Moderators: PinkDiamond, John
-, but if you want to see what REAL sunstone looks like right out of the ground, check out this video and enjoy the slideshow of their mining adventures. THIS stuff is FABULOUS!!!!! 
jenador4 wrote:Hi PinkDiamond
Just watched the video you posted, wow, I want to go to Oregon and mine the Oregon Sunstone!!!! It took me right back to our mining days in Central Queensland mining sapphires. It looked like the mining techniques were pretty much the same. Thank you for sharing.
JimA wrote:Hi Pink,
If you want some just let me know as I go down to the mines every year. They are only 6 hours away, and I have known Don for a few years now. My daughter lives just on the other side of Lakeview, so we go sunstone hunting as a family trip every year in the "free" areas, and then we hit the Obsidian mines that are just 15 miles away ( also free!). The resident cutter there was my first mentor for faceting, and I think that he's going to live well past 100, and me. I have quite a bit on hand that I cut during the winters - WAY too cold on the high plains dessert to go out there now. May is the best time. So if you HAVE to have some... I don't think I have any green left - but the yellows, and reds I do.
PinkDiamond wrote:Way too cool that you know Don, Jim, and especially cool that you actually go there and dig as a family! What an awesome vacation that would be!! Mine are all the lighter colors, and I recently got some of the Double Eagle mine's champagne sunstones, and one or two of them has what they think is zinc schiller, and John & Debbie Aldrich said collectors are looking for the zinc schiller for their collections, and said they're hoping to try to have them tested this year to see if it really is zinc; but that's what they suspect it is as of now.
I've got faceted champagnes, and could trade you some of the ones I'm not planning to set in jewelry.
I don't have any green either, and only one piece of rough with some red in it, but it's not a very dark red. I sure would love to get my hands on some of the stuff with the teal in it; now that would be a prize to own! Have you seen those? They're outstanding!
JimA wrote:Yeah I have - and they are hard to get a hold of. But my favorite are the "bullseyes" They are red in the center with the green/teal around that that sit in the yellow. I want to get my hands on one to see if I can get a tri-colored cut from one. I have a bunch of the coppered plate schiller that is rare. IM me your mailing addy.
Don is more jolly then he looks in his pictures, and I asked him once if he was Santa Clause because he looks like a natural, he told me he was the brother Anti-Claus - laughing at me the whole time. Him, his wife, and his daughter are all very nice people. If you just want the yellows - you can pick them up all over the dessert floor there, but if you want the reds, and greens they are at the Dirt Devil.
PinkDiamond wrote:Well, I guess Anti-Claus is better than subordinate clause. And unless they're in the vacuum, I think you mean Dust Devil.
If you ever get one with teal in it and cut it, I definitely want to see that puppy. A tri-color would be out of this world!!
gemstoneguru wrote:hi.......
Oregon sunstone also known as heliolite, is a transparent feldspar with colors ranging from water clear through pale yellow, soft pink, and blood red to (extremely rare) deep blue and green. The color appears to vary systematically with small amounts of copper and may depend on both the amount and the size of individual copper particles present in the stone.It's so beautiful.
SwordfishMining wrote:Hiya all. I made that trip and it was fairly informative. Oregon was wanting an itinerary and what where so we pretty much just drove to there to not have to pay touring fees or some such. We just talked a lot at the mines and then over a fine lunch (high points to DD for meals) I cut out after lunch at the Dust Devil due to weather. The processor belt jammed also and everyone had to get it running before the loads could go, which they did. The entire day was signed up for by 1. Definitely go there for the reds from what we were seeing and before that we saw the material Double Eagle was getting. Greens more than reds. He has a bit smaller operation so far, but nice and clean, with the shop in town. I was actually drawn there having dug at the Dust Devil a few times and Teddy Ridge while it was running and the clubs claims and Hi Desert Rock shops claims and the Government area, I am a roamer. I went over to our clubs claims during the rain, about an hour off an on, got a pocket full of yellow float and then went over to Hart Mtn to find some porcelain Jasper. Got maybe a few ounces in the first few hundred feet up the hill and down from the quarry too. Never enough.
crazy8s wrote:I went to a small gem and mineral show today and couldn't resist buying a sunstone. Asked the vendor where it was from, after the shocked look on his face he said Plush.
Lydia wrote:crazy8s wrote:I went to a small gem and mineral show today and couldn't resist buying a sunstone.
Oh my, I wish. I've been to every show in the area and each one seems to be identical to the next. Nothing new, nothing interesting.
PinkDiamond wrote:The guys from Dust Devil are members at the ISG, and did some deals, one of which I got in on, and I got a lovely parcel of faceted champagne sunstones a few years ago. You can contact them directly and negotiate your own deal, or ask them to let you know next time they do a large one so the prices are cheaper. I have one or two pieces of rough, too, but I can't remember if it's from that mine or one of the others the ISG goes to when they make that trip. They just did one last month, and talked about the fine meals they serve there, and of course everyone always comes back smiling. Must be a fun though grueling trip since amenities are something like 100 miles away.
PinkDiamond wrote:Correction: its the Double Eagle mine that's with the ISG, and where I got the champagne sunstones from. I think I'm having a blonde week.
gingerkid wrote:PinkDiamond wrote:Correction: its the Double Eagle mine that's with the ISG, and where I got the champagne sunstones from. I think I'm having a blonde week.
Where's the beef, er pretties, 8s?
crazy8s wrote:Here's one, I hope.
The others will be in the collection thread. The stone is 2.32cts.
gingerkid wrote::shock:
crazy8s wrote:Not any time soon, I was suprized to see them at the little show I went to.
PinkDiamond wrote:gingerkid wrote:
We went through that on page 1.JimA wrote: Don is more jolly then he looks in his pictures, and I asked him once if he was Santa Clause because he looks like a natural, he told me he was the brother Anti-Claus - laughing at me the whole time. Him, his wife, and his daughter are all very nice people. If you just want the yellows - you can pick them up all over the dessert floor there, but if you want the reds, and greens they are at the Dirt Devil.PinkDiamond wrote:Well, I guess Anti-Claus is better than subordinate clause. And unless they're in the vacuum, I think you mean Dust Devil.
I would imagine people get their name confused with the vacuums a lot.
That's a pretty one 8's. Can you see any copper schiller in it?
crazy8s wrote:No schiller, but some dots of copper, I think.
