in JB anymore, the roads are too confusing to me since they changed the traffic pattern. The old red hospital is still there - stinking and polluting the straits as usual.

 

[Harriet]

I don''t remember the hospital, but I do remember the seafood joints just past the Causeway (with rats scampering around).

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 6/4/2007 3:43:28 PM
Author: Pandora II
Oh my god, you interviewed Dr Leakey!...
Is he as nice in person as he seems in his books? Why were you interviewing him?

Sorry, my Verizon internet "service" quit on me again and I just got back on line this morning. Yes, Dr. Leakey the elder gave a series of summer lectures at a local university and I became quite well acquainted with him over 3 years of interviews and social events. He was very nice but also determined, and I wouldn''t have wanted to have been that boomslang! He was raised in Kenya with the Kikuyu and was quick to demonstrate how they communicated with a string & finger "game" similar to cat''s-cradle. He showed me many of the stone tools from Olduvai and I attended his fascinating lectures. I have a strong interest in archaeology but have never studied it formally.

Richard M.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 6/4/2007 3:51:45 PM
Author: Chrono

Date: 6/4/2007 11:22:45 AM


Richard,

You can have it. After much though, I decided to let it go. It would be an awesome specimen to play with but hubby will not be too pleased. I guess I earned the nickname Liz Taylor for even reserving this item

Hi "Liz!" I think I''ll pass on it too -- it didn''t appear windowed in the image and the cut plus the intense colors were its appeal to me. Besides, I don''t want anyone calling me Liz!

Richard M.