New Sonora Sunrise matched pairs. This mix of chrysocolla and cuprite, called Sonora Sunrise, comes from the State of Sonora in Mexico. We’ve been told that the mines, which are just over the Arizona Mexico border, have been closed. We’re not seeing much new rough material, but we’re always looking. These are the matched pairs we have for now. We’ll be listing them in the next few days.

These cabs from our Oregon Carnelian turned out especially well. We had to cut a lot of material to find these colors. Some are listed in our Etsy shop now https://www.etsy.com/listing/151956283/oregon-carnelian-agate-designer-cabochon?ref=shop_home_active  And we’ll be listing more in the next few days.

These drusy pieces were made our customer, Daria Syrtsova, who sells on a site in Russia at http://www.livemaster.ru/myshop/pums  Thanks Daria for the photos.

Someone recently asked if our carnelian was dyed and cited a couple of websites that said that banded stones are dyed and evenly colored stones are not. This is false. There is a lot of natural banded chalcedony in the world. And there are ways to treat chalcedony to improve color that result in evenly colored stones. Dyeing is the oldest and most common method. Dyed stones often have dye in small cracks or fissures that’s visible under magnification. But there are newer methods that result in evenly colored stones that don’t show any evidence of dye and are very difficult to detect.

You may have to rely on common sense: if the color is unusual, the seller is vague about provenance, and the stone is too agreeably priced, it’s probably not natural. The other common sense approach is buy from someone you trust. We specialize in natural colored materials, but on rare occasions we offer stones that have been treated. When we do, we say so. If you are wondering, send us an e-mail. We love to hear from you.

More cool Deschutes Picture Jasper!

These were an experiment for us. They are identical on both sides and measure 12 x 20 mm and are about 6 mm thick. They’re drilled at the top. We’re thinking of doing them in other materials. What do you think?

Yerilla chrysoprase comes from Western Australia. These are some pieces we will be listing here on our website and in our Etsy Shop at www.etsy.com/shop/sparklequest in the next few days.

Labradorite is gorgeous when you see the flash. The rest of the time, not so much. These are two side drilled beads we did out of a large chunk. Finding the “flash” when we were sawing it was time consuming and frustrating. The material is massive and the grain changes “willy nilly”, so we had to keep repositioning it in the saw. If you are interested in these pieces, contact us at info@roguegems.com.

Blue sheen moonstone is something new for us. We love stones that change, wink, and dance depending on how you hold them or how the light strikes them. We’ll be listing these here and in our Etsy Shop, SparkleQuest in the next few days.