Thank you..no my daughter found it in NC in the creek near the Cranberry mines district while visiting family...The river washes alot down from all the real mines that is over there.
I have to say I never saw turq look like that before..I did find out the itty bitty one is turq tho lol. Maybe next time she will find a little larger piece but I told her the slag is just as pretty.
A friend I have told me one time he went to a place to fish and saw all these different colored gems laying on the side of the bank after a hard rain. So he gathered them all up in a bucket and drove straight home to celerbrate his good fortune of striking it rich. The next day he took them all the the mineral museum to have them looked at to see what he had. The expert looked at them and congratulated him on his finds. He said he was smiling from ear to ear and then the guy smiled and told him it was all slag. LOL
Unable to make any cabs since all I have is a dremel and have yet to master cabbing with it lol...I was happy to find something that was not iron stained lol..here in Tn everything is orange lol..My daughter is not happy it is slag glass but I told her it was still nice to look at..adds color to what we have.
It shouldn't be for starters. Carving is not easy, but can be very nice. Did you see my carving thread some time back?
I bet there'd be a few tips to help you along there.
And let me know if you get into any kind of problems. I'll help where I can.
Most of my carving tools are cheap or home made. (actually, only my diamond burrs are bought)
I suggest starting with something that isn't trouble some -- Aquamarine, Garnet for example.
Unless your inpatient (like me) then start with something soft -- like opal. (welo makes good practising rough)
Although I "liked" this image.. There is only a few turquoise and chalk turquoise in the spread.. most are Feldspar, Limestone, Amazonite etc. However.. in the middle/left side.. you have a few nice Emeralds.. (dark Green & very cubic looking embedded in host stones) Could you focus on those stones for us?..