Day 353: My interest in rocks began at a very early age, and by the time I was nine years old, I had a mineral collection which (to my mother's dismay) covered the top of my dresser. Each specimen was labelled with what I believed it to be (often erroneously) and where I had found it. As I grew to be an adult, I developed an interest in stone-cutting as an adjunct to rockhounding, and was not content to work simply with slabs of agate or pieces of Australian opal. One of my favourite stones was lapis lazuli.
Lapis is somewhat difficult to work. Pyrite inclusions are desirable; veins of quartz are not. Both create problems for the lapidarist in that they are softer or harder than the blue matrix material. I was quite proud of the uniform finish I achieved on this particular stone (a 20 x 30 mm. cab).
Fake lapis abounds in the jewelry market. Most often, it will be blue-dyed howlite. However, although howlite also contains quartz, it never contains the pyrites which typify true lapis.
Nice one Crow!
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