Sometimes when working crystalline spheres an individual crystal will pop out of the sphere.  Almost always this happens near the end of the sphere making process.  It is usually caused by too much pressure from the cups making the material too hot.  Such is the case of the Charoite sphere I have been working on.  :-(  Today will be going back to rough grind on the piece to grind down what will be considerable material.  

This Charoite is amazing.  The chunk we bought was off of a massive boulder.  If I said Volkswagen size I would be exaggerating, but that was my impression looking at it in the importers drive way.  Alan in his wisdom got a marks a lot and drew a line across it.  "I want this piece".  Knowing the price per pound, but not the weight, we happily left for home.  Days later I got a text from Jeff with the weight.  At work, I couldn't leave and had to stew until I had a chance to call Alan with the price.  He gasped too!  Needless to say we did figure out a way to pay for it.

The color range in this piece is stunning.  Dark purples make it truly pop.  The pale portions are chatoyant.  The display of color as you rotate it is crazy.  Beautiful material in my book.

Thanks for reading.......