A sampling of some of our newest stuff. The first picture is Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan. This piece has a wide band of quartz running through it. Most of the others were bluer and more pristine, but we like the organic feel of this piece. Lapis is 5.5 to 6 on the Mohs hardness scale. I found better results working this through on diamond than tumble polishing. It appeared that the golden flecks of pyrite wanted to undercut in the tumbler.
The next two belt buckles are new ventures for us and we are pleased as punch at how they turned out. The first buckle has a 40x30mm African Tiger Eye cabochon and Carol did a good job of capturing the wink or chatoyancy of the stone. The second buckle has a 40x30mm malachite cabochon. This material is from Zaire and has a touch of chatoyancy.
I have ground a few kambaba jasper cabs, dinosaur bone cabs, and my favorite-Botswana agate cabs and have put them in 600 grit to tumble polish. I am trying to same some wear and tear of my finer diamond wheels, so for the harder jaspers and agate material, I am grinding to my satisfaction and then tumble finishing. If I see pits, scratches, wheel marks, etc., I can grind them off before returning to the next stage.
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