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August, 2002 - New Minerals It seems like a long time since there's been anything new around here... well, we're moved into the new house, got the kids enrolled in school, and now it's time to get back to business. Here is a diverse selection of minerals I've been wanting to put on the site for quite a while now, and finally found the time. There are some really amazing things here, if you take the time to look. I hope you will!
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite in Winchite A super-sharp, lustrous, light lavendar crystal of hackmanite embedded in massive winchite, with a couple of almost-complete, sharp winchite crystals evident. The hackmanite is very gemmy in some areas and tenebresces intensely when exposed to shortwave UV.
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite in Winchite Another unusually sharp hackmanite emerging from massive material and surrounded by honey-colored blades of winchite. Like so many of these specimens, this one has a couple of small dings. Practically throbs under UV!
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite with Winchite A big, blocky, beautiful lavendar-blue hackmanite! This is one of the nicest appearing light lavendar-grey colored hackmanites I've seen. The modified dodecahedral form is clearly evident, and amazingly sharp for such a large crystal. There are the expected few rough spots, and a cleavage on the back of the specimen, but this is an unusually large, sharp and translucent specimen that displays very nicely from several angles.
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite in Winchite A shard of transparent winchite holding up a nice little 2x2 cm hackmanite crystal. At least 8 distinct crystal faces are visible, and all are very sharp. The crystal is cleaved (on the right side in the photos). Sharp!
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite A very handsome cluster of translucent to transparent, lavendar-grey hackmanites on matrix. This specimen has the least damage of any of these I have to offer - there are no major dings on the major exposed crystals. The specimen sits very nicely on its flat-sawed base.
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Sodalite var. Hackmanite Another big, beautiful beast of a hackmanite. This one is probably 2 main crystals that grew together in the middle. Lots of crystal faces, lots of sharp lines, and glow and color to spare when nuked! There are some areas near the bottom of the crystals that are gemmy enough to see through. The crystals have a blob of winchite at their junction, creating a somewhat rough cleave at the top. The base matrix also has some saw marks - this is a neat specimen that could be a really super specimen with a little TLC.
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Topaz with Cleavelandite Pakistan A lovely, sherry-colored 4x2 cm topaz nestled in some rough quartz and a cluster of cleavelandite blades. Nothing incredibly flashy here, just a very nice, beautifully terminated topaz in an aesthetic setting. A very photogenic specimen for a nice price.
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Topaz on Quartz with Albite Pakistan I can't get over this specimen! It's a big, fat topaz that's really hard to describe - it's full of clouds and veils and junk, but not unattractively so. The color is also weird - it's basically a light version of the classic Pakistani sherry topaz color, but with areas that appear almost grey-green. The feldspar leans toward cleavelandite in habit in some areas, and seems to want to form larger crystals in others. There is also a large section of a quartz crystal behind the topaz. Now, here's the really strange part: this fatty (I've been calling her Betty - don't ask why) fluoresces Windex-blue under SW UV. The mothership has landed!
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Tourmaline A super Afghan bi-color tourmaline - something that is getting harder and harder to find these days. This specimen has a great, deep green color through most of its length - almost, but not quite as deep as the classic Brazilian green tourmalines. Near the termination the green fades to almost clear, then to a lovely rose-pink for about the last 1/4". The termination is a beautiful, complex job with no nicks or dings. And the pocket material at the base would probably come off without much of a fight - but I kinda like it there.
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Fluorite & Apatite on Muscovite & Feldspar This specimen is really cool, but camera-shy. It's a big, complex modified cuboctahedral gob of glass clear, lustrous fluorite with very nice faces, sitting on a bed of feldspar with some nice muscovite blades. There is a bit of rust under the fluorite that echos through the crystal from some angles, giving it an orange tint, and making it darn near impossible to get a good photo. At the base is a very nicely terminated, deep pink apatite, which is undamaged except for the base. A very nice specimen that really needs to be seen in person.
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Fluorite with Pyrite and Sphalerite Talk about eye candy! This specimen came from a small find several years back of pink fluorite octahedrons with grass green cores. These pop up every now and then and are always snapped up despite the ridiculous pricetags they often wear. This specimen has a part of one corner of the fluorite missing - that was the part that had the pricetag on it. But it is still an awesome specimen with some bonus material thrown in for free: sharp modifications on the fluorite, almost white matrix that accentuates the colors of the fluorite, and a cluster of gorgeous, totally lustrous pyrite cubes with a crown of octahedral, nearly black, ferriforous sphalerites. It's like ice cream for the eyes!
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Aquamarine and Topaz with Quartz on Microcline Here's another combo piece that doesn't sound like too much on paper, but is a knockout to see! White matrix of microcline and quartz hosts a sublime, 2x3 cm aquamarine with frosty faces, a complex termination and a very interesting rehealing pattern on the pinacoid. Surrounding the aqua are a brigade of quartz points, and several beautiful, gem-clear light sherry topaz crystals. Toss in a few golden-brown muscovite books for contrast and you have one fabulous Pakistani ambassador! Very, very nice specimen.
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Diopside on pericline twin Albite A big cluster of snow-white periclines with a few etched, deep green diopside crystals nestled in near the top. There are quite a few more needles of gemmy diopside around the specimen, and some of the spaces between the albites are filled with fuzzy, light green byssolite. A great Pakistani Alpine specimen.
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Zoisite Very nice single crystals of clear zoisite have been coming from Pakistan for some time, but nice matrix specimens are somewhat rare. This is a wonderful spray of super-gemmy, just slightly smoky colored zoisites on a very Alpine-looking matrix of white calcite. Very delicate and very beautiful!
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Zoisite This is another grouping of smoky to clear zoisites on an Alpine matrix of quartz and calcite. Lots of big, beautiful crystals on this one.
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Apatite on Mica A very sharp, 2+ cm crystal of light pink apatite with a little feldspar cap on its termination, sticking out of the side of a nice, thick book of mica. The mica is almost gemmy when viewed from the side. I love these kinds of specimens that just scream "Pakistan!"
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Aquamarine on Albite with Muscovite & Spessartine Return of the killer toenails! A beautiful, perfectly clear aqua with a terribly complex termination, rising from a bed of translucent white albite, flanked by delicate silver mica books, with a tiny, bright red garnet. Simply a gorgeous, clearly outstanding large thumbnail specimen.
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Aquamarine on Quartz This specimen features a parallel grouping of aqua crystals extending above the business end of a nice, clear quartz cluster. The aquas have multiple, complex terminations, and very interesting prismatic forms. They look like little aqua skyscrapers above a quartz mountain.
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Lepidolite and Tourmaline on Cleavelandite A cluster of unusually sharp, hexagonal lepidolite crystals with great color and near-gemminess in some areas. The crystals fill a small pocket in a hunk of feldspar, and there are several partial, grass-green tourmaliines present. The smallest tourmaline (top left in the second photo) is a beautiful little tourmaline termination.
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Aquamarine with Schorl on Albite Another killer toenail! This one features a light blue, doubly terminated aquamarine lying alongside, at almost a right angle to a lustrous schorl crystal with an amazing pattern of etching on its termination. Extremely attractive!
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Aquamarine with Schorl on Albite Two very light blue aquas lying across the front of two very nice, lustrous schorl crystals, all encased in a jacket of small, white albites. There is another thin, nearly colorless aqua on the back of the specimen.
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Aquamarine with Schorl on Albite This one is actually three schorls, two of which are translucent at their terminated ends, wrapped in white albite, and with a pale blue, doubly terminated aqua lying nearly perpendicular to the main schorl, about 1/3 of the way up the length of the specimen.
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Schorl on Albite with Wuartz Two jet black, lustrous schorls wrapped in albite, with a big, clear, doubly terminated quartz crystal in between. A very nice schorl specimen.
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Aquamarine with Schorl on Albite Very lustrous schorls, all the way to their terminations. This one has the largest tourmaline of the lot.
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Aquamarine with Schorl on Albite This one, the last of the lot, features 4 super-shiny tourmalines, very fine, translucent albite, and a very nice aqua, which the second-largest schorl's termination has grown around. Very classy looking specimen!
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Schorl and Muscovite on Microcline twin I find this specimen fascinating. It's incredibly aesthetic even though it consists of common minerals. The focal point of the piece is a slender schorl tourmaline. Nothing special here, but it rises out of a cluster of very white, large microclines, many of which show distinct twinning lines. And surrounding the schorl is a wonderful jumble of really interesting muscovite books in a beautiful twisting staircase pattern. The books are silver on their faces, and almost black on the edges, and it makes for an incredibly dramatic visual effect. This specimen seems to display both supreme order and utter chaos at the same time.
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Fluorite Here's another mineral that's getting tough to find: clear fluorites from Dal'negorsk. This one is a beautiful, large group of crystals displaying all kinds of faces: cubes, modified cubes, and cuboctahedrons. The crystals are all water-clear, and there are very few inclusions. And the matrix, which is sometimes a problem with these specimens, is very firm and solid. A very nice, affordable Dal'negorsk fluorite.
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Fluorite Another excellent fluorite cluster, this one with fewer, but larger crystals. Most of the crystals on this specimen are cubes with octahedral modifications. Super glassy, super lustrous and super growth patterns on the crystals - another classic specimen from a classic locality.
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Epidote & Calcite Now here's something you don't see every day... a plate of calcite shot through with an epidote spear. The epidote is really much nicer than the photos might suggest - it's a sharp, glassy crystal, translucent at the termination, showing varying shades of brownish-green to green when viewed from different angles. There's a little contact or nick on the thin edge of the termination that I find completely ignorable in such a unique, aesthetic specimen.
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Fluoriteon Muscovite This is the big brother of a specimen I had a few months ago. It's a nice slab of pegmatite granite covered with tiny mica and small, sparkling fluorite crystals. At the top are two clusters of beautiful, faintly bluish-green cuboctahedral fluorites. Pegmatitic fluorites from Pakistan have been somewhat scarce for about the last year, so this one was most welcome. These used to be unheard of, then for a while were fairly common, and now they only seem to trickle out. This is a nice, large specimen that's still pretty cheap!
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Morganite Here's a really nice, no-nonsense morganite specimen. The crystal is beautifully formed, with a nicely modified termination, sharp edges, good clarity, and very nice color (probably more pink and less yellow than you're seeing in the pics). There is a cleavage on the back, but this is one inexpensive morganite that displays like a champ.
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Spessartine Garnet on Star Mica There are lots of garnet-on-mica specimens out there, but not many that I would buy. This is one of the few. The star mica is in good shape, and some of the books are only a few layers thick. The garnets are nice and gemmy, and the color is a very pleasant deep (but not too deep) red, with just a hint of orange. And, they're everywhere!
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Fluorite This is a very interesting specimen of wildly intergrown light purple fluorite cubes that unfortunately didn't photograph as well as I would like. The fluorite is very translucent, and the amount of stair-stepping on the crystal surfaces is fascinating. A really neat specimen from a recent find.
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Fluorite Here's another, smaller, lighter colored specimen than the last one, but from the same find. This one has a deep purple core, and the outer layers are a pale yellow-green (but so pale that the purple is quite visible). The amount of stair-stepping on the crystal faces is outrageous, and the form is reminiscent of the "mushroom" tourmalines from the same area.
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Fluorite Another from the same find as the two above, but this one has a softer, weathered look. The faces aren't as sharp or lustrous, but the color is very nice and the interesting stair-step pattern is still visible. I find myself tempted to call these "fluorite rosettes."
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Fluorite Another one of those things you don't see every day: deep purple botryoidal fluorite on a stem. If this isn't "mushroom fluorite," then I don't know what is! The color is great, the luster fairly good, and the form is awesome. There are a couple of small munged spots on the top, but the specimen displays great. Very unusual and very cool.
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Fluorite Here's another one that looks better in person. It's a really cool specimen made up of several balls of tiny intergrown fluorite cubes, covering the surface of the specimen. The color is very deep purple, and the lustre is good, making for a very sparkly specimen. Once again, a very unusual habit and the only one like it I've seen.
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Fluorite One more mushroom - this one is lighter in color but better in lustre than it's little brother above. Also, while the one above is smooth, this specimen's surface is covered with tiny bumps, giving it a kind of orange peel effect.
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Aquamarine and Fluorite on Muscovite Did I ever mention that I love combo specimens? Especially ones that show something of the paragenesis of the environment where they formed? Well, this one almost gives me the shivers! The centerpiece is a big, intense blue aqua crystal with a hexagonal hole down the front where it obviously grew around some other crystal that gave its life to be replaced by some albite and muscovite. The shape of the old crystal is sharply evident in the negative space in the aqua. Just above this fascinating aqua is a cluster of octahedral fluorite with shades of light pink and green, with wonderful stairstep growth patterns and a couple of schorl needles going in, out and through. There's no danger of anybody cutting this one up for gems, but I think it's a wonderful, fascinating pegmatite specimen that really has a story to tell.
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Spodumene var. Kunzite Sometimes a specimen comes along that's so unusual and exquisite that it's hard to put into words. This is one of those, but I'll give it a try anyway... just tell me to shut up if I gush too much. This is hands-down the most amazingly beautiful kunzite floater I have ever seen. The color is a beautiful pink from above, and darn near clear (but faintly yellow/orange) from the sides. The entire crystal is absolutely 100% gem clear, and the crystal surfaces (and there are a lot of them!) are nearly all smoother than glass. But the thing that sets this specimen so far apart is its crystal form. The terminations are dozens and dozens of triangular points arranged in three distinct orientations, giving the look of an icy clear mountain range, or a bunch of tiny pink shark's teeth, or... like I said, it's hard to describe, but it's phenomenal. I've called this specimen "Jaws" for some time, but that's really an unbecoming name for such a lovely little thing. There are a few tiny bruises here and there, but most of the points are needle sharp. You've got to see this one to believe it. Okay, I'll shut up now.
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