If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…
Union to buy 10 Gresham Street | Online | Property Week
The Property Network. The Property Network – Connecting commercial property professionals throughout the UK, providing a platform for debate and collaboration. network.propertyweek.com …
Who’s Where: IIDA Inducts 2010-2011 President and Board – otto
Chair: Felice Silverman, IIDA, Silverman Trykowski Assoc., Arlington, MA; Dawn Fischer, IIDA, NBBJ, Seattle, WA; Anne-Marie Gianoudis, IIDA, Gresham Smith & Partners, Birmingham, AL; Max Holland, Industry IIDA, Mannington Commercial, …
FUSIONSOLAR – New Solar Panel Roofing for Commercial & Residential …
FUSIONSOLAR A COMPLETE, DURABLE SYSTEM- FusionSolar, a new product by Custom-Bilt Metals and Unisolar, is a thin-film solar laminate that is meant for use.
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Sunstone is a beautiful, but little known gemstone. As a mineral, it is a variety of Labradorite feldspar that comes in a variety of forms. The most common generally shows an opaque “schiller” effect where the metallic inclusions reflect light in a shimmering blaze of color. However, it can also come in clear stones that are suitable for faceting. These facetable forms are usually pale yellow, but in Oregon they are also found in beautiful shades of Red, orange and green. The crystals are formed in slow cooling basaltic lava flows, much like Peridot. This gem is actually closely related to moonstone.
Sunstone is the State Gem of Oregon, which is the prime source for this beautiful Gem. Large quantities of gem-quality labradorite, most of it water-clear, straw yellow, have been produced from deposits in southeastern Oregon for many years. In the shiller type of of this gem, the labradorite contains millions of copper colored platelets that reflects the light with varying intensities resulting in a golden-red play of color. The “Schiller” phenomenon makes the stone appear to “glow” as if it had it’s own internal light source. Gems with Schiller retain this unique “glow” even when viewed from a great distance and by evening lights. In fact, the presence of these bright inclusions was the reason for naming it Sunstone or Heliolite, from the Greek helios for sun and lithos for stone. Although the most common color is straw-yellow, it also can be pink, peach, red, salmon red-orange, red-green, and blue-green. It also can be bicolored and tricolored in combinations of yellow, red, and green, and a small percentage is di- and tri-chroic. The Oregon Red Sunstone differs from other versions of this gem found in various worldwide locales in color, as it can show a strong pleochroism with multiple colors in a single stone. Unlike many gemstones on the market, this is not treated or altered to improve its appearance. Some geologists who have studied this gemstone believe the color is caused by the element copper.
This rare and unusual American Gem is distinguished from other Feldspars by its unique chemical and physical properties. It is a bright gem, with or without the Schiller effect, that creates outstanding jewelry. Depth of color and degree of clarity determines the carat price. Those are which are the Reddest and have fewer inclusions command the highest Carat price.
The best known gem location in Oregon is found near the tiny town of Plush, in the south central part of the state, not far north of the Nevada border. These deposits are being actively worked by a couple of different companies. The rough stones are mined from the surface and taken from a partially decomposed rock with a pick and shovel, or mechanically with bull dozers and other equipment. Shallow pits are dug to retrieve the rough material which is mixed in with basalt rock. It has to be screened and the gem crystals separated from the rock by sight. Un-weathered deposits release rough only by blasting and tunneling which often shatters the Sunstone rough. Because of cold weather and the remote location of the site, the mining season averages approximately six months.
At the deposits near Plush, the government has actually set aside a free area for the public to search for their own gems. The BLM has set aside 4 square miles for rock collectors to hunt for sunstones. No claims can be filed within the BLM designated rockhound area, and there is no charge to prospect. Even though thousands of rockhounds have visited this deposit, there are still stones to be found. The area also produces a valuable adventurecent cabochon material with a bright copper sheen. Other gem mines in the Plush area are also open to the public for a fee.
In 1980, the availability and quality of sunstone, other than the standard yellow variety, drastically increased with the discovery of another deposit that was to become known as the Ponderosa Mine near Burns. The vivid-red faceted stones and velvety-red cabochons from this mine set a new world standard for beauty, in red sunstone. The opening of the mine also increased the supply of stones in peach, salmon red-orange, red-green, green, blue-green, and bi colored and tricolored in combinations of yellow, red, and green. It seems that because of these multiple sources, that for the first time ever, there was a continuous U.S. supply of the more desirable colors in most of the calibrated sizes up to several carats needed by the jewelry industry. The supply from these two USA deposits should continue to be adequate for many years into the future.
Some other sunstone gems are also found in India and Tanzania. The gems from India show a coarser sparkle in the shiller that is present in the stones when compared to the stones mined in Oregon. It is said that the source of the shiller in the Indian stones are included crystals of Hematite.
The most important factor in determining the value of a transparent sunstone is its color. The finest stones possess deep red tones with no contained it or other inclusions to dull or reduce the sparkle. Larger deep red stones are uncommon and may command a significant price. In fact the largest known clean, faceted high-quality red sunstone is only a little over 10 carats. Cabochons of fine shiller stones are also highly valued, though they are priced less than the transparent red stones. These stones are also available in larger sizes.
For more details and information, the author has web pages on the Oregon Sunstone can be viewed at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Sunstone.htm
The Authors Information about visiting the Oregon sunstone area and collecting your own gems can be seen at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Rockhound/Oregon_sunstone.htm
The authors has considerable information on gemstones, their origins and characteristics, as well as helpful information on purchasing gems and gemstones at his website. His gemstone information Encyclopedia page can be seen at http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Gemstone_Encyclopedia.htm
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If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…
South Carolina Runoff: Nikki Haley, Gresham Barrett To Compete For …
… Nikki Haley who was endorsed by another moronic figure, Sarah Palin (hard for me to even type that name) and then she has to have a runoff with Gresham Barrett who came out with a commercial touting how much he hated Barack Obama. …
Cash donations spur on casino backers
The gaming alliance, an organization of nine tribal governments based in Oregon, hired the Portland economic consulting firm to forecast the commercial effects of a casino near Portland. The report by economist Robert Whelan … Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of The Gresham Outlook. • Only a comment submitted with a valid e-mail address will be published online upon submission. …
BRADWARTHEN.COM » Blog Archive » The non-impression Gresham …
I HAVE A HUGE problem with Gresham Barrett. It's not his political positions or his rhetoric. It's not even that frenetic thing he does with his hands in his TV commercial, though if I watched more TV … …
Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.
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