![]() This wonderful new lapidary material is available from The Gem Shop, Inc. The area has no road so the material must be transported to civilization by boat. It can only be seen and collected at low tide. The deposit has been discovered at the edge of the ocean. Small pieces of this jasper have been brought to market over the years but no one could identify the source until Paul Obeniche organized a systematic search of the northwest coast of Madagascar. Botryoidal formations as well as white and deep green druzy are also common. The background can be white, pink, green, red, or yellow. The rhyolitic eyes or orbs come in an astonishing array of colors and color combinations. The deposit formed as a rhyolite flow but has been completely silicified. "This new rock has been found along the northwest coast of Madagascar after years of unsuccessful searching. distributor for rough Ocean Jasper, and upon its introduction an ad was published in the May issue (Annual Buyers\' Directory) of Lapidary Journal with the following copy. ![]() The Gem Shop, Inc. was originally named exclusive U.S. metaphysical properties: - enhances self confidence - uplifts energy - encourages optimism - activates the throat chakra. The forms in the rock itself are also suggestive of the bubbling surf of the sea. The word "Ocean" comes mainly from the location at the edge of the sea, along the northwest coast of Madagascar where the deposit was found. We decided to call the material a jasper because rhyolitic patterns have been associated with the jasper category in the past and because "jasper" is listed as the mineral resource in the mining claims owned by Paul Obeniche. Ocean Jasper is an agate by the standard definition (agate being translucent and jasper being opaque). To the best of my knowledge there has never been a rock referred to as an "orbicular agate". All of these rhyolites have been sold or marketed as jasper so there is precedent for these rhyolite patterns being associated with the word "jasper". The word orbicular refers to the spherical forms found in many rhyolites. The material is categorized as an orbicular jasper. Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, 1 2 is an opaque, 3 impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color and rarely blue. I came up with about 10 different names and we chose "Ocean Jasper". Paul Obeniche and I discussed at length the name for this rock. The Name: Ocean Jasper®Īll work done by hand with hammers, picks, and bare feet! jasper facts information at : your internet source for jasper scientific information and jasper mineralogical info, with images of natural jasper varieties including leopard skin jasper, ocean jasper, mookaite jasper, polychrome jasper, mookaite, and kabamba jasper, along with samples of collectable jasper items for sale like jasper spheres, jasper carvings & sculptures, and. Ocean Jasper fits the description of a truly new jasper. It is rare indeed that a really new material is found. New discoveries brought to market are usually new deposits of an already known material. So much so that I kept asking Owen."Were those 2 rocks we saw coated with something or were they polished?" But my brief encounter with this rock led me to believe that it far surpassed the quality of all the others. ![]() Other rocks of this type have been in the market before, most notably Rainforest Jasper from Australia, Leopard Skin Jasper from Mexico and the famous Poppy Jasper from California. ![]() I recognized the pattern as similar to that found in a number of silica rich rhyolites. On the way to Quartzsite I could not get the image of those two rocks out of my mind. My friend Owen was with me and he saw the samples also. I was in Tucson early, packing my truck to go to Quartzsite when Paul Obeniche of Madagascar Minerals came by and said, "Gene, look at this new rock." Products are as shown.Every year new rock and gem finds are brought to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show in Arizona. Nowadays, we only select the top 10 to 20% of polished material and every single batch is carefully graded and priced. Toprock grading standards of Ocean Jasper are exceptionally high, as we have almost 3 decades of experience with the material. Those familiar with the “old school” material from many moons ago would likely consider modern material to be low quality. Only a small % of material mined in the last decade has yielded traditional orbicular patterns. However, the more “modern” deposits tend to have a lower diversity of colours and are dominated by banded patterns. Ocean Jasper is often showing a wide range of colours, from pink, blue, yellow, green and almost everything else in-between. The earliest material was more commonly referred to as Orbicular Ocean Jasper and was aptly named due to the complex circular patterns associated to this early material. General Description Ocean Jasper has been around for several decades.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |