Chapter 2061: Wherein... rocks!

Yeah, suck it up you whiners (for those of you who are whiners, that is. The rest of you? Just read on, I suppose).

The other day I lost a pendant in the woods. No, that's not a euphemism; don't forget that I work at a nature centre. I literally lost a pendant in the woods. Let's see if... yep, here it is. The one on the far right, which is dendritic jasper. Not to worry, though. It wasn't exactly one of my favourites anyway, and that plus deciding that I deserved a treat for what was then my upcoming colonoscopy (read the post for yourself if you missed that bit of excitement) gave me an excuse to head to the rock store.

Not that I need an excuse at the best of times, but it's always better to have one.

Here, then, are four new pendants to replace the one I lost. I'd say that math was never my strong point, but I was actually pretty good at math. I'm also apparently good at Look! Shiny!

Let's have a closer look.

This one is Ammolite, which is a fossil. There's some non-mystic (why do all rocks have to be mystic, anyway?) information about it here, which saves me some typing. And if you're interested in more commercial information, one of the companies that mines the stuff in Alberta has a website here. I haven't really looked at that one yet, to be honest.

In jewellery terms this probably wouldn't be seen as a great piece of ammolite, since the experts seem to like to have the colour shift in all parts of the shell's available spectrum (more or less blue, yellow, green, and orange) and this one's pretty much just red to green. I liked it that way, though. Less gaudy, and it certainly saves a person money to get a so-called lower quality piece.

 Here we have Dalmatian Jasper, which isn't a jasper at all. According to this blog, it's an igneous rock and should be called Dalmatian Stone instead of Dalmatian Jasper. Works for me, but just know that if you're interested in wearing it you're probably going to have to look for Dalmatian Jasper.

It's form Mexico rather than Dalmatia. People just named it after the spotted dog, that's all.

I bought it because. Yep, just because. The people who worry over each rock's meaning must really despair of people like me.

 This is Labradorite, and it's a fairly bad photograph. It's hard to get a good one of of labradorite, though, because labradorite's appeal comes more when you see it in person. As labradorite moves it has an iridescence that seems to be internal rather than on the surface like the ammolite above. I've heard people who sell it (yay bad jewellery shows on television shopping networks) describe the stone as having the Northern Lights inside it, and as badly poetic as that sounds it's not too bad a description. Get this thing out in the sunlight and it's pretty fascinating.

Oh, by the way, labradorite's form of iridescence is, it seems, called labradorescence. I suppose that's appropriate.

Finally, a bit of Landscape Jasper. I'm kind of a sucker for jaspers at the best of times, and I logicked myself into replacing a piece of lost (mediocre) jasper with a piece of (more interesting) jasper. Makes sense, right?

That's it for rocks at the moment. Yes, at the moment. Unfortunately, the summer switch of my days off to Mondays and Tuesdays have reminded me that the location of the rock store that's usually closed when I pass it going home from Dad's on a Sunday will be open as I probably don't quite pass it on a Tuesday. Ah well. As far as jewellery habits go the only way it would be cheaper is if I was making things myself. and at least rocks are interesting, right?



Oh, don't all disagree at once. Back to work tomorrow, and probably back to less words too. Type at you when I can. Maybe something on the other blog in the next couple of days if I can make myself feel more like drawing than I do just now, but don't hold your breath.

Even though it might be slightly amusing to watch you turn blue.