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Showing posts with label Maw Sit Sit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maw Sit Sit. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Lapidary and Gemstones - unusual finds !

MAW Sit Sit --- A beautiful green colored stone that looks like fine quality jade, which makes sense since one of the constituents that make up Maw Sit Sit is jadeite. It is a metamorphic rock that was formed when higher pressure changed a formation of igneous rocks. The formation had a lot of chromium based minerals such as chromite and chrome rich jadeite, which accounts for the color. Maw Sit Sit has been pretty rare on the market, but more and more of it is appearing as time goes by.

This is a wonderful example of what the gemstone world can offer with an unusual name from a small place that no one has heard of ... until they named a gemstone after it, from a place called Maw Sit Sit in upper Myanmar. Maw sit sit was first identified by the late Dr. Eduard Gubelin in 1963 and named after the village close to the site where it was found. It is currently on the list for non-importation into the USA along with Myanmar (Burma) Rubies unless one can show a purchase date before the law went into effect.




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Zoisite Conglomeriate --- This beautiful combination of Ruby embedded in a matrix of green and black Zoisite is also known as Anyolite. This stone has wonderful red Ruby crystal structure embedded in a natural matrix of green and black Zoisite. It is strikingly dramatic, beautiful and hard to come by. Bright and bold opposite colors contrast to form exquisite patterns people love to look at. Although Anyolite is many times advertised as a variety of Zoisite from Kenya and Tanzania, Anyolite is actually a metamorphic rock composed of intergrown green Zoisite crystals, black Tschermakite cystals, and Ruby crystals. It is said to be named after the Maasai word 'anyoli', meaning "green." The contrasting colours make Anyolite a popular material for sculptures and other decorative objects. It was first discovered at the Mundarara Mine, near Longido, Tanzania in 1954. Much of the material now being called Zoisite Conglomeriate nows comes out of South Africa. Anyolite is also referred to as Ruby in Zoisite or Tanganyika Artstone when smaller amounts of the black Tschermakite crystals are present. Do NOT confuse Ruby if Zoisite with Fushite, especially when it is Ruby in Fushite).




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Septarian Concretion --- Concretions are masses of mineral matter formed when minerals in water are deposited about a nucleus (such as a leaf or shell or other particle) forming a rounded mass whose composition or cement is usually different from the surrounding rock. This can occur at the time of deposition, shortly thereafter, or after the sediment has hardened. Generally, concretions are harder than the rocks around them; therefore, over time the concretions can weather out of the surrounding rocks. Concretions are found world wide, but some of the best come from Wyoming and Kansas. These are formed from any of a number of minerals, including calcite, limonite, barite, pyrite, or silica. They vary widely in shape and size. The smallest are oolites, which can be smaller than the head of a pin. At the other end of the spectrum are the huge spherical Septarian Concretions, the largest of which have diameters of 20 feet or more. The exteriors of septarian concretions are crisscrossed by a network of ridges, giving some of them the appearance of a turtle shell. Geologists think they were formed by the shrinkage of concretions, which caused cracks to form, followed by the deposition of the various such minerals. When the concretions are exposed to weathering, the softer parts between the mineral-filled cracks are eroded and the cracks extend above the surface of the concretion, like ridges or little walls. When cut and polished, they make interesting stones for jewelry, as long as they are well protected. .

Sunday, August 7, 2011

INTERESTING GEMSTONE ROUGH



It is always interesting to find very showy gemstones, but some just seem to stand out from the rest. The following are some examples of not new stones, but interesting ones that are not seen very often and when found are grabbed quickly by those who know what they are.





KOROIT Boulder and Matrix Opal material from Australia.



What is so interesting about the KOROIT material is the varied colors.




Then there is the stone that when someone claims to be a gemologist, you ask them about - MAW SIT SIT which comes from the northern area of Myanmar (Burma). Maw Sit Sit is a unique arggregate metamorphic rock.




Another Australian find from the back-country is the ANDAMOOKA Opal material.




Then close to home we have CHALCOPYRITE, a copper-iron-sulfite material better known as Peacock Stone to those in Arizona.




And then a fairly new stone on the market, SONORA SUNRISE, a combination of Chrysacolla-Cuprite-Malachite that was found in the region around Sonora, Mexico.






And the new kid on the block in terms of new finds. Wello opals were discovered in 2007 in Wello, Ethiopia. Since then, Wello opals have been captivating the gem world.