Where To Look

Bill James (Australia) writes:

The geologist is a man with a bunch of keys to nature’s jewel box. But there are many different keys for the box has many locks and most of them are hidden under the dust of ages. The written history of even the oldest and most celebrated jewels is only an infinitesimal part of their story. Their strangest adventures in the world of men are insignificant compared to the wonder of their creation.

Nearly all gemstones are minerals, some of which are rarer than others. This rarity is one of the qualities for which they are prized, for only a minor proportion of all the world’s gemstones exist in localities where they can be readily collected or mined. It is in reading the clues to these localities that the science of geology comes to the aid of gem seeker. It is as if nature had set up a great game of treasure trove for us with gemstones as one of the prizes.

If we were lucky, we may stumble upon a gem deposit by accident. But the odds of doing so are more on our side if we have an idea where to look. Like other minerals, most , but not all, gemstones were formed in association with igneous rocks. Igneous means formed by heat, and these are rocks which resulted from the cooling and solidifying of some of the molten matter making up the interior of the earth.

Many igneous rock are said to be of a crystalline texture. This means that their hard mass is composed of small crystals, the size of which is determined by the length of time it took the rock to cool. Other igneous rocks, such as obsidian, are glassy. According to the conditions under which cooling took place, igneous rocks are classed as either extrusive or intrusive. In other words, they either overflowed the existing surface or spread out beneath it.

Basalt is a typical extrusive rock. It is fine-grained because it cooled quickly on the surface. Granite is an intrusive or plutonic rock. Its texture is coarser than that of basalt because it cooled more slowly underground. At the depth of 40 miles inside the earth there are pockets of molten rock. In conditions of intense heat and pressure, these rocks stew up a superheated mineral soup known to geologists as magma.This magma tends to rise. If it succeeds in escaping through the earth’s crust by means of a volcano, it becomes lava. Otherwise it forms vast, dome-shaped subterranean masses of intrusive rock that are called batholiths and laccoliths according to their shape and size.

In the bygone ages, when the face of the world as we know it was taking shape, batholiths formed the roots and kernel of many high mountain ranges. The surface of a granite batholith many miles in area is exposed around Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. Nowadays when a geologist finds granite or gabbro or any other intrusive rock on the surface, he knows that the forces of erosion have worn away the material that once covered it. He also knows that there is the possibility of ore deposits and gemstones not far away.

When the original batholith was formed, the magma also spread into cracks and fissures of the surrounding rocks. Geologists call the result a dyke. Because it is in conditions different from the parent magma, the material in the dyke becomes a different substance called a pegmatite. This very coarse-grained rock is one of the sources of ores and gemstones which occur as crystals of various shapes.

Owing to the intense pressures in which it is contained, the magma holds quantities of water, chlorine, fluorine and boron in superheated solutions. These substances are known as mineralisers. The mineralisers help to keep the magma liquid and allow a longer period in which the mineral crystals can grow. Sometimes the crystals attain great size. Beryl crystals up to several tons in weight have been mined from pegmatite dykes at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

Emeralds, aquamarines, topaz, tourmaline, zircon and large crystals of cassiterite (tinstone) are all found in pegmatite dykes. So is quartz in various crystalline forms. But not every dyke holds gemstones. It is one of the elements of nature’s hide-and-seek game than an exact combination of chemicals must be present at the right temperature. Most precious stones owe their value to microscopic traces of metallic compounds.

Quartz is sometimes injected into the surrounding rocks by itself as vein quartz. Sometimes, combined with ores of gold or other metals, it is in ‘pipes’. Cavities known to miners as vughs (pronounced ‘vuggs’) occur in the pipes. In these vughs, crystals of the various types of quartz gemstones grow from concentrated silica solutions. These also reach large size and one of the finest recorded in Australia was a 25 lb. rock crystal mined at Kingsgate, near Oban, in New England.

It takes a long time to grow a crystal of this size but it is nothing compared to the immense period over which nature has produced our gemstone resources. The oldest rocks in Australia, occurring in the south-west, date back at least 2000 million years. The forces that create gemstones were already in action then. At that time the earth’s crust was more subject to movement and change than it is now. It was an era of incredible violence. The rocks warped, buckled and broke, spewing out streams of glowing lava under skies darkened by incessant floods of rain and lurid with the smoke and flame of volcanoes. Monstrous upheavals and descents took place over large areas. During the last 1000 million years the Australian continent was split into islands several times by the movement of rocks.

About 135 million years ago, the highlands of the Queensland coast between Cape Melville and Rockhampton were parted from the rest of the continent as it is now. The sea also divided New South Wales and Victoria from Western Australia at this time. During Australia’s geological history there were at least nine periods of tremendous subterranean activity when rocks warped and folded and great batholiths formed. The first and second of these periods took place between 2000 million and 500 million years ago. Six times more the continent was reshaped over the next 300 million years, with the final episode occurring around 75 million years ago.

Most of Australia’s gemstone deposits trace to one or other of these periods. We can pick up stones that are older than the dinosaurs, stones that have endured while mountains higher than Kosciusko have risen and been washed away. Against the dramatics of earthquake and volcanic eruption, the steady stealthy activity of wind and rain, ice and running water has little impact. Nevertheless, these are the forces that have done more than anything else to shape the face of the land.

Where To Look: (continued)

Greatest Films

The films I like:

Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)
Diary of a country priest

The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)

Death of a Salesman (1951)

The Color of Money (1986)

The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Battaglia di Algeri, La (1966)
The battle of Algiers

Grading Colored Stones vs Flowers

There are similarities between grading of colored gemstones and flowers. In colored gemstones the quality gradation is based on its color, clarity, cut and carat weight. When it comes to grading flowers there is more. Like in colored gemstone grading there are no uniform grading standards for flowers. Overall the quality gradation is based on consistency and proper interpretation. This requires knowledge, experience, an open mind with right attitude + special skills.

Here is an expert's opinion on flower grading.
- Size and shape of flower and its attachment to the stem.
- Size, number and texture of petals, and their colour intensity.
- Condition of calyx.
- Strength, straightness and length of stem.
- Development and condition of foliage.
- Freedom from blemish and damage from pests and diseases.

Study: Chocolate Better Than Flouride For Healthy Teeth?

Fox News reviews research findings by Arman Sadeghpour of Tulane University on an extract of cocoa powder that occurs naturally in chocolates, teas, and other products that might be an effective natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste + other viewpoints @ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293434,00.html

The 10 Most Faked Artists

Milton Esterow writes about art forgery + the 10 most faked artists in history + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1853

From Mine To Mistress

Gem Books/Gem Merchants: Chaim Even-Zohar 's From Mine To Mistress is an interesting book. The industry experts describe the book as the bible of diamond business.

Here is what From Mine To Mistress’s site
(www.mine2mistress.com) says about the book:

Heavily revised from the original edition in 2002, the latest version is the definitive work on corporate strategies and government policies in the international diamond industry.Written by one of the world's greatest diamond experts, Chaim Even-Zohar, this 942-page book covers all aspects of the diamond industry, ranging through its history, current circumstances and forecasts for future development.The book is essential reading for everyone involved in the diamond 'pipeline', and follows on from the massive success of the first edition of From Mine to Mistress.

Published by Mining Communications Ltd, From Mine to Mistress reviews the main issues affecting global diamond mining including:

- Economic and political trends
- The diamond value chain
- Industry framework
- Anti-money laundering regulations
- Conflict diamonds
- Political and legal constraints
- Diamond banking
- The branding revolution
- Plus details of 14 producing and 7 manufacturing countries.

Lev Leviev's Diamonds: U.S. Bound

Sophia Chabbott profiles Lev Leviev, his business interests + philosophy + other viewpoints @ http://www.wwd.com/accessories/article/118517?page=0

Plan 9 From Outer Space

Greatest Opening Film Lines (Plan 9 From Outer Space - 1959):

Greetings, my friends! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friends; future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable; that is why you are here. And now for the first time we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that faithful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friends, we can not keep this a secret any longer; let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friends, can your heart stand the shocking facts about the grave robbers from outer space?

Fakes, Frauds, And Fake Fakers

Milton Esterow writes about prolific counterfeiters in the art areana and their unique skills + the culture of buying authentic pieces and getting copied by a forger, then selling the copy for higher prices + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1852

Scary Romances

Chaim Even-Zohar comments on Michael Hastings article in the Newsweek magazine titled 'Romancing the stone' + his views on synthetic vs. natural diamonds + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=23652

Kashmir Sapphire

In the old days blue stones were exposed by a landslide in the hills of Kashmir. A band of men, with a mule caravan on its way to Delhi, saw the stones as curiosities, picked them up and traded them for salt in Calcutta. They were sold again and resold. News of these transactions reached the Maharaja, who in great wrath demanded them back. This was done all along the line until they were returned to the Maharaja.
- Indian Post - 1934

I don't want to say the days of Kashmir sapphires are over, but it's likely that we are going to see less specimens; the distinct, velvety (cornflower) blue color, the best quality Kashmir sapphire, the benchmark for color excellence. Nature always like to surprise us one way or the other so let's keep our fingers crossed. Most likely what you are going to see in Kashmir today are synthetic flame fusion blue sapphires or low quality blue sapphires.

A Small Town In Germany

(via Bangkok Post, September, 6, 2007) Peerawat Jariyasombat writes:

Pforzheim in Baden-Wurttemberg may not find itself on the tourist map, it certainly counts when it comes to high class jewelry. A small town in Germany, Pforzheim is not on the tourist map but for jewelry lovers it has a special meaning. So don’t be surprised if you come across a gold-plated Porsche on its streets. Of course, it is real gold. The one I am talking about is a Porsche Boxster cabriolet, its body clad in 3000 wafer-thin strips of 22-carat gold.

Its proud owner is George Leicht, who operates a jewelry shop downtown. “You are in the city of gold. You can expect a champagne welcome with tiny gold flakes hanging in the bubble,” he said to me.

If you want to learn about German jewelry, Schmuckwelten is a good start for the showroom features world famous brands Chopard, Faberge, Bunz and Wellendorff, all of which are produced in Pforzheim.

What is on show will be enough to stun jewelry lovers. From rings, necklaces and pearls to diamonds, thousands of pieces of jewelry and watches made in Germany and Switzerland are showcased at Schmuckwelten. I had to hold my camera bag carefully just to make sure it didn’t make any scratches on the items on display.

Situated at the gate of the Black Forest, Pforzheim is a town of 119,000 inhabitants, part of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in southwest Germany. Its jewelry and watch-making industry dates back 240 years. Besides watches and jewelry, Schmuckwelten has two museums that lead visitors into the world of gems and precious ornaments. One, the world of jewelry showcases precious stones and metals. Visitors can learn their processing. There are 11 diagrams illustrating various processes starting from where the precious metals and stones were found until their transformation into finished pieces of jewelry.

In the basement of the same building is the Mineral Museum featuring 5000 exhibits of rare stones. It focuses on minerals from the Black Forest region and Rhineland, as well as amethyst from Brazil. Among the jewelry manufacturers in Pforzheim is Faberge. It’s jeweled eggs have featured in films such as the 1983 James Bond thriller Octopussy and more recently the Ocean’s Twelve released in 2003, whose plots revolved around attempts to steal Faberge eggs kept in highly fortified vaults.

They are among the original 68 jeweled eggs made by Peter Carl Faberge and his assistants for the Russian tsars and private collectors between 1885 and 1917. The eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gemstones. The term ‘Faberge Egg’ has become synonymous with luxury and regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler’s art.

Faberge started as a Russian brand. After the revolution, its management fled abroad and tried to rebuild the brand but failed, until Victor Mayer bought the brand in 1905 and settled down in Pforzheim. It has kept up with the old Faberge style and craft since.

Dr Marcus Mohr, the president of Victor Mayer GmbH and workmaster of Faberge, walked me around his factor where the staff were busy making jewelry by hand, in true Faberge tradition. It was wonderful watching the beautiful ornament go through the remarkable making process, from rough drawings on paper to finished products without using high technology. Although staff works in the old way, their designs are not boring, every piece being cut and vibrant in color.

One of the most remarkable Faberge works involves engraving watch dial by hand. “Actually, we can easily make it using machine but then it won’t be priceless. At the present there are only three men in Germany who can do it,” Dr Mohr said.

A stone’s throw from Faberge is the elegant showroom of Wellendorff, the brand that devoutly maintains its traditional design and craftsmanship. Founded in 1893, the brand is famed for its gold rope which is woven from gold thread, but amazingly soft and the more remarkable is its turning ring.

The ring can be turned around since it comes with its own hidden wheel inside. It is assembled from four separate parts. Everything is assembled so nicely that water cannot get inside. The secret of its soft gold rope and the turning ring have made Wellendorff famous, even though they are made of 18 carat gold and do not come with a wide choice of design. “Wellendorff is the tradition. We are not going with the fashion trend. We set our own trend,” its owner Hanspeter Wellendorff said.

For more information about jewelry in Pforzheim, visit:
www.schmuckwelten.de
www.wellendorff.com
www.faberge-jewelry.com

Luciano Pavarotti

Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone.

Luciano Pavarotti (1935 - 2007)

Without a doubt Luciano Pavarotti had a unique god-like voice, and there will never be another Pavarotti. Before a concert he used to say, "I will bring them to their feet." And he did it. I wasn't brought up with opera, but seeing him on TV some years back mesmerized me. Since then I have become a fan. I think he brought pleasure to many people, and he will be rightly missed.

Treasure Maps

Bill James (Australia) writes:

If you have done the job properly, the gem material should be concentrated in a small circle in the center of the sieved gravel. Pick the stones out, using tweezers if necessary, and place them in your collecting bottle. Many things happen in the history of a river, the life cycle of which is accomplished only when it has cut its bed down to the level of that lake or sea into which it flows. Even then it may occur that some earth movement raises the land or the sea level falls so that the river is rejuvenated and flows rapidly again.

Rivers often change their course, destroying part of their former deposits and creating new ones. The stream may leave gravels on terraces high above its present bed or its course may be swallowed by a flow of lava—which is what happened to the ancient riverbed now forming the New England diamond fields of Copeton and Bingara. Miners call these prehistoric deposits of buried gravel deep leads.

Alluvial mining for gems on a commercial scale in Australia is now mechanized, with bulldozers stockpiling the gravel for treatment in pulsators. At Copetown, for instance, a revolving screen was used followed by pulsator treatment before hand sieving for diamonds.

Australian methods of alluvial sapphire mining vary according to water supplies, miners in some areas having to rely on dry screening and hand sorting. Fossicking or noodling on mine dumps may call for both the quarter-inch sieve and 3 lb hammer, as no rock of any size should be left unsplit. The golden rule mine dumps is to look for the place where the grass and weeds have been left undisturbed and dig there.

Another tip, as far as the smaller and older type of disused mine is concerned, is to look around for any large rock fragments that may have been scattered in the bush by blasting. They are worth cracking open, too. Old mine workings have a fascination for rockhounds. Normally sensible people are irresistibly lured into these gloomy, damp tunnels although they must be well aware that time, rust and white ants have made everything thoroughly unsafe.

Shafts and underground workings are often filled with carbon dioxide gas, a quick and stealthy killer of people unaware of it. The presence of the gas can be discovered by testing with a naked light, which the gas put out, but my advice is: Steer clear of the old mine workings altogether.

Certainly never go off on your own to work rockfaces or investigate mine tunnels. In fact, it is sound policy never to go off on your own on any long trips, and on short trips always to make a point of telling someone where you are going. If you are going into arid or rough country make sure you take extra food and petrol and at least five gallons of extra water for each person in the party.

Look out for snakes, spiders, ticks and, most of all, sunburn. Buy yourself a shady hat, some tough mittens and boots stout enough to protect your ankles and steel-capped to guard your toes. Don’t forget a rucksack to carry the tools and spoils. Among the extras you will find useful are electric torch, a pocket lens of jeweler’s loupe and a bottle of bromoform or methylene iodide, to enable on-the-spot identification of gemstones through their specific gravity.

It works this way: topaz (specific gravity around 3.5) sinks in bromoform (specific gravity 2.9), while quartz (specific gravity 2.65) floats. Other test liquids such Klein’s, Sonstadt’s and Retger’s solutions are difficult, dangerous or messy to use and best left to the laboratory.

One of the most rewarding ways of opal-hunting is to speck or noodle the dumps on abandoned—make sure it is abandoned—claims at Lightning Ridge or any of the other famous opalfields. The best time for this is just after a heavy shower of rain when gems washed to the surface catch the sunlight.

Many good stones were overlooked in the old days and remain in the dumps, which are now being gone over with mechanical sieves or puddling machines. Without a doubt many deposits of precious opal have yet to be found and worked in the west of Queensland and New South Wales, where lack of water beat the old-time gougers. The same can be said of the north-west of South Australia, where it is officially regarded as ‘quite possible’ that important discoveries remain to be made.

Little more than the surface has been scraped off most of Australia’s gemstone deposits. Sapphires, zircons, topaz—almost every gem in the alphabet—lie scattered in a bed of gravel between a few inches and 50 ft thick over an area of 350 square miles at Anakie, Central Queensland. Although the easily accessible areas are largely worked out, much of the ground is still almost untouched.

This is one of Australia’s richest gemfields; but the picture is typical. Gemstone mining is everywhere an individual effort, crippled by lack of capital. The only full-time miners on many fields are pensioners, picking up little more than the price of their smokes.

While they seem to offer little return for financial investment, the wonderful variety and widespread nature of Australia’s gemstone deposits are now being recognized in the growth of the gemseeking as a most fascinating and rewarding hobby.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Greatest Opening Film Lines (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House - 1948):

Manhattan, New York, USA. In any discussion of contemporary America and how its people live, we must inevitably start with Manhattan, New York City, USA. Manhattan, glistening modern giant of concrete and steel reaching to the heavens and cradling in its arms seven million, seven million happy beneficiaries of the advantages and comforts this great metropolis has to offer. Its fine, wide boulevards facilitate the New Yorkers' carefree, orderly existence.

Looking After Their Own

Susan Emerling writes about artist's choice (s) / passion of keeping certain pieces that have personal significance (s) + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1832

Botswana's Sabotage Of Beneficiation

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Bostwana's new problem (s) with labor unions + the diamond expatriates dilema (s) + the perception of beneficiation in Bostswana + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

The Human Comedy

Greatest Opening Film Lines (The Human Comedy - 1943) :

I am Matthew Macauley. I have been dead for two years, but so much of me is still living that I know now the end is only the beginning. As I look down on my homeland of Ithaca, California, with its cactus, vineyards and orchards, I feel so much of me is still living there - in the places I've been, in the fields, the streets, the church, and, most of all, my home where my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions, my beliefs still live in the daily lives of my loved ones.

Talal Abu Ghazaleh

I believe that I was lucky to have suffered. Some people don’t realize that in suffering there is great potential, because if you are deprived for any reason.. politically, financially, socially or otherwise.. and if you set your mind in the right direction, you will find that the only way to survive is for you to excel, by being better so you can be treated better.

The Selling Of Jeff Koons

Kelly Devine Thomas writes about Jeff Koons, the controversial art star + his pop, conceptual, and minimalist art concepts + his unique way of interpreting work of arts + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1829