Christmas Tree & Chocolates

Anna is pointing at the Chocolate chart - two levels to this chocolate box, we all are having our chocolate fix.

Santa brought me these chocolates & Anna wants to share.

Todd & I on Christmas morning.

Anna & Todd in the morning on Christmas morning.

Anna & Todd in the morning on Christmas morning.

Kids-N-Clay trip

We went to Kids-n-clay in Lynnwood last Saturday. Here are some of the things we made and some of us posing. We had lots of fun.

Anna & Me

Anna & Anika

Anna, Todd & Anika

Projects that we all painted.

Denver Rock Shows

Todd & I went to the Denver show from the 15th thru the 19th for a business trip for my rock shop Earthlight, Inc. It was a blast here are a few pictures. I will blog about more when I get a chance.

This is a gorgeous Citrine table- Todd is posing with this table, I wish I had this table.
Gorgeous Amethyst Cluster too big for me to buy, but I wanted it can't you tell.
This vendor had a lot of cool Rock art pieces. So much fun.

Garnet Field Trip

I went on a field trip to Heather Lake in Wenatchee with my rock club and family, we found lots of fabulous things. Soapstone, Actinolite and Garnets. I have pictures below of the last portion of the rockhounding adventure, the gathering of the garnets. We hiked 1 1/2 miles to the spot in the river we wanted to dig. In order to get the garnets you had to stand in the fast flowing river and shovel gravel. You then had to sort out the garnets, this was easier if you found a spot with some sunshine, as the river was very cold. The river was full of larger rocks making it hard to find the gravel bottom buried below the rocks, where you needed to dig. After much effort we all found some garnets, see below for some of the highlights.

This is a fabulous tree that was over me while I dug for garnets. Love it.

Sorting in the river right off of my shovel, we didn't have a screen as we should have. Most of the other club memeber brought screens, but some of the garnets were so small they would have just fallen thru.

This is the type of screen most club members used to screen out the garnets from the gravel in the river.

I am walking in the river trying to find a good spot to dig.

Here is a picture of the river, showing some of us digging for garnets.

Nice shot of the river.

Here is me posing in the cold river, I was in this river the entire day. I even sat in it to sort my garnets. I was numb from the waist down for most of the day.

Norma letting us know that she is ready to take off, we left shortly after this. I think she was getting cold in the river, the sun was starting to go down some. Norma and Kevin just finished a 2 1/2 week rock hounding adventure, so they were ready to go home.

Kevin letting us all know what to do, and having fun.

Kelly and some other people gathering garnets.

A bunch of us getting garnets.

Upclose of some of the garnets that we got.

Picture of some of the garnets that we dug, we also got a bunch that were still in the matrix.

Digging in the river.

More pictures from the dig.

Anna at the dig.

My daughter and I as we pick thru the garnets that we got together.

A shovel load of gravel that needs to be sorted.

Large Fossil and Drusy Amethyst

Check out these two fabulous specimens at my shop - the Red Drusy Amethyst is sold, but I had to show it off. The fossil is still available - at least at the moment.

Large Drusy Red Amethyst with Calcite Crystals
Backside of the Large Drusy Red Amethyst with Calcite Crystals
Orthoceras - huge - largest one I have ever seen. From Morocco.

Rock Well - Beautiful Yard Art

We have this fake well in our yard that came with the house, many years ago. It use to be full of leaves and sticks - yard debris - nothing nice. I decided to change it and make it a beautiful piece of yard art. I added rough rock that I had of various size and colors. I am using it for storage and it looks good too, that actually was just a bonus. Check it out - what do you think?

RockHound Trip to Mt Higgins

So a couple of weeks ago my rock club and some other clubs all went on a rock hounding trip to Mt Higgins, in Washington. It was a long day and alot of people were there. Probably too many people for such a small site to dig the Rhodonite. Regardless I did manage to get 1 1/2 bucket of Serpentine, which was a bonus we were after Rhodonite. I did get about 1/2 a bucket of Rhodonite, this was not the higher quality that you see in Australia, or other sites. Normally higher quality Rhodonite is Pink with black veining. This Rhodonite was more black with very pale pink (almost white) patches, it did show the typical black veining that I love. I hope these will cut and polish well, I will probably sell some rough too. It was a fun trip and worth all of the effort. Rhodonite is found in very hard rock, so we did not have an easy time of it, but worth the effort. Here are some pictures below of some of the rough - none is cleaned yet as you can tell.

Serpentine, this is a gorgeous green color and pretty big.
Serpentine, with a great green color, I have lots in this size.
Here is one of the Rhodonite pieces that I got.

More awesome Rhodonite.
Here is a picture of the pile of rocks I got, Serpentine, Rhodonite and a few others thrown in that I picked up.

Fun time is had by all. Happy Rockhounding.

New Etsy Acct

I wanted to let everyone know that in May I opened up a new Etsy account for my rock shop which is WWW.earthlight.etsy.com . I have been working hard all month and have listed over 145 items on the Etsy Earthlight site. I also have over 250 things listed on the main Earthlight account. WWW.earthlight.com so much fun. So even though we have been around for 22 years, we have finally spread world wide.

Twin Golden Calcite Crystal

Ok so one more fabulous piece (museum quality) that will be at the Mineral Market show on May 22nd in Seattle. If you have questions on this specimen, contact me. Check my website WWW.earthlightgems.com for contact information.

This is a twin golden calcite crystal (actually two crystals radiating out from the same root between them) on a matrix of barite crystals from Elmwood, Tenn. The calcite is perched beautifully on the matrix of barite. The photograph does not show the barite however if the shot is taken from the other side, the calcite presents perched on a wall of finely articulated barite crystals rather than matrix so it is sort of a two sided piece with each side having its own features. With the appropriate lighting, the calcite "shoots" beautiful rainbows from within.

The mine in Elmwood, Tenn. has been closed for years and specimens from this locality have been highly prized both here in the states and particularly in Europe for the last 30 years due to the extraordinary associations of different minerals expressing in highly aesthetic compositions. This is a classic.

Dimensions: overall dimensions of the specimen is 12" long x 9.5" high x 4.5" deep with the calcite crystal/s itself 8" from tip to tip.

Sneak Peak at Mineral Market Show in Seattle

Here is a sneak peak at a few things I will be bringing to the Mineral Market Show in Seattle at Lake City Center on May 22nd. I have information about this show on my website. WWW.earthlightgems.com

Youngite with Druzy, Selenite Ball, Marcasite Stalagtite.
This Marcasite Stalagtite, is very long, the longest I have ever seen.
This is a very large polished FreeForm Labradorite, it has a gorgeous blue flash.
Ok this picture does not do this justice it is a gorgeous huge cluster of Green Fluorite.
Fabulous Amethyst Crystal Cluster with a carved stand made to fit.
This is an upclose picture of the Large Selenite Ball, so cool.
This picture has some more marcasite stalagtites, a fabulous druzy cluster, and some Aquamarine specimens with Muscuvite
This is a huge slab of polished specular hematite, along with a blue cluster of Fluorite.
Ok so I love this Rhodocrosite freeform polished dish, so beautiful. I also have a very nice smokey quartz and a gorgeous stibnite.
This picture has a fabulous smokey septer, Lapis, Druzy cluster,Pink/Purple Fluorite, and a sample of one of the spinel pieces I am bringing.

I will have two tables and a lot of things as back stock to fill in as things sell. This is a don't miss show. I will be waiting to bring these items into the shop until after the show, so don't miss out. Alot of the things I am bringing are one of a kind items, and I may not ever see them again.