Wire Wrapped Gem Display - Gem & Rock Festival GSO, NC 6/13/2015

At the Gem and Rock show on Sat.  There was one vendor who was demonstrating how to free form wrap stones to use as jewelry pendants.  Some had findings of silver plate but others had various colors of wire and different guages with a loop for the cord or chain.. The one with black wire was actually around petrified wood.  He gets the wire locally from craft stores but said Fire Mountain (online) was the best bargain for the bezels, jewelry findings, etc.  The vendor lives in Burlington, NC, and when my daughter comes we may try to see his shop.  He did not have any slabs of gems or rock for sale. He and his wife had recently been to AZ collecting rocks and gems.

Pyrophyllite Close Up - Facet Rosette Patterns

Yesterday I went to a rock and gem show at Greensboro Day School.  I was looking for some rock or gem slabs for my oldest daughter, Cinda, who lives in MI.  She has begun to do some jewelry with various stones and made me a few necklaces. I used this opportunity to take some photos that I could post on the blog.  Some of the vendors had rocks or gems that were for display onlyl.  This stone is a stone called Pyrophyllite. One vendor said that her source was from a friend in Randolph County. On the left, I took a close up of the design.  It was not something I wanted to buy so I did the best I could with the lighting situation.  I used native camrea app on iPhone 6.  The image on the R is to show the bigger stone which does not have has much detail of the texture.  Post processing I used  midtones, lightness & darkness sliders and sharpend to give the rosettes more texture. The left images was sharpened a lot - thus the color variation. You see that the facets of this stone not all in the same plane so the top area not as distinct.  The right image is actually the same rock but in bright sun and the color more like it looked to the eye.

Wikipedia:  Pyrophyllite occurs in phyllite and schistose rocks, often associated with kyanite, of which it is an alteration product. It also occurs as hydrothermal deposits. Typical associated minerals include: kyanite, andalusite, topaz, mica and quartz.