1The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico Faceters Guild

September/October 2004

2The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

TheNew Mexico Faceters Guild

Guild Officers 2004-2005

President: Dylan HoutmanVice President/Programs: Ernie Hawes

Secretary/Treasurer: Bill and Ina SwantnerGuild Gemologist: Edna AnthonyGuild Mineralogist: Paul Hlava

Workshop Chairman: Ernie Hawes

Newsletter Editors:Carsten Brandt

Newsletter Production:Wild Rice Press, Inc.

P.O. Box 1355Cedar Crest, NM 87008

(505) 286-4785

Purpose of the Guild: The purpose of the NewMexico Faceters Guild is to bring together personswho are interested in faceting or faceted stones. Wepromote the art and science of faceting and providea means of education and improvement in facetingskills. Finally, we provide a means of communicationbetween those persons involved in or interested infaceting as a hobby.

Guild Membership: Dues are $20.00 per calendaryear (January through December) for newsletterissues sent by e-mail. Hard copies of newsletter issuessent by US mail are $30. Please see the membershipapplication/renewal form on the last page of thenewsletter.

Meetings: The Guild meets now on the secondMonday of odd numbered months at 7:00 p.m. at theNew Mexico Museum of Natural History, 1801Mountain Road N.W., Albuquerque, NM. Workshopsare generally held in even-numbered months. Date,time, and place are given in newsletter. Also, anychange in guild meeting times or dates will be listedin the newsletter.

The New Mexico Facetor is copyrighted © 2004 byThe New Mexico Faceters Guild. Permission to copyor reproduce material originating in this newsletter isfreely given so long as credit is given the author andthe source. Authors retain all reprint rights and/orcopyrights to their articles. Newsletters will beexchanged with other guilds at no cost.

The next meeting of the NewMexico Faceters Guild will beNovember 8, 2004.

NMFGShow and Tell

Two beautiful emerald cut matched beautiful blue topaz stones (cen-ter) and two exquisite deep blue tourmalines by Nancy Attaway(Pear and emerald cut).

Several examples of designsmade by Steve Attaway. The topand right designs are still in theplastic milled shaped, the left andbottom designs are already cast ingold.

Dylan Houtman cut all thewonderful stones shown on thetitle page. Here is a close-upof 3 Mexican Fire Opals and adanburite. All triangular

shapes are cut in his Montringledesign.

A 12mm Portuguese cut rutilatedquartz by Carsten Brandt.

3The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

The New Mexico Facetor

Vol u m e 2 4 , N o . 5 , September/October, 2004

The Prez Sez:by Dylan Houtman

Hello,

another year has come and gone, and this is my sixthlittle prez sez ditty. The guild’s monetary situation hasremained stable but the rent for the room at the museum hasdoubled to $60.00 for the next year. This is still an excellentvalue and I don’t think it will break our bank; hopefully thisprice will remain the same for a few years.

Something I should have brought up at the last guildmeeting: setting up a raffle or door-prize to raise somemoney and encourage more people to come through thedoors at the AGATE and Treasures of The Earth shows. Ihave a couple of stones that I have cut and am more thanwilling to donate to this endeavor. We would need a simpledisplay and someone to print up some tickets. If anyone hassuggestions, feel free to e-mail me or call me any time.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at theworkshop before the Christmas party; I hope all who cutwill bring their machines.

Happy Faceting,

Dylan.

In This Issue:The Prez Sez by Dylan Houtman...............3Minutes of the NMFG Meeting...................4Program Speaker.......................................6Facet Designer’s Workshop.......................7Faceting Designs.......................................8In the News..............................................10Email Addresses......................................12Membership Application...........................12

New Mexico FacetersGuild Official WebsiteWe invite everyone to visit our website at:www.attawaygems.com/NMFG for inter-esting and informative articles on gem-stones and faceting techniques.

NMFG President Dylan Houtman

4The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Minutes from the NMFG MeetingSeptember 13, 2004by Nancy Attaway

Tonight’s meeting began at 7:00pm in theLodestar Auditorium upstairs in the New MexicoMuseum of Natural History. Guild member MarcPrice was the featured speaker. Marc is a Professorof physics and astronomy and teaches at theUniversity of New Mexico. The New MexicoFaceters Guild members were his guests at thisparticular lecture, “Formation of the Solar System,”after which Guild members returned to the meetingroom downstairs for refreshments before themeeting. This night, we did things backwards: thespeaker first, then refreshments, and finally themeeting with our show and tell.

President Dylan Houtman called the meeting toorder after the speaker’s talk and welcomed allmembers and guests.

Newsletter Editor Carsten Brandt said that theJuly/August 2004 issue of The New Mexico Facetorwas going to be late in coming due to his intensework schedule. Ernie Hawes remarked that hiscolumn was late in getting to Carsten. Nancy Attawayapologized for not getting her faceting designs toErnie on time, due to her busy schedule. We are sorryfor the delay.

Old Business:

Ernie Hawes remarked that the well-attendedGuild Workshop held at the home of Steve andNancy Attaway on August 21 was a huge success.A Guild Workshop was planned for sometime inOctober, the date to be announced.

Marc and Elaine Price were among the twenty-eight people who attended the Gem Fest hosted inSalida, Colorado by John and Donna Rhoads of D& J Rare Gems, Ltd. during August 11 to 16.

Activities included field trips to collect gem rough,gemstone faceting demonstrations, pearl stringinginstruction, slide show presentations and seminars,perusing rough and cut gems for sale, and visitingthe Continental Gem and Mineral Show in nearbyBuena Vista. Salida lies in the beautiful San LuisValley in south-central Colorado that is surroundedby many of the state’s “Fourteeners”, mountain peaksthat rise above 14,000 feet in altitude.

Carsten and Margaret Brandt were among thetwelve people who attended the Albuquerque Gemand Mineral Club’s field trip to Rabb Canyon onAugust 28 to collect moonstone in the southwesternpart of New Mexico. Several of them camped at theForest Service’s Iron Creek Campground, meetingadditional folks the next morning before the hike.The 2.5 mile hike into Rabb Canyon is fairlystrenuous for the first half mile stretch, followed bya more gentle stretch for the remaining two miles.The hike was along mountain creeks, and throughgorgeous thick ponderosa, pinon, and juniper forest.A wide variety of wildflowers were still in bloom.After arriving at the old corral at the heart of theRabb Park area, everyone began searching in thecreek for moonstones. Carsten and Margaret foundseveral gemmy pieces with blue schiller.

New Business:

Nancy Attaway and Paul Hlava announced thatthe eleventh annual AGATE Show was scheduledfor November 20 and 21 at the LeBaron CourtyardHotel Conference Center on 2120 Menaul Blvd. NEin Albuquerque. Several Guild members, past andpresent, will participate as dealers in this upscalegem and jewelry show. Nancy brought severalpostcard invitations for Guild members to have.AGATE stands for Albuquerque Gem Artisans TradeExpo. A core group from Albuquerque runs theoperation, and several other dealers fromAlbuquerque are regulars at the show. AGATE alsohas several guest artisans in the show fromAlbuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Salida,Colorado and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

5The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Ernie Hawes was featured in the October 2004issue of Lapidary Journal with his faceting design,“The Whirligig”. Nancy Attaway is scheduled to befeatured in the December 2004 issue of LapidaryJournal with her design, “Cushion Triangle forLiddicoatite”. Congratulations! Both Ernie andNancy have been regulars in Lapidary Journal theselast few years with their original faceting designs.Ernie Hawes is certainly one of the busiest designersof faceting diagrams in the country.

Refreshments:

Steve and Linda Vayna, Dylan Houtman,Carsten and Margaret Brandt, and NancyAttaway all brought yummy refreshments to theSeptember meeting, plus gourmet coffee. Thank youall very much. Linda Vayna and Nancy Attawayvolunteered to bring refreshments to the meeting inNovember.

Show and Tell:The Show and Tell case was filled tonight with

glittering gemstones, beautiful items of jewelry, andinteresting gem rough specimens. Steve Attawayserved as the Moderator.

Carsten Brandt displayed two stones that he cut.He showed a small lovely danburite that he cut inErnie Hawes’ “EZ Square Cushion” cut, and heshowed a large round rutilated quartz that he cut inthe “Portuguese Cut”, a sixteen-sided round. Facetersshould at least try the “Portuguese Cut” once,preferably with a sizeable piece of rough. Carstenalso displayed the three nice Rabb Canyonmoonstones that he found on the field trip.

Dylan Houtman displayed thirty-one stones thathe cut. Dylan is a prolific facetor, and it is tough tokeep up with his cutting activity. He is an inspirationto all of us. Dylan showed a small triangular celestiteand a large triangular celestite that weighed 12.5carats; very impressive. Dylan polished the celestiteon mylar with 50K diamond.

He showed four matching lovely square princesscut danburites, two opal doublets and one opal triplet,and one green kornerupine. He showed three brownandalucites, a round, a triangle, and an emerald cut.He showed seven “sea foam” green tourmalines, anoval, a large emerald cut, a marquise, a kite, atriangle, and two small emerald cuts. Dylan said thatthe “sea foam” tourmalines were from a copper minein Nigeria. He showed two triangular bi-coloredtourmalines, two triangular danburites, one triangularpink tourmaline, one triangular Mexican bytownitefeldspar, and two tiny benitoites. He also showedthree Mexican reddish-orange opals, a cushionsquare, an emerald cut, and a triangle. All of thetriangular stones that Dylan cut were done in his“Montringle Cushion Triangle” cut, a beautiful andinteresting design for a triangle.

Nancy Attaway displayed nine stones that shecut. She showed one large pearshape Nigeriantourmaline that exhibited a deep electric blue hue.She showed a long emerald cut Nigerian bluetourmaline and two “Flasher Cut” (twelve-sided)round Nigerian blue tourmalines. She showed twomatching large emerald cut blue topazes slated forearrings. She showed a “Flasher Cut” round Russianchrome diopside and a square Russian chromediopside, both with rich green hues. (Chromediopside is an indicator mineral for diamonds; thesechrome diopsides were from the Russian diamondarea of Yakutsia). She showed a large shield-shapedgrayish-green moldavite that she cut for a meteoritedealer. Nancy also showed her new 20th anniversarywedding ring that Steve made for her, a large ring inyellow and white 18Kt gold with two quarter-caratdiamonds, one on each side, with two half circleledges that had five small diamonds each, and a9.5mm round, well cut, cornflower blue Ceylonsapphire that weighed 4.85 carats. What a ring!

Steve Attaway had made for a customer adiamond and sapphire ring and a diamond andsapphire pendant in 18Kt yellow gold, and he showedphotos of these. The ring had four diamonds, two oneach side of an oval sapphire. The pendant had abird theme, where a diamond was the eye, a round

6The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Program Speakerby Nancy Attaway

Guild member and Professor at the Universityof New Mexico, Dr. Marc Price addressed hisuniversity students on the “Formation of the SolarSystem” in the Lodestar Auditorium upstairs in theNew Mexico Museum of Natural History. The NewMexico Faceters Guild were guests at this lecturegiven to the students at the beginning of their collegeschool year.

Marc Price spoke of the development of our solarsystem from the beginning of the universe 14.2billion years ago to the present time. Galaxies formedafter 4 million years. He said that the originalelements of hydrogen and helium were heated tointensely high temperatures, describing how gasclouds collapsed to form giant stars. Sound wavesbouncing back and forth across the universe causedforming masses to become more and more dense untilgravitational forces emerged. Big clouds becameself-gravitational and attracted particles that enteredinto the forming masses. The density of these massesconcentrated in the center and pulled peripheralmatter inward until the masses collapsed uponthemselves to form giant stars. These stars explodedwhen their contraction reached a critical limit. Sincethe stars were composed mostly of hydrogen gas withsmaller amounts of helium gas, the build-up ofhydrogen gas made fusion possible. Through fusionnew elements formed, including metals. The metalsthat formed inside these giant stars were dispersedinto the universe, when the stars exploded. As thestars cooled, gravity forced the collapsing gasesdown upon themselves again. Through these cyclesof contraction and expansion many elements were

sapphire was the body, the tail was set with twotapered diamond baguettes, and the wings werepaved in small diamonds. Steve also showed fourgold castings of pinwheel designs that he milled outand cast.

formed, including carbon, nitrogen, silica, and iron.This fusion process also formed the heavy elements.Marc said that iron absorbs the energy and cools offthe star that has collapsed from gravity. He said thatthe gas cloud of a star is composed of 75% hydrogen,23% helium, and 2% metals.

Marc said that it is not known how these starswere actually compressed to the point that the heavierelements were formed. Perhaps it was from the forcesgenerated by a supernova, a previously big star. Starsexplode with such a tremendous heat and energy thatother particles are propelled into the nuclei, forcinginto the center the heavier elements that are aboveiron in the Periodic Table. This compression madethe clouds self-gravitational. These clouds alsorotated as they became smaller, and a magnetic fieldformed inside them. The explosion of the enrichedgas yields a high velocity wave approaching 1/3 to1/2 the speed of light.

Marc mentioned the tremendous amount ofcarbon and silicate dust mixed with ice, methane,and ammonia found in space. When clouds compress,they become very dense. Molecules that are formedon the grains of dust are mostly organic, but someare inorganic. These clouds get darker and darkerwith increased concentrations of dust grains, and theyeventually become giant molecular clouds withregions so dense that they are self-gravitating. Asthese clouds get smaller, they get hotter and hotter.As the temperature increases, the clouds rotate faster.The faster the clouds rotate, the flatter they become.Their high velocity of spin and their heavilyconcentrated magnetic field make them flatten outor become more oblate. Marc said that planetismalsform from dust as clouds, darkened from heavyconcentrations of dust, continue to condense, spin,and flatten into a pancake shape.

Mars said that a protostar has an infrared(glowing red) light. The center of a protostarcollapses faster, but it is still very dense andextremely hot. Temperatures at the center areestimated at several million degrees and allow thecondition for fusion of the hydrogen elements. The

7The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

tremendous energy from fusion and the gravitypulling in gives rise to a stable star. Marc said thatplanets form from the elements left from the birth ofstars.

Marc defined a solar body as having anequilibrium of matter being absorbed and matterbeing emitted. The stellar winds blow the lightermatter, like gases, away. In the flattened disk near apolestar diverse aggregations of matter are found.Ices and gases gather at the colder regions of aplanetismal. Differentiation sorts matter accordingto their melting point. There is also differentiationin the cooling temperatures of matter, and thisdescribes the point at which matter condenses out ofthe melt upon cooling. The more dense elements fallin the center of the melt. Marc said that cooling andthe subsequent crust formation of planets occurred3.5 billion years ago and marked the beginning ofgeologic activity. He also mentioned the two typesof planets: terrestrial and gaseous.

On terrestrial planets, such as Earth, Marc saidthat the outgassing of volcanic activity and theimpacts of comets greatly affected the atmosphere.Also, density differentiation, volcanic action,underground water, tectonic plate drift (mountainbuilding), erosion from wind and water, andmeteorite/comet impacts all greatly affected thesurface morphology of Earth, as well as other planetsand moons.

Marc said that when a star dies, such as a redgiant, it greatly expands. This allows a more rapidcooling. Its inner core becomes an oscillator. Itthrows its layers off and eventually becomes a cloudof gas. Marc stated that white dwarfs are smaller butvery hot.

Marc explained that fusion generated plasma(ionized gas with zero net charge) is ejected bymagnetic fields of the sun, or corona mass ejections(CME). When charged particles from the CMEsinteract with atoms or molecules in the Earth’sionosphere an Aurora Borealis may be seen as a

brilliant display of flashing and moving (andsometimes colorful) lights visible in the night sky,mainly at the North Polar Region.

After his talk, Marc fielded questions from theaudience. The New Mexico Faceters Guild thanksDr. Marc Price for inviting us to hear his informativetalk on the “Formation of the Solar System.”

FACET DESIGNER’S WORKSHOPEvolving Designs

By Ernie Hawes

Let’s talk a bitabout designevolution. Sometimeswhen I work on adesign, I get differentideas which frequentlyevolve into variationson the original idea.This may happen asI’m working on theoriginal pattern or sometimes I will get ideas forvariations well after I’ve completed the original.

Whenever I create a design, I try to come up withthe best pattern possible. I want the design to havegood brightness and scintillation, as well asoriginality. Above all, I want the design to have whatis often an elusive quality: I want it to look “good”,to be interesting. I’ve created and discarded manymore designs than I’ve published, either because Icouldn’t achieve a reasonable degree of brightnessand scintillation, or simply because I didn’t feel adesign was interesting enough to offer to others. Forme anyway, a “good” design, one that is trulydifferent and really catches the eye, is harder toachieve than one might expect, and when it happens,it brings a genuine sense of accomplishment.

8The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Fiesta III By Ernie Hawes Angles for R.I. = 1.630

45 + 12 girdles = 57 facets

2-fold, mirror-image symmetry

64 index

L/W = 2.018 T/W = 1.311 U/W = 0.544

P/W = 0.444 C/W = 0.156

Vol./W³ = 0.400

Average Brightness

Random COS = 55.6 % ISO = 68.5 % Dispersion = 10.2 %

Scintillation = 36.6 %

PAVILION

1 40.00° 02-30-34-62

g1 90.00° 01-31-33-63

2 41.67° 01-31-33-63

3 42.39° 05-27-37-59

g2 90.00° 05-27-37-59

4 40.00° 06-26-38-58

5 40.00° 08-24-40-56

g3 90.00° 08-24-40-56

CROWN

a 40.84° 01-31-33-63

b 35.80° 05-27-37-59

c 32.04° 08-24-40-56

d 29.91° 06-26-38-58

e 36.00° 64-32

f 12.75° 04-28-36-60

g 30.62° 64-32

T 00.00° Table

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

a b

c d

e f

g

T U W

1

g1

2 3

g2

45

g3

g T

L

P

C

9The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Fiesta IV By Ernie Hawes Angles for R.I. = 1.630

45 + 12 girdles = 57 facets

2-fold, mirror-image symmetry

64 index

L/W = 2.018 T/W = 1.311 U/W = 0.544

P/W = 0.444 C/W = 0.156

Vol./W³ = 0.399

Average Brightness

Random COS = 54.5 % ISO = 68.5 % Dispersion = 14.2 %

Scintillation = 35.0 %

PAVILION 1 40.00° 02-30-34-62

g1 90.00° 01-31-33-63

2 41.67° 01-31-33-63

3 41.47° 05-27-37-59

g2 90.00° 05-27-37-59

4 40.00° 06-26-38-58

5 40.00° 08-24-40-56

g3 90.00° 08-24-40-56

CROWN

a 40.84° 01-31-33-63

c 32.04° 08-24-40-56

b 35.80° 05-27-37-59

d 29.91° 06-26-38-58

e 36.00° 64-32

f 12.75° 04-28-36-60

g 30.62° 64-32

T 0.00° Table

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

4

8

12

16

20

24

28 32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60 <64>

a

c

b

d

e f

g

T U W

1

g1

2 3

g2

4 5

g3

1

2 3 4

a b e T

L

P

C

10The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

Designs that evolve from another pattern comeabout sometimes because I see something in thediagram that I think might be better. Or, I may Ithink about a change that could make a design moreinteresting, or at least equally interesting while beingsufficiently different to create a variation. Aboveall, I always try to improve a design’s scintillationand brightness.

Recently, while going through my collection ofrough, I noticed that I have several typicallyelongated crystal sections of tourmaline that aresufficiently damaged on the ends that a marquisepattern would be a good choice for cutting them. So,I began looking at the marquise cuts that I designedin the past for some possible choices. As I reviewedthe patterns, I got several ideas for variations on oneparticular design that I developed ten years ago. TheFiesta Marquise is an interesting design with severalelements that are rather different from the traditionalnavette or marquise style of cut. Since the originalpattern was designed for some elongated pieces ofcitrine that I had, I figured that rather than justredoing the angles, I might as well work out some ofthe ideas I had for new variations. I had alreadycreated one variation, but coming up with more justseemed the logical thing to do.

The resulting designs are Fiesta III and FiestaIV. These are not designs for beginners, but theaverage experienced cutter should have no problemwith either. The crowns are identical. Thedifferences are in the pavilions. I tried to have asmany facets as possible at the specified pavilion mainangle on Fiesta III. This meant that some facetsdidn’t have good meets. With Fiesta IV, I broughtthose facets in to meet in the keel of the pattern.Brightness and scintillation are about the same inboth designs, but dispersion is somewhat increasedin Fiesta IV. Brightness is diminished in the endson both designs, but this is typical of most marquisepatterns and is offset somewhat by increasedscintillation in this area.

In the NewsGem Beryl in FinlandSource: GIA on the web 10/1/04

In May 2004, several world-class crystals ofgreen gem beryl, some exceeding 1 kg, wereunearthed at the Luumaki pegmatite in Finland. Thislocality in southern Finland was first discovered in1982, when a piece of transparent colorless topazwas found at a road construction site. Claims weresubsequently staked to the source of the stone, agranitic pegmatite that runs parallel to a road. Initialmining yielded the discovery of at least one gemberyl pocket. The deposit produced some significantcrystals, as reported in the Spring 1993 issue of Gems& Gemology. The pegmatite was mined during thesummer seasons until 1995. Mining revealed thedistribution of the beryl in the pegmatite to besporadic. In the past three years, renewed work atthis deposit, now known as the Karelia Beryl mine,by a newly formed mining company has yieldedsome additional production, which recently includedsome of the finest and largest green gem beryl everfound in Western Europe. The location of the miningarea is Kannatsalo (Kivi Jarvi, Luumaki, Karelia),situated on a small island in one of the 70,000 Finnishlakes.

North Carolina HiddeniteSource: Lapidary Journal November 2004

North Carolina is the only home to a very uniquegemstone known as hiddenite. Hiddenite is a brightemerald green gem variety of the mineral speciesspodumene. The name was given to the gem in honorof the man who first identified those unique NorthCarolina crystals in 1879, W. E. Hidden. Chromiumis the coloring agent for hiddenite and is the samecoloring agent for emeralds, which are found nearby.The initial discovery of hiddenite occurred on theWarren farm near Salem Church, in AlexanderCounty, North Carolina, following the discovery ofemeralds in the loose soil. Hiddenite crystals tend tooccur in small pockets. In recent years, TerryLedford, Jr. and W. Renn Adams have been mining

11The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

in this area, now known as the Adams farm. In 2003,they discovered two pockets, the largest of whichwas about 2.5 feet across. Those two pocketsproduced a combined total of approximately 1,200crystals of hiddenite. Most of the crystals were small,but two were quite large. All of the crystals showedetching, which is the norm for hiddenite crystals andfor the emerald crystals in the area. The color alsowas not uniform and goes from bright green to ayellow green. Another variety of gem spodumene ina lavender color is called kunzite.

The Patriot Act Will Affect Jewelers andCuttersSource: Lapidary Journal November 2004

Under Title III, Section 352 of the USA PatriotAct, any business buying and selling $50,000 or morein precious gemstones, metals, and jewelry annuallywill now be required to have an anti-moneylaundering program in place. The $50,000 numberreflects everything that was purchased and soldthroughout the year. It does not reflect the profit orgross or net income. Non-compliance can result in asix-figure fine. This is not optional or voluntary. Itis now a law. Contact JVC at: www.jvclegal.org fora compliance kit. The fee for the kit is $150 for JVCmember and $300 for non-members. Rules forcompliance include: the appointment of a complianceofficer, risk assessment, a written program, trainingyour staff, and periodic testing. The US TreasuryDepartment will be enforcing this law. For moreinformation on money laundering, see:www1.oecd.org/fatf/.

What Is Ice Jade?Source: JCK October 2004

Some years ago, nearly colorless and transparentjade was called “water” jade and was priced the sameas very commercial green jade. Then, extremely fineexamples of this water jade appeared on the marketabout five or six years ago. This colorless jadeexhibited a very compact crystal structure thatimparted a most unusual translucence or glassyappearance. The term “crystal” jade was first used

to describe this jade. The term “ice” jade is now used.“Crystal” refers to the best water jade, and “ice” jadeis denoted as the best of the best. However, thisnomenclature remains highly subjective. Enhanceddigital images of ice jade show the characteristicwavy crystalline structure of “water” and “ice” jade.Prices have skyrocketed, and a strand of ice jadebeads recently sold for $10,000.

Diamonds in MontanaSource: The Albuquerque Journal October 20,2004

Tom Charlton has discovered kimberlite, themolten rock in which diamonds are found, in an 80-acre site known as the Homestead property, situatedsoutheast of Lewistown, Montana. This land couldbecome Montana’s first commercial diamondoperation and the only working diamond mine in theUS. Tom Charlton is an official with Delta Miningand Exploration Corp., based in Kentucky. Thekimberlite lies exposed, pushed to the surfacemillions of years ago, and this accessibility shouldreduce excavation costs and lessen damage to theland. The Kelsey Lake site in Northern Colorado,near the Wyoming state line, was home to the onlyworking mine in the US until the mine closed severalyears ago. Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado all areknown to have the right kind of geology fordiamonds. Canada currently has the only workingdiamond mines in the northern hemisphere.

JCPenney to Sell Moissanite JewelrySource: JCK on the net October 25, 2004

JCPenney, one of the largest department storesin America, will sell moissanite jewelry throughoutits stores, catalogs, and internet service. Throughcollaboration with Charles & Colvard, the onlysource for moissanite, the Fine Jewelry Store atJCPenney is the only national retailer to offermoissanite jewelry. The complete moissanitecollection for men and women features rings,pendants, bracelets, and earrings in 14Kt. white andyellow gold.

12The New Mexico Facetor, September/October, 2004

E-mail Addresses:Edna Anthony .................... eba@bwn.netNancy and Steve Attaway.... attaway@highfiber.comCarsten & Margaret Brandt...brandtmeister@comcast.netErnie Hawes........................ erniehawes@msn.comPaul Hlava........................... hpf1@qwest.netDylan Houtman....................dhoutman9@aol.comMariani Luigi ...................... ENVMA@IOL.ITGary Peters .......................... albpet@msn.com

Kevin Schwebel.....................kschwebel@zianet.comJim Summers: ...........................commish1@worldnet.att.netBill Swantner.........................WSwantner@Comcast.netHerb and Maria Traulsen ..... htraulsen@mycidco.comStephen and Linda Vayna ..... Vayna@transatlantic.comElaine and Al Weisman ........ almgtcons@aol.comScott Wilson......................... swilson@copper.net

The New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors Guild

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