LLANITE - A Uniquely Texas Gemstone !

This set combines Llanite, Kyanite and Peruvian Opal, all unique in their own right.

Finding unique gemstones is always a thrill. Being able to get hold of enough to be able to include in several jewelry pieces is extremely rare. Add to that the ability to get one of these rare, one location only gemstones from near ones home, makes for a real thrill in the making of jewelry.

Llanite is a hypabyssally intruded Rhyolite with phenocrysts of microcline and euhedral Quartz. The quartz crystals are blue hexagonal bipyramids. The unusual blue coloration of the quartz is thought to be due to ilmenite inclusions. It is named after Llano County Texas, the only place where it is found. A dike of Llanite outcrops about 9 miles north of the town of Llano. Many times during grinding and polishing, the Llanite looses it reddish color as seen in the picture of some slabs. Older material was much redder than that currently being found. Sometimes when finishing pieces, pendants will maintain some of the reddish color when held in a specific position in the light. Current diggings into the dike are producing a grayer material, but the blue Quartz flakes still appear.

A Llanite pendant and earring set with highlight Czech Crystals.

The following are some examples of pendants and earrings that have been cut and polished out of Llanite slabs.

We have a very limited amount of Llanite, some of which will be available at the Coker Fest Show this coming weekend in San Antonio..

GEMSTONE JEWELRY - Lapidary Time, Back to the Workbench !

There are times that in an attempt to obtain some interesting pendants for new necklace designs, one finds that you have to go the the Lapidary route, find the rocks that look the best, slice them open to see if gemstone grade material and then spend the time cutting and polishing them up to fit the design working on or what the person designing the jewelry wants for their pieces.

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Here are some interesting slabs that have been obtained, now to hope for good pieces out of them for the pendants or cabochons.

Territella Agate from Wyoming

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Wild Horse Magnesite from Arizona

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Bronzite from Montana
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Llanite from Texas

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Blue Crazy Lace Agate from Mexico

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Once the slabs have been cut and formed and finally polished, the pendants and cabochones look like the following.

Territella Agate Pendants

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Wild Horse Magnesite Cabochones mounted in Silver

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Bronzite Pendants

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Llanite Pendants

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Blue Craze Lace Agate Pendant and Mounted Pendant

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