Post #381154 by Tamapoutini on Mon, May 19, 2008 1:20 AM

Big thanks for watching: BenZ, Hewey, FreddieBalls, Jadi-Gypsy :wink:, and Timid (now Im confused.. ps: Mama-Tama dont NEED a mere, she has 'a look'.. :o )

Not a huge amount achieved today but theres always tommorrow..

A new 'trad' Hei-tiki Ive been working on (sorry, didnt take many prog shots):

Finished: (currently available on eBay, link in marketplace..)

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And something a bit different:

These two pieces of pounamu were found by a friend of mine whilst poking around her new building site (smack on top of a historic gold-mining township, now completely gone). Judging by the extremely high quality of the stone and more importantly the state/condition that they were found in suggests that they are whats known as "blast-chips". 'What on Earth is a blast-chip?' I hear you ask..

A blast-chip is a fragment of pounamu that was blown to smithereens with dynamite back in the original gold-rush days of 100-120yrs ago.

There wasnt much of a market for our local jade back in those days and certainly no handy lapidarists sporting the 2-3' diamond sawblades necessary for breaking larger stones down (we can also safely deduce that the original boulder was probably a whopper, at least larger than one or two men could easily carry..)

I gave the advise to keep looking in the same spot as where there are one or two chips, there are generally more - dynamites like that..
These two are destined to become pendants for the two daughters of our friends. But thats for another day - might be an interesting one for the Stone Thread considering the unique state that the stone is found in (not often found in such a rough condition, most usually smoothed by river/beach-tumbling/glacial-action)?

Happy Tiki-fying Everyone!

Tama :)