While we wear many hats here at Rogue Gems, one of the most critical challenges is to create designs for our cabochon. It involves choosing only the very most interesting portions of the slabs and then selecting a shape that uses the selected portions of the slab to its greatest aesthetic advantage. One of the…
Back At the Saw: Polychrome Jasper Time
As I said here before, I pawed through a couple of tons of polychrome jasper in Tucson to come up with the three chunks I wanted. And now I’m slabbing the first one. Only a small part of each slab is usable to us since the little mountain scenes occur as a thin band around…
New Stones In Store: Spiderweb Jasper (Oregon)
A Little History What you’re seeing here are some great cabochons made from what’s called Spiderweb Jasper in the trade. It of course gets its name from the lines running though the green background. This material was apparently first found in Southeastern Oregon back in the 1960′s. (So I guess its appropriate I’ve got Credence…
Australian Marra Mamba
This is a chunk of Marra Mamba I bought in Australia. This is some of the old stock. It’s much nicer and more expensive than the stuff they’re mining now. I really had a hard time getting myself to pay the top dollar they wanted for this piece. Now of course, I’m glad I did….
Australian Boulder Opal Designer Cabochons and Beads
We thought we’d share this great parcel of five more Australian boulder opals with everyone. These are new in. We are now very fortunate to have a great selection of these in cabochons and beads. We have beads drilled side to side and drilled front to back. And we have matched pairs. These are some…
Shattuckite Rough
These two dudes are ready to go into the saw. We got them in Tucson from our supplier from the Congo. We think he made the right decision to roughly polish the outsides. We just couldn’t resist.
Something Different: Pyrite in Agate Cabochons (Mexico)
We rogues are always trying something new. Always looking for something different. And we usually find it. While at the QIA Pow Wow in Quartzsite for the 2011 show, we stopped in at the booth of one of our favorite gem stone carvers. She always has a bit of rough stone and slabs. I was…
Top Dog At Tucson: Polychrome Jasper Cabochons
As I posted on our Facebook page last night, polychrome jasper from Madagascar outsold all of our other top designer cabs at out Tucson shows. In fact, we sold all that we brought. Luckily (or not) we accidentally left some behind so we still have some left. We’ve put a couple up in our Sparklequest…
Coming Down the Line: Chinese Pietersite
We have always tried to have Pietersite as a part of our inventory but recently have had much difficulty finding quality material at a reasonable price. Although my preference is for the Namibian material, I do also like the Chinese material as well. And those are the only two places where the…
Cover of Etsy!
AnnealedHeart Handmade Jewelry by Amanda Ace www.annealheart.etsy.com When Amanda e-mailed us to tell us that her piece with our stone was on the front page of Etsy, we immediately thought of the Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show song: But the thrill we’ve never known Is the thrill that’ll get ya when you get your…
