PotW 7/5/12

Hi Everyone!

I hope you had a safe and fun Fourth of July holiday.  It kind of threw me off having a holiday on Wednesday...I sure wasn't thinking about the Piece of the Week as I cruised around on the Kennebec river yesterday, spotting bald eagles (2), sturgeon jumping (2), a huge striped bass jumping (where is a fishing pole when you need it?) and 2 playful seals cavorting alongside our boat.

But today is back to what passes as "normal" routine here--laundry, mowing, and the PotW message.

Given that we are now in July, I thought I'd start off with the birthstone for the month, which is RUBY.  However, this is ruby with a twist.  Read on:

In 1949, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, English prospector Tom Blevins thought he had made a discovery that would make he and his partner incredibly wealthy.  It was not to be. Though the ruby deposit at Longido exceeded millions of carats, much of it was coarse, opaque, and encased in a green matrix stone that turned out to be the mineral zoisite. While it was not fine ruby, the beautiful, multi-colored stone eventually became popular for use in carvings, ornamental objects and cabachons for jewelry. The combination of green zoisite, black hornblende and red/pink rubies was uniquely attractive and came to be appreciated as one of the most colorful gemstones in the world.  Unfortunately for Mr. Blevins, the abundance of his find also meant that the stone would remain extremely affordable.  It took a number of years before Blevins could find a true market for his find.  In fact, he had tons of it just sitting in his garage, not knowing what to do with it.  He and his partner gave up trying to sell the stones and turned to mining meerschaum which was then carved into the famous "Meerschaum pipes". The mineralogical name of ruby-zoisite is actually "Anyolite", said to be derived from the Masai tribal language's word for "green" (anyoli).  But is is most commonly referred to as ruby-zoisite or ruby-in-zoisite.  Very rarely it is called Tanganyika artstone, reflecting its Tanzanian origins.  To this day, the Longido mine in Tanzania is the sole source of ruby-zoisite in the world. The mineral zoisite was named after its discoverer when it was first found in the Austrian Alps in 1805.  Other members of the zoisite family are thulite and tanzanite (which is also found only in Tanzania).  The mineral zoisite is a component of today's mineral-based make-up products. Ruby-zoisite is difficult for gem-cutters to work with because of the differences in hardness of the composite stones.  With the rubies being the hardest of the 3, cutters usually work to emphasize the ruby portions of each piece.  Such is the case with the faceted pillow-cut stones used in this week's feature. See a photo at http://www.twowillowsjewelry.com Until next week--Happy Birthday, July girls! (I'm one!) Kim