[Jewelry making - Article 00972] - Re: [Orchid] Fire Agates

[Martin Designs]

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    Responding to Daniel Ballard's request for more information on fire
    agate and fashioning it, I wrote an article aimed at novice fire agate
    cutters several years ago. It's in The Eclectic Lapidary e-zine and
    is still in the archive at: 

    http://www.bovagems.com/eclectic/HTML/19980901_9809FIREAG.html 

    My article doesn't get into the actual carving of the material. That
    piece is yet to be written, and may be one of these days now that
    Eclectic is coming out of hibernation, hopefully this month or next. 
    However the article attempts to explain the structure and lapidary
    challenges of this infernally difficult gemstone and lays out a
    strategy for cutting it with conventional lapidary machinery. 
    Contact information for me given in the article is out of date.  If
    you have questions or comments please respond to the email given
    here. 

    Fire agate is a gem that should be of great interest to Orchid-level
    jewelry designers because each stone is unique.  With rare exceptions
    a one-off setting must be made for each individual gem. At its finest
    fire agate rivals black opal but posesses greater durability because
    it's much harder and tougher.  There are many truly fine stones
    currently available from many cutters at bargain prices.  It's one of
    those vastly undervalued gem resources we hear about from time to
    time and it's "hiding" in plain sight. I invite you all to learn more
    about it. 

Rick Martin
MARTIN DESIGNS


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