Your reply is both enlightening and frustrating!

I am informed to know that Colbaugh is receiving calsilica from the Méxican source, as opposed to making it (which would mean the "stone" is now copied elsewhere—which is a question I asked myself after going to his site).

As background, let me state (as I have in the past) that I met the chap who was the first "discoverer" and distributor of this material, at Bead Expo several years ago. He told me, and a few other people present, how he came upon this stuff, that he had it plasicized to make it harder and workable, and had it analyzed to find out what's in it.

Unfortunately, asking a lab to do an analysis can be an unsatisfying proposition. They just tell you what minerals and materials are involved. They do not really determine whether something is entirely natural or artificial. It would be expected that plastics would be proposed—because he has this stuff plasticized. And it would be expected that minerals were involved and could be quantified, because the PAINT from which it's derived is most likely colored with mineral oxides.

I still think everyone involved in trying to figure out what this stuff is has missed the boat. They all sound like they are in the dark, and that it's a mystery, and that they have no context or "big picture."