What am I doing wrong

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I saw the reference to pietersite in relation to it's aiding abilities in

Menopause. It is also known to reduce fear which is needed so much in our

current times. I thought I would share my November newsletter which was

written about pietersite, more from a lapidary standpoint, which may help

familiarize and build a deeper connection to it for those who feel drawn to

the stone. Lapidary is how I build a strong connection to so many stones,

each having a different personality which usually shows up in how I cut it.

I enjoy monitoring this list to learn more about crystals and gemstones

from another perspective. I saw a way that I might be able to contribute

and I hope that everyone will enjoy it.

 

- james -

 

November 2001 Newsletter for the Unconventional Lapidarist

 

What is Pietersite?

 

Pietersite is basically a Tiger Eye that has been agatized, or a geologist

would say it is a Quartz/Pseudomorph.

This makes it around a 7 on the Mohs scale. Like the Tiger-eye, this

material has incredible chatoyancy ( " cats

eye " cat caused by the reflection of light by parallel fibers, needles or

channels). It is different from the well-

known Tiger's –eye because its fibers appear chaotic and not tightly

packed. If you look at a piece of Tiger-eye,

the chatoyant pattern is very uniform (parallel fibers) and is pretty

consistent in appearance. When you look at

Pietersite the chatoyant strands constantly change directions and appear to

be running into each other. Tiger Eye

is consistently one color in one stone, but Pietersite can be red, blue,

and gold in one stone. The blue chatoyancy

is the most desired. Like, opal, the chatoyant reds are the rarest. The

Pietersite formation is related to volcanic

hydrothermal activities. The chatoyant strands are caused by asbestos. In

most of the rough Pietersite,

petrification is very complete and there are no free fibers. Based on my

experiences, when you find free fibrous

material, it is usually blue fibers. It is not very common to find chunks

of Pietersite to make large carvings that

will hold together or that is rich in color. The major reason is the

extraction process. Pietersite from China was

dynamited and usually have a lot of fracture lines running throughout the

material. The African material is

extracted from the surface using bulldozers.

 

Where is Pietersite from?

Pietersite comes from two different, well known locations. The first is

from Namibia in Southern Africa, discovered

by Sid Pieters while prospecting on a farm in 1962, and for whom the stone

was later named. The other location

is Nanyang of the Henan Province in China. The Chinese location was

discovered more recently, 1993, but has

only reached the western markets since 1997.

 

What are the differences between the Chinese and Namibian Pietersite?

The Chinese Pietersite has a very distinctive golden color. In my

experience, the chatoyant strands are longer

with fewer interruptions. There is a little more quartz veining in it,

giving it a 3-D affect and more contrast. The

Namibian Pietersite has more of the blue and gold, and less red. The

Namibian chatoyant strands seem to be

shorter, and packed closer together.

 

I have also seen some Pietersite that is said to be from Wyoming in the

U.S.A. The material that I saw did not

have the character or appeal that the material from the other two locations

has. I saw mostly gold in color, and

the chatoyant strands were very short and more compact. Similar in fiber

length to Namibian, but without the

nice chatoyancy.

 

Do I need to worry about cutting the material since it has asbestos?

The asbestos has been replaced by quartz, or has pseudomorphed into quartz.

The fibers are no longer a threat to

you. However, as with any stone that you cut, make sure that you are in a

well-ventilated environment. Rock

dust does a number on the lungs.

 

How should I orient the material to cut it and get the best chatoyancy?

There is a trick to orienting this material. The Chinese material is

usually always faced (proven) when you buy it

in chunks so that you can see the colors. However, they do not take the

time to look at the chunks to see where

the chatoyant strands are flowing. You will usually see some green in faced

Chinese Pietersite, this is chrome

polish, so don't get too excited. The strands bend and change directions,

which make working the material

tricky. Once you get the hang of watching how the material is flowing and

learn to recognize when the strands

are going to turn, it becomes much easier. I have a friend who does

sphere's for me and he will ask me to orient

the material for him so that he knows how to cut the blocks for the

spheres. Here are some secrets to this.

 

The first thing I do is, don't focus on the side that is faced. Wet the

stone, look at the rough, check all sides and

analyze what you would like to get. You need to look closely at the piece

of rough to see where the chatoyant

fibers are going. Look for groups of fibers that will lay parallel when you

cut a slab. This is where the

chatoyancy will occur. When you slab pietersite, you have to look at each

individual cut to see if you are getting

the best pattern, color, chatoyancy that you want from the material. Since

it has the habit of changing directions,

you need to follow it when you cut your slabs. You can cut one slab and

then the material will appear to have

gone dead. Keep turning the rough to see where the fibers may be going.

Once you feel you have determined

where the fibers are going, clamp it back in and cut a slab in that direction.

 

This material is an excellent teaching tool for lapidary. It effectively

shows you that you need to keep an eye on

the material and learn how it flows. Just because a piece of rough looks as

if it is dead and no longer has

interesting patterns doesn't mean that it is so. Turning it and cutting in

from another direction may reveal a

hidden secret. There have been times where I had a piece of Pietersite that

had incredible chatoyant reds on

two sides of the rough. When I cut the first slab, the interior of the

stone was full of clay and the chatoyant area

was about 1/16 " thick. How disappointing.

 

On that note, if you see brown areas that resemble clay. Good guess. It

will pit and undercut, so I wouldn't

recommend adding it to your wonderful pattern for you cabochon.

 

Does Pietersite have any specific personalities in regards to cutting?

Pietersite has a tendency to undercut. As many quartz based stones, it has

a tendency to fracture. The best way to

get around fractures is to spot the fracture line and try to break it along

that line. A word of advice, when you

decide to break your slabs apart, wear gloves. I usually wear gloves and

use a pair of channel lock pliers to snap

the slab across the fracture lines. Ok, so that sounds crazy but it is

better to try to break it before you cut it into

that awesome shape and be disappointed later that it broke. The best thing

to do is work with a solid peace of

material from the start. Some of those white lines are actually naturally

healed fracture lines that will not break.

Test it out before you start to cut. To be honest, I have discovered that

those fracture lines will show me the way

the stone should be cut, or start me in the direction of shaping the stone.

Pietersite has a tendency to fracture at a

45-degree angle. This makes a wonderful rock razor. So wear gloves or use a

rag when breaking the stones.

 

What are some of the uses for Pietersite?

Pietersite can be worked into many things. Of course, the most popular is

cabochons, and other items in the

jewelry market. The stone can be worn with Autumn colors as an accent. For

a striking contrast, it wears very

well with white. The material is beautiful in the shapes of eggs and

spheres. The chatoyant fibers came make

these shapes come alive. It also makes beautiful carvings, but very rarely

sculptures. The material is harder to

find in large enough pieces to make large carvings or sculptures due to its

tendency to fracture. We were lucky

enough to find a couple of large carvings/sculptures which you can see on

our website. Check out our website

for gift ideas with this stone.

 

For information on the Metaphysical properties of Pietersite, or more

general information about the stone, visit

our site at http://www.unconventionallapidarist.com/gems/pietersite.html.

If you have questions about the

material, please feel free to contact us at

info and we will do our best to assist

you.

 

Until next month,

 

Cindy and James

www.unconventionallapidarist.com

 

If you have any comments on our newsletter or would like to share something

with us,

please feel free to email us at either of our email addresses:

 

cindy

jamesc

 

 

Unconventional Lapidarist

http://www.unconventionallapidarist.com

info

 

Source of mine direct heliodor, gem lepidolite, gem vesuvianite, blue jade,

pietersite,

blue chalcedony, star rose quartz, aquamarine, tourmaline, citrine, and

peridot rough

plus crystals, spheres, carvings, freeform cabs

 

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----------

James Carpenter

Unconventional Lapidarist

PO Box 1137

Maple Grove, MN 55311

http://www.unconventionallapidarist.com

jamesc

-----------------

Source of heliodor, gem lepidolite, gem vesuvianite, blue jade, pietersite,

blue chalcedony, star rose quartz, aquamarine, tourmaline, citrine, and

peridot rough plus crystals, spheres, carvings, cabochons, specimens

==============================

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

, James Carpenter <jamesc@u...>

wrote:

> Hi, I saw the reference to pietersite in relation to it's aiding

abilities in Menopause. It is also known to reduce fear which is

needed so much in our current times. I thought I would share my

November newsletter which was written about pietersite, more from a

lapidary standpoint, which may help familiarize and build a deeper

connection to it for those who feel drawn to the stone.

 

James,

 

Thank you so much for posting information about pietersite. It's a

relatively new stone to me, one that I am VERY drawn to, although I

have yet to see one in person. (!) Your post helped me to see why

pietersite seems so very different to me, and powerful.

 

Thanks again,

 

Sally

[Guest guest]

Hi James,

 

Very interesting newsletter. And your website is great! Lots of

interesting things for sale. I've bookmarked it and will check back

frequently, esp. with Christmas coming up.

 

Sandra