Rogue Gems

New Sonora Sunrise Cabochons Coming Down The Line

Ken — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:42:02 +0000

Well, I’ve been out in the shop slabbing some more of the rough we found in Quartzsite and Tucson last winter. This time it was the Sonora Sunrise. I only came home with two chunks, but both carefully hand selected and I was pretty confident they were premium quality. The first one sure is. Here are the first four slabs I cut. This is about as good as it gets.

Rogue Gems Rolling Out The New Arrivals Feature

Ken — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:12:15 +0000

We love what we are doing here and are especially tickled when we can make things easier for our wonderful customers. Many regular visitors to our site have inquired about adding a feature so they could easily and quickly see what is new in the shop without having to click through every category in the store. Well, it looks like we’ve done that, and we are rolling out the feature today. Take a look! While we only have a few new items featured right now, we will be adding many in the coming days. The new items will remain visible there for 7 days. Please let us know if there is any way we could improve the new feature. Our new web crew is awesome. And, as always, please feel free to make any suggestion you have to improve the site. It is a work in progress and we want it to remain that way, always improving!

The screen shot below shows the home page. On the top menu just to the right of ”Our Store” is the “New Arrivals” button. The screen shot below that is the New Arrivals page!

Colors of Lapis

Ev — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:48:28 +0000

We’re looking for input. Which color do you like? This year we looked for a higher quality of lapis rough, which is tcchnically called Lapis Lazuli.

Lapis is the Latinword for “stone” and lazuli came from a Persian word , j?zaward, meaning “heaven” or “sky”, since the sky is blue; therefore, it is the “stone of heaven” or “sky stone”.

What’s your preference?

Dendritic Opal: Australia

Ken — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:45:50 +0000

When we were in Quartzsite last this year we stumbled upon a few slabs of a very cool dendritic opal from Australia. We’d seen other forms of opal with dendrites from Australia, but not this one. The material appears solid and fairly hard. We like the pastel colors and the variation in the patterns. We’re going to give it a whirl and see how the cabs turn out. Stay tuned..

Australian dendritic opal by Rogue Gems LLC

Technology in the Owyhee

Ev — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:12:50 +0000

Do you see the telephone pole/cell phone tower? Most people see fantastic landscapes or beautiful pastoral scenes in picture jasper. Here I see a reminder of the relentless encroachment of technology in our lives. Lately I’m drawn to the idea of a technology sabbath. One 24 hour period a week when you turn everything off. Will I do it? Doubtful.

Montana Agate

Ev — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:40:09 +0000

We bought a small selection of Montana Agate to try out. It’s hard to find good pieces that aren’t fractured, but at it’s best Montana Agate is beautiful and durable enough to be considered a ring stone. We’ll post photos of the finished pieces when we have them.

Hell’s Canyon Petrified Wood

Ev — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:09:39 +0000

In the lapidary world, this stuff is all the rage. It was found many years ago in Hell’s Canyon which is on the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho. Recently a dealer acquired the collection and has been selling it. As it’s gotten better known and more popular, it’s gotten more and more expensive. We were buying some other rough from a dealer who had this pair, and we couldn’t help ourselves. These will make nice collectable pieces.

Vistaite: Picture Jasper From Oregon

Ev — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:02:40 +0000

A lucky friend found this at an estate sale. It’s a picture jasper that was mined near Prineville, Oregon a long time ago. We don’t know if we’re going to be able to buy any or not, but if we get some, we’ll give a shout out to all our collector customers.

Marra Mumba Update

Ev — Sun, 06 May 2012 00:12:38 +0000

A while back I posted a photo of a big chunk of Marra Mumba that we bought in Tucson.

We started sawing it and got slabs that looked like this. Interesting, but we wanted that flashy long fiberous look. So we’re trying sawing from a different side. Wish us luck.

Synthetic Quartz; Don’t Be Fooled

Ken — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:19:45 +0000

Let’s face it; buying gemstones can be tough sledding. And its probably never been tough right now not to be tripped up by all of the treatments and enhancements being used in the industry. Luckily, a little common sense and diligence can take one far. Let’s take something as inexpensive and common as Citrine (or other members of the quartz family e.g. Amethyst or Ametrine)

In the past few years there has been a proliferation of gorgeous large and flawless citrine, amethyst, and ametrine on the market. Check out the one pictured here. And the prices have been amazingly low. O.K., stop right there. There’s the first clue: if it is large, flawless, breathtaking, and cheap, the stone is almost certainly treated or enhanced in some way or simply not what it purports to be. The stone pictured here is a lab grown synthetic citrine (quartz) sometimes referred to as hydrothermal quartz as the crystals are “grown” in an autoclave in a technical process using (among other things) heat and intense pressure.

It is virtually impossible even for a gemologist to determine for sure that such a stone is not natural without the use sophisticated gemological equipment. But that is fine since if it appears too good to be true it almost certainly is. When you see a stone like this one with a low price it is going to be a synthetic. Citrine and the other common quartz stones almost always will have color zoning in the larger sizes and usually will not be flawless.

Although we have a strong bias for all natural stones, that doesn’t mean these stones don’t have a place, but we sure hate it when we see them passed off as natural. Don’t be fooled!