Some time back, I was the fortunate recpient of a bag of gravel from Allen in Montana. It was a very kind and generous thing for him to do. But those of you who know Allen already know that this is his nature.
He sent me a bag, after he had been by my office and I had marveled at some of the beautiful cut sapphires he had in his collection. These were all sapphires he had found and had cut.
Well let me tell you, I had a blast sitting and sorting through that gravel on my light table. Each scoop of gravel seemed to hold many little and sometimes a chunk of translucent stone. Now to be real honest, I really wasn't quite sure what I was looking for so I just picked out anything I could see the light shining through. The opaque looking rocks, were just that, rocks.
After I had posted the pictures of the raw sapphires and garnets on this forum some time ago, Reno Chris, generously offered to send them along with a batch of his own sapphires to Sri Lanka to someone who would facet them. Chris said he had been doing business with this person for a while and found them trustworthy to do a good job, however, it usually took months for the job to be completed.
Well about a week ago Chris returned my little collection of rocks to me all faceted and polished. It really blew my mind to see how pretty these little pieces of gravel turned out.
Here's a picture, as you probably already know the red ones are garnets.
Take care!
DOC
He sent me a bag, after he had been by my office and I had marveled at some of the beautiful cut sapphires he had in his collection. These were all sapphires he had found and had cut.
Well let me tell you, I had a blast sitting and sorting through that gravel on my light table. Each scoop of gravel seemed to hold many little and sometimes a chunk of translucent stone. Now to be real honest, I really wasn't quite sure what I was looking for so I just picked out anything I could see the light shining through. The opaque looking rocks, were just that, rocks.
After I had posted the pictures of the raw sapphires and garnets on this forum some time ago, Reno Chris, generously offered to send them along with a batch of his own sapphires to Sri Lanka to someone who would facet them. Chris said he had been doing business with this person for a while and found them trustworthy to do a good job, however, it usually took months for the job to be completed.
Well about a week ago Chris returned my little collection of rocks to me all faceted and polished. It really blew my mind to see how pretty these little pieces of gravel turned out.
Here's a picture, as you probably already know the red ones are garnets.
Take care!
DOC