More rocks, less time

While visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Palm Desert this past week,we took a day and drove out to the Himalaya Mine's (www.highdesertgemsandminerals.com) fee dig site.  It was a beautiful drive over the Pines to Palms highway which winds serpentinesly up to the high desert.

At the dig site we met Terry and his dog Jackass. Terry, showed us samples of the different gems and minerals we might come across; tourmaline, quartz and crystallized mica (which has a pretty lavender hew) and how to screen for them. While we searched the tailings for treasures, Terry entertained us with stories about mining.

We had a great time an found lots of tourmaline (including an awesome blue one) a couple of quartz points and a water clear, gem quality piece of quartz. We also found a couple of egg sized pieces of quartz with tourmaline inclusions. serpentine

Rough cast

This is the rough casting of a bunny I did as a quick demonstration for my lost wax casting class. I used sticky wax and it was so sticky I could not be my usual obsessive perfectionist, which is a good thing, as it freed me up to be spontaneous. I think it turned out pretty cute. It is cast in bronze.