Idar-Oberstein #4 (shopping)

the haul...


in a vaguely clockwise manner going from top left; lava leading to rose quartz, green dyed something-or-other which I forgot to get the name of, coral, mangano calcite, black tourmaline (yummy yummy), pink rodocrosite, a big pile of coloured quartz, onyx surrounding coloured howlite, peridot underneath, coloured agate, pearls, more peridot, citrine, more black lava, more pearls, brandy coloured quartz, lapis lazuli and smoky quartz. I love the smokey quartz, it reminds me of 70's cigarette advertisements of suited men drinking whiskey and smoking Dunhill or Davidoff.



some raw diamonds for one of my students (they're about 4mm each - 21 euro the lot)



a block of reconstructed coral on the left and reconstructed onyx on the right. I think it's made by recombining the dust of the material. the block of coral is about 150 x 100 mm. This was a courier job for someone else but I wish I'd got some myself, apparently you can cut it with a piercing saw!

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