Shain Mayer

Pink, white, and black cabochon of some nice Tiffany stone. This is a natural freeform shape and is a core solid piece of gemstone.
43*27*6mm

Labels: Cabochon, gemstone, tiffany stone

Most of the good Druzy, Pink Lace, Gray Lace, Black Lace agates, and Orbicular jaspers are up and out of the wash areas. One most hike into the maze like canyon lands above the main Willow Springs wash tor eally find siutable cutting/collecting materials.  This hike was done about 5 weeks ago after the nice winter snow on Fourpeaks, so there was allot of water and moss growth in these back canyons.  We kiked over a small saddle were you can collect nice druzy, and down into a backside canyon to Willow Springs Wash. We found allot of semi large viens of agate, mostly whiteish, some pinks and grays as well. I brought some home and have one piece that might have plumes in it, and is rather clear agate.
 The last shot was at the bottom looking back up from were were came down. Just more as a mental marker for myself the next time i go over that same saddle.

Now this is total bush waking country folks, its always best to wear pants in this area no matter the time of year due to allot of brush and catclaw.  This whole wash was loaded with catclaw and a real pain in the but.  But for a rockhound in the Goldfields, its no problem and part of the going about.

I also found this nice druzy examples this trip which is also the main reason to sahring this site and going back years over years. There is allot of Quartz Druzy plates in mostly white color everywere. Sometimes Grey, sometimes rare Pink like this piece here. These make killer cabochons!

Other roughs i brough out on this trip have yet to be cut and proven, but i will share in time and if they are worth sharing.




Ok, so this last week i got back up there with a friend from the bakery and went a whole new way around to explore and find more rock hunting prospects.  This next group of photos is from that trip. It was started at the same parking lot, but we headed south and around a large butte with a goal on the backside called the IQ Arch. This first photo is looking east at the top of the saddle, towards Weavers Needle and the frist water area of the Suppersititions.

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Labels: Agate, Apache Junction, Goldfield Mountains, Hiking, Lace Agate, Rockhounding, Superstition Mountains, Willow

So today while reading up on SEO i thought it was due time to check my ranking and placment on google with my site here at freeformcabs.com. What cuaght my attention in SEO is supposedly google will not rank your website that high if you are using their servers like i am here with blogger. When i moved my site over to blogger i checked the rank and i was 5-7 pages back in google when searching for "cabochon". I was always on the frist page when searching for "Freeform Cabochon".

SO besides updating my content more readily and not offering everything and the kitchen sink on my site. AS well, not fully pushing an ecommernce platform i think i have become realy pleased and comfrotable with blogger and google in general.

So today i did a quick search for "Cabochon" and guess what. MY sold cabochon gallery is on the first Google page twice! One link goes right to picassa were i store the gallery. But the other link goes right to the blog, and denotes a sold cabochon of blue biggs jasper. This makes me very happy with using blogger and i will continue to update my content and cabochons as often as i can. Thanks for following

Labels: Cabochon, google, ranking, SEO, update, website

In lapidary terms, that's just plain silly. But in agate like this piece of Brazil, its shows well how a natural preform cabochon shape can change when cutting. I was trying to preserve as much as the bright color as possible. And it still needs a trim before I sand it. Thanks to bob rush for the inspiration.

Labels: Agate, Brazil, Cabochon, cutting, perform

Madagascar druzy agate, a Royal Sahara, or a super blue pietersite?

Labels: Agate, cab, cutting, druzy, Lapidary, pietersite, royal Sahara

All about Dynamic Views for Readers - Blogger Help
The new dynamic views for blogger only work with newer web browser, and ideally with thee extension for easy view. I have provided the links here to mine if you are interested in seeing what it looks like.

flipcard
mosaic
sidebar
snapshot
timeslide

Labels: blogger, update

This is my responds to a thread on my favorite forum about offering a quality cutting index for lapidary materials, good idea. hope we can all follow through.

i always think an index of cutting/lapidary materials for the general consumer is a great idea, one thing one must factor in no matter the person selling the material or at what price is, all materials will have a grade factor to consider, and many sellers out there dont fully understand that factor when reselling rough. SO it comes as a two fold issue, based one on sellers and ethics of selling. Which usually will lead to what this thread has the potential is getting someone bent on bag talking about their material.
And two, the grade factor as all roughs will come with good and bad examples that are readily sold at fiar and unfair market values, both ways. (i dare mention the third factor of poor Identification of similar materials which i myself have made the mistake on)

I think a database is good, and i am all for contributing my input and photos into. But as bobby1 said about picking materials in sight and were one can see both wet and dry will always be the ultimate factor that dictates what good rough can be, even from bad stock. Which is a given factor for those in the know and have access to do such more readily and at true fair market prices than whats given from local and region standards.

So on a postive note about material that general has a good standing and is readily available at a fair market value , first up for my vote is Royal Sahara Jasper.
google image serach link

http://royalsaharajasper.3dcartstores.com/


This jasper though can vary in grade, from within the same piece. The yield and hardness is well worth the price. It takes a wonderful polish, has many abstract and classic picture scene potential. And each piece is quite unique. EVen if from slab to slab. I still have a few older cabs from rough i bought a few years ago and they are so nice. I plan to purchase more soon, hopefully with my tax return. I highly recemend the material at all levels of experience with lapidary. It can be tricky and sometimes you get a dud with more than 75% open core patterns. But its highly usauble in many lapidary forms. I bet it would do great as a carving.

Labels: buying, forum, index, Lapidary, rough, selling

Earliest Americans Arrived Even Earlier : Discovery News

In the desert there are allot of odd insects. This is an example of a damsel fly I believe. It just showed up while I was recording some new material. And it been the only bug that has been still enough to photograph. Ya, I like creepy crawlers. Photo doesn't show the length or size well. It much bigger in person. Hahahaha....

Labels: bugs, Music, recording, spring