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Mookaite is a type of radiolarite, and radiolarite is made from radiolarian oozes. Simple as that, end of blog post!  An uncut slab of mookaite showing nice color variety. I generally prefer the purple and pinkish colors over the yellow tones, but that's just me ;) Pic from mindat.org Kidding, kidding. This whole saga might be the coolest thing I learned about this year, so I’m going to need to ramble about it a bit more than that. Let’s start with radiolaria, which you may know better as plankton. Teeny tiny plankton, like 0.1 to 0.12 millimeters tiny! These little...

Researching this blog post led me down a big ol’ oolitic rabbit hole, and introduced me to some very fun words!*   First cool word - ooid. An ooid is a spherical grain made up of concentric layers of minerals. They are usually smaller than 2mm, if they grow larger than that they become giant ooids - very scientific! To make an ooid you’ll need a shallow sea with lots of dissolved minerals hanging around. It’s not necessary, but often a little bit of organic material like a shell fragment starts the process, and minerals begin to deposit around it, building...

Malachite’s beauty really speaks for itself, so I am not going to bother with all that. Instead, let’s talk about the fun stuff; chemistry and geology!  A gorgeous example of a malachite stalactite from crystalclassics.co.uk To begin this journey, we need to know about primary and secondary minerals since malachite often occurs as a secondary mineral. A primary mineral is one that forms during the original solidification or crystallization of the rock. For example, minerals that formed from lava flows or deep underground under immense heat and pressure. When these original rocks undergo weathering (either physical or chemical) they are...

Today, we’re talking about a distinct type of petrified bog wood that goes by many names. It is only found near McDermitt Nevada and was first mined by Gary McIntosh and Ray Larson - so you can call it McDermitt Jasper, or Gary Green Jasper, or Larsonite.  I usually call it  Larsonite because it sounds the most sciencey, and that’s just the kind of nerd I am. Sorry Gary. A painterly close up of Larsonite from fossilera.com. Those colors! That pattern! This polyonymous (new word I just learned!) stone is known and loved for its attractive shades of blue and...

We all love a behind the scenes tour, right? Here's a little peek into my metal smithing studio where I make all the jewelry and allll the messes. Let's start off with the tidiest corner of my studio; this is wear I do all the heavy hammering as well as shaping and forming. See that silver stepped mandrel in the vise on the bottom right? I hammer metal wire around that to form bracelets in different sizes. You can also see some various cutting and shaping tools on the peg board. The large machine on the left is my buffing...