[Jewelry making - Article 01156] - Re: [Orchid] Rainbow Cal Silica

[Crinoid]

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Hi,

    With some trepidation I'm going to add a bit to this topic. 

    The first year that Rainbow Calsilica appeared at Tucson I saw
    unprocessed rough. It was very soft, a bit harder than chalk but not
    much. The colors were there though not as bright as the processed
    pieces. 

    The material is being processed by Colbaugh Processing, Inc who also
    processes turquoise. Marty Colbaugh is importing this material from
    Mexico. One of the large pieces that we bought wasn't completely
    impregnated with the stabilizing compound and it appeared to be the
    same rough that I had come across. 

    There is controversy about the material. It was tested in Belgium
    and was said to be made from "a pulverized carbonate rock mixed with
    pigments and stabilized with a polymer". A question that was raised
    to counter that claim is that stabilized turquoise might also appear
    to be pulverized rock mixed with a polymer when tested. 

    I called Colbaugh, Inc. (today) and they said that they had had the
    material tested themselves and the results did not match that of the
    Belgium folks. They strongly contest that the material is manmade. 

    The Colbaugh folks have a pretty good rep and I saw the rough for
    myself so I'm going with the "its real but stabilized" theory. 

    If you get to Tucson, you might stop by their booth and check for
    yourself. 

Karen Dave

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