Heather Cote- Amethyst (photos)
Thursday, February 28, 2013 by: BayToday.ca Staff
Feature, BayToday.ca- Heather Cote
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February Birthstone ~ Amethyst
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This is one of my favourite stones...I prefer the deeper purple color over the pale mauve stone...maybe it is a favourite because it is the stone for Pisces, which I am?Must be purple to be amethyst
One of the most beautiful purple stones
Purple is color of royalty
From Greek meaning “not drunken” :~)
May occur as a long crystal with pyramids at each end
May occur as a druzy
The quality, shape, lustre is not the same for every minethese qualities are often so distinct the mine can be determined by the appearance of the stone
Found: Vera Cruz, Guerrero, Brazil, Thunder Bay, Uruguay, Africa, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Italy, Germany & Russia
The amethyst found near Thunder Bay is known for druzy clusters
Green amethyst is actually prasiolite, a green quartz, which is rare
Sensitive to heat
Is sometimes heated and turned yellow to be sold as Citrine, which it truly isn’t
During my research I came up with websites for four Amethyst mines in the Thunder Bay area...take a look at the sites, they offer some great photos as well as information regarding their individual mines, most of which you may visit and often purchase amethyst.
amethystmine.com
www.mineamethyst.com
www.mcrocks.com
The fourth website www.mcrocks.com caught my attention...I found a page where Ian Merkel, talked about his visits to Blue Point Mine, (owned by Linden Swanson) Pearl Ontario, which is 35 miles east of Thunder Bay.
The mining at this site is done by drilling and blasting areas, then working these particular “fractures" as they were called.
Ian and his party visited Blue Point Mine in 2004, 2009 and 2010 and were allowed to work fractures not in the immediate work area of Mr. Swanson.
My suggestion would be for the reader to visit the website as there is a great deal of fascinating information...some very technical, but interesting for anyone who has a passion for Amethyst!
As well there are 20 amazing photos of the work site as well as amethyst...far too many for me to share with you in this article.
I’ve included 4 of Ian’s amazing photos and one of a pair of earrings and a pendant I made with amethyst stones...I forgot I even had the photos...was happy I found them!
As always feel free to leave a comment or suggestion on My Blog or send me an email at hjcote11@gmail.com.
Enjoy your week...
Cheers
Information sources:
www.galleries.com/February_Birthstone
earthsky.org
www.purplehazeamethyst.com
amethystmine.com
www.mineamethyst.com
http://www.mcrocks.com
