| Original Message: Re: Beads from my neighaborhood |
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From left to right ; Jade with iron crystals ; quartzite ; high potassium granite ; leucogranite natural pebble ; quartzite ; gabbro with epidote ; quartzite ; very rare yellow gabbro ; leucogranite natural pebble ; yellow gabbro ; and lastly a stone unique to my area , a meta-listwanite. At this stage of metamorphosis the last bead is composed of virtually pure silica colored by iron.I have found it where the stone has been subjected to more metamorphosis and leaching of the iron and the resulting stone is ethereal opaque powder blue silica.These listwanites and the yellow gabbros are extremely rare. Drilling takes 10 to 15 minutes per bead for these 2.5 mm holes and another half hour to 45 minutes to complete the bead. We moved here as the perfect balance between collecting and my spouses need to commute by commuter van to work. We treat visitors at times to a few hours on the beach to identify cobbles then bring them back for quiche for lunch and then 3 hours on the saw , drill and lapidary machines so that they can leave to get an early ferry with a strung focal bead that lived on the beach that morning. This is an oddly fulfilling venture.
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