Merry Christmas!

Ironstone Heritage Museum wishes all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here in Murphys we are looking at a possible white Christmas!  It is falling just a few miles up the road and currently raining here.  Temperature is dropping though and hopefully will bring those beautiful white snowflakes in time to blanket us all for Christmas Day!

If so, we will post some photos!  Otherwise have a wonderful holiday. Postings will resume after the Holidays.

Till then, the Heritage Museum crew wishes you well...

Agate lapidary slabs

We mentioned several posts back that we had coming in items from an old Rock Collection. 

Today, we were able to unpack a box that was full of mostly agate polished slabs.  

(Posted below is the Wiki-pedia definition of agate. PS, please check out Wikipedia and make sure to donate to keep them up and running free of charge!) 

Here in the Museum, we are learning about all these rocks as they come in. We are reporting here from a layman's perspective, not as geologists or even rock collectors, so hope you pros out there can bear with us and offer your more educated comments on what you see... PLEASE! 

Now, back to the box....

As you can see, there is a huge variety of colors, formations and sizes, shapes  ... 

This pretty piece is a nice thin slab with crystal formations there in the right hand side. Colors are purple, orange, yellow and white banding. We held it up to the window and it would make a very pretty hanging window piece.

This piece is actually a slice of "Thunder egg", at least that is what "google says".  Those white bands are not flash marks, they are truly opaque white banding in the upper portion with the lower portion being white banding around some crystallization.  Very pretty.

This photo didn't come out very well... doesn't show the colors true, but you can get the idea of the banding and the crystals in the center. Nice piece.

This piece below is one of my favorites. I have been told it is petrified wood. Love the brecciated portions. 

(Breccia (/ˈbrɛtʃiə/ or /ˈbrɛʃiə/) is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cementedtogether by a fine-grained matrix^[1] that can be similar to or different from the composition of the fragments.)  See, always learning!

All of these pieces have been processed and are now available for purchase. Prices range from $5 - $70+

Agate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.

Agate
Banded agate (agate-like onyx); the specimen is 2.5 cm (0.98 in) wide
General
Category	Quartz variety
Formula (repeating unit)	SiO2 silicon dioxide
Identification
Color	White to grey, light blue, orange to red, black. banded
Crystal habit	Cryptocrystalline silica
Crystal system	Rhombohedral Microcrystalline
Cleavage	None
Fracture	Conchoidal with very sharp edges.
Mohs scalehardness	6.5–7
Luster	Waxy
Streak	White
Diaphaneity	Translucent
Specific gravity	2.58–2.64
Refractive index	1.530–1.540
Birefringence	up to +0.004 (B-G)
Pleochroism	Absent

Agate /ˈæɡət/ is a cryptocrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.

Christmas at Ironstone

Maggie Mae decided to check out our new Christmas Tree here in the Museum.  Not sure she fully approves. After all, there are no doggie toys or treats that she can see...

There are plenty of special estate silver plate and glass ware though! 

We are so ready for the Holidays ... great 35% discounts on all our estate silver & glass ware, 50% off specially selected jewelry as well as special wine sales to stock you up for all the company.

We also have quite a bit of the Rock Museum items out and ready for you to check out. We will be doing a 25% sale on all cabochons and lapidary slabs through December. There are some beautiful pieces.

Lara Downes Holiday Cabaret

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Black Friday Specials, maybe longer while supply lasts

Holiday Specials!

·    50% off select jewelry

·    35% off Estate Glassware & Silverplate

·    25% off select new Cabochons and lapidary slabs

·    Special Purchase Natural Stone Bolo Ties $10 - $25

·      Author Glenn Wasson’s newest release, “Too Much to Swallow”, normally $25, now only $20. This new books features the true story of the “Calaveras Gastrolith”, the Gold Nugget found in Murphys in 1987. Great Christmas Gift! 

·    Popcornopolis large Caramel Cones, 24 pack case only, regular price $120, while supply lasts only $78! 

·    Special Purchase Holiday Theme gifts priced as marked

Antique Victorian Sugar Shaker

Just in today is this glass sugar shaker. Researching images, it has been determined (by the silver top) that it is of the Victorian era.  The bottle itself looks to be molded with a seam running on either side. The shape of the bottle is unique for that period, however I did find a beautiful little watercolor of antique Victorian sugar shakers with this exact bottle shape and top. It stands about 5" tall.  If you know more about this little gem, please feel free to comment below or email us at cgomez@ironstonevineyards.com.  It will be offered for sale after we polish up the lid a bit....

Winchester Trademark Jewelry comes to Ironstone

Ironstone Heritage Museum unveiled today the only authorized Winchester Trademark Jewelry. 

Designer Chris Chaney has succeeded in producing a great product just in time for the Holidays!

Sterling Silver with bright & colorful czs, the jewelry ranges from $79 to $129 with pendants, post earrings, dangle earrings and for the men in your life, tie tacks, which actually work great on scarves for the ladies as well.

The jewelry is stamped with the Winchester logo and the style of bullet, 9mm, 357, 40 S&W, 45 auto, plus a few more.  These are fun pieces, look great on.

What we like is the fact that even if you aren't familiar with gun styles or much less care, the pendants are attractive enough and subtle enough that anyone can wear these pieces. 

As I am preparing this info for you, some of our customers stopped in on a "Ladies day outing" below and couldn't resist!  After trying on several pair, they settled on the post earrings. After approving this photo, they dashed off to the tasting room to sample wines and show off their new earrings to the Tasting Room crew and Guests.

Obsidian Lapidary slabs

We have some beautiful Obsidian just in.  Below is the Wikipedia definition of the material. Obsidian was the most common material used by Native Americans for arrowheads. Using the technique called Napping, the stone was chipped into the shape desired. Being a type of glass, it can be very sharp when worked this way. 

These specimens are nice slabs ready to be used for cabochons, jewelry or just great looking specimen display pieces.

This first image shows just a few of the types we have here...

Silver Sheen Obsidian, very pretty silver shine.

Gold Sheen Obsidian, this piece a Mahogany Obsidian with a gold shimmering undertone

Rainbow Obsidian, with bands of color

Mahogany Lace Obsidian, a see through stone with lacy streaks of black with a few pools of Mahogany color

Mahogany Obsidian, nice rich mahogany and black

Snowflake Obsidian, black with little white snowflakes.

This box depicts some of the different size and shape of the slabs available. All are polished on at least one side, many on both with a few more block shaped polished on all sides. Great display pieces.

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth.

Obsidian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian