We visited the Sunstone Area in Southern Oregon and visited the Spectrum Sunstone Mine with some friends. Patreon: / donohuelabs Etsy: donohuelabs.et...
Wow, you got some great material from your visit to the mine! That is very helpful information for anyone thinking about going themselves! And you got some huge pieces with color too! Just gorgeous! Thanks Patrick!
Holy moly that first faceted piece is beyond gorgeous. As are the rest you showed off. I really enjoyed getting to see the whole process. How satisfying it must be to find the stone yourself and then make such a beautiful gem. ❤
Made a trip to Spectrum just before you (May 2024). Denise and Little Chris are the true gems of that operation. In a Belt run and Full High Grade Pile, my wife and I hauled out 13.3K Carats of rough Sunstones. Some great ones with color, like you and many with Schiller. Thank for sharing. Mike
On my list of things to do. My brother used to go down at least once a year and dig, he and Chris have become friends, had a few chances to dig in hot spots. He hit a jackpot one trip, 1500 carats of nice red sunstone, a few pieces of green, and buckets of yellow. Pretty interesting stuff, besides pretty. Really soft to work with. Great trip for ya!
Wow what a haul. You got a lot of nice ones it appears and of course the faceted ones you showed are fantastic. I’m really gonna have to get one made for Vicky by you.
In the thumbnail it looks like you are collecting them....from the sun. lol. Have you tried midwave 310-320 and shortwave 254 irradiation on them? Supposedly the fluorescence is coming from copper ions (which I honestly wasn't aware was even a thing) which might be interesting to see if there are differences to the 365 light seen here...
