The flashes of colour and unusual markings in opals easily lend themselves to exciting the imagination. And no two opals are ever the same. If you keep your eyes open you can see all kinds of things in opals - a mountain glacier or a tropical fish under water for example.
Star Sapphire
This was the first stone I fell in love with...and bought way above my budget. Star sapphires have a high concentration of rutile silk that grows along three different axes according to the sapphire crystal structure. When cut in a cabochon style and seen in direct light, these sapphires can produce a beautiful star dancing on their surface. Normally star sapphires are paler and less clear than normal sapphires, but this star sapphire was irresistible with and without the star.
Trapiche Wings
I spotted this broken emerald trapiche in New York. Typically emerald trapiche grows in a hexagonal cross-section with a dark core and six radiating black spokes of carbon. This unusual growth structure gives it the Spanish name of "trapiche" or "mill wheel". This trapiche had broken down the middle, and been worn away at the edges. Instantly I saw them as a pair of wings on majestic birds soaring above the clouds.
Now you see it in an opal
A Masterpiece of Nature: Dendritic Quartz
Dendritic quartz gets its name from the Greek word "dendros" meaning tree. Manganese and iron seep into the fractures of the stone to create natural landscapes. This one is particularly unusual because of its background transparency that enables you to see multiple layers simultaneously like a scene setting in a theatre.
The colouring is similar to a Chinese ink painting, but the composition of this one reminded me of a Renoir painting called The Gust of Wind. There was no other choice but to place it in the 22ct gold frame it deserved.
Two stones in one: Azurmalachite
Azurmalachite is a little known stone that is actually two stones grown together: azurite (the blue part) and malachite (the green part). Malachite forms like stalactites and mites, which is what gives it the interesting ring like structure. This one reminded me of lily pads on a blue lake.
Artistic Agate
Similar to opals, no two agates are ever the same. They are characterised by different bands of colour that form as the stone grows. Through this processs nature is able to produce stunning landscapes and surprising results. No, I can't take the credit for painting them. Nature did all the work!
Examining Afghan Rubies
A friend came back from Afghanistan as a soldier with a packet of rubies in his socks! He wanted to know whether they were real or not.
These were whopper stones and definitely rubies - seemingly natural too. They'd have to go to a lab for testing to be sure of that, but the perfect crystals visible inside them through the loupe would indicate that they hadn't received any heat treatment.
They weren't top notch ruby colour or clarity, but they were sizeable stones (more than 5ct!) with a decent, probably natural colour, and definitely deserved a better resting place than his socks! It was such a treat to be able to examine these fabulous stones.