Return of Bowlerite! With a GRAPE FLAVOR!

Howdy DVHdesigns Fans!

I've been back to cutting bowlerite! I just did the Portland Bead Society Bead Bazaar two weekends ago. The show is great and I LOVE the PBS, but sales were certainly off. Of course they were for everyone and I've heard that most bead shows are way off this year for most people. However, out of all the things I DID sell, 80% of my sales were BOWLERITE! I'm pretty well know for cutting this stuff and when people see it on my table they always stop, handle it, and smile when they hear what it is! Here's some group pics of stuff I just put up in my eBay store, freeform focals in lots of different colors...



and here's some new hearts I just did....




The really crazy thing, is that I made two heart beads out of a REALLY RARE kind of bowlerite sphere. I got one purple and teal swirled ball about two years ago and it SMELLED different from the other bowlerite I was cutting! At first I thought I was having olfacatory flashbacks, or maybe there was just something different in the resin. Well when I realized the faint smell persisted AFTER I had finished cutting them, I had some friends smell them, and they finally helped me realize that they smelled like artificial GRAPE (like soda, dum-dum lollipops, or gum that has that "purple grape" flavor or smell). Well I looked on the internet (of course!) and found out that Storm bowling ball manufactures has a whole LINE of scented balls! They've tried over 100 "flavors" and grape was the first one! They even tried a scented one, that they said stunk! The article in the link above is pretty funny! Anyhow, here are two grape scented hearts made out of the same ball... Pretty bizarre, huh?





That's it for now folks! In case anyone's interested I'm having a 30% off sale on most stone beads in my eBay store this week and I have 99 cent, no reserve, auctions closing tomorrow evening, Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving week!

Sunstone Moonstone Hybrid from Tanzania

Above, we see this particular variety of sunstone shows a moonstone effect on the opposing axes of the sunstone, almost like a sun and moon hybrid!
This is a new, spectacular gemmy sunstone material from Tanzania that is as good or better than the more commonly found sunstone from India. I hand cut this shield shaped bead which measures 40x27mm and is 12mm thick with a 3mm drill hole. It has a high polished finish. There are several healed fractures in this bead, but they don't threaten the structural integrity of the stone. The adularescent AND aventurescent qualities of this stone are just stunning! The images give you just a hint of how these well oriented stones go from coppery orange base color to a nearly blinding coppery whitish brilliance! White veining and some dark grey spots create an ethereal & spacey effect!

Here is what June Culp Zeitner of Lapidary Journal fame says about sunstone in her book, "Gem and Lapidary Materials,".... "Sunstone is an aventurescent labradorite, microcline, or oligoclase feldspar, distinguished by minute hematite or goethite inclusions which reflect the light" She goes on to say that some microcline sunstones like this one show both aventurescence and adularescence.

Some of the mystic lore that has been said about sunstone is that it is a stone of leadership, dispels fear and stress, increases vitality, encourages independence and originality, warms the spirit and brings good fortune!

Iloite Sunstone

A wonderful deep blue iolite with silvery rainbows of "meteors" flashing through it as it moves in the light! I hand cut this elongated teardrop shaped piece which measures 51x17mm, is 8mm thick with a 2.5mm drill hole and has a weight of 54cts. It has a polished finish all over. The stone is cut so that the orientation of the optical phenomena are at their maximum. Still images don't do this amazing and hard to find gemstone justice. The stone really has to be moved around in the light to get the full optical effects of the aventurescence, chatoyancy, and iris effect that are all present in this remarkable stone!
This material is called "Bloodshot Iolite". It is an odd variety of iolite, a magnesium aluminum silicate, that has inclusions of small flat platelets of reddish hematite or goethite. This creates the optical phenomena of adventurescence throughout the stone. It is the same mineral and optical effect found in feldspars that are sunstones, so this is also accurately referred to as "sunstone in iolite". Iolite is noted for it's pleasing blue color and is often mistaken for sapphire or tanzanite, which are both much more expensive. Most iolite has inclusions and in these stones that I have cut the internal inclusions also create "iris effect" which are little refracted rainbows within the stone. I have never seen ANY of this rough available before my last trip to the World's gem & mineral trade shows in Tucson this last February. I saw ONE dealer who had this rough and I bought his 8 nicest pieces, which yielded only about a dozen pieces and I only have 4 left in my eBay store. That is all I have EVER seen of the rough and if you look around you won't find any other loose beads or custom cut cabs out of this material.