The Big Pocket

We recently found a nodule of Rainbow Lattice, the biggest gem quality nodule we’ve ever seen. It was about the size of a football with an amazing gemmy core around 4 inches (10cm) in diameter. Of course, we are bringing it to Tucson if you want to see this material up close and personal. As usual, we will be at the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show, Ramada Hotel, 777W Cushing Street, at booth C56-57 from the 31st through to the 12th Feb 2020.

As is the case with all Rainbow Lattice, after their formation over 250 million years ago, the nodules of “moonstone” have cracked along cleavage planes as part of the weathering that imparts the rainbow iridescence. When the core was extracted, it separated into 6 “BIG” gemmy pieces and many smaller ones. One side of the nodule had a higher concentration of sun-stone through the lattice. These “nodules” - solid balls of Rainbow Lattice surrounded by a granular crust - form where a single crystal of feldspar grows in the host Gneiss but is spared the worst of the deformation associated with the metamorphism. As you can imagine, large specimens like this are extremely rare.

The images above show the original material, cleaned and ready for cutting. In addition to the pieces presented in this “Big Pocket” collection, we also have prepared and cut some top quality cabochons from the smaller pieces.