From the land of samba and bossa nova comes a brace of spheres that will make anyone want to dance! The Brazilians are a people who truly appreciate the earth’s mineral gifts. Brazil is blessed with an abundance of spheres from the mineral world. These generally fall into one of three categories: brilliantly colored, transparent/translucent/gemstone and included quartz. We’ll treat included quartz in a future article.

Bright Brazilian Color

Let’s start with the rich Brazilian sodalite. Not only does this stone have the white and royal blue lines zigzagging across its black background, but much of the recent sodalite to come out of the country is chatoyant with a lovely glassy shimmer.

Blue is finding favor in the nation’s apatite as well.  Initially a light blue/green apatite was making its way here about 15 years ago, but in recent years it’s been a deep cross between royal and navy blue, often with a pearlescent chatoyancy. Today you can find much of this material mixed with bright orange calcite.

Staying in the blue range, Brazil produces a lovely aqua colored amazonite, second only to Russian amazonite in its rich color.

A deeper blue can be found in Brazil’s dumortierite, and most recently we’ve actually found a patterned dumortierite, with a wavy dark blue over lighter blue.

Kyanite from Brazil is also occasionally sphered, though not terribly often. Most of our kyanite comes from Russia with a new find of “spotted” kyanite from India.

Green is also a color often found in Brazilian minerals. The nation produces a great ringed green jasper that makes lovely spheres. Lots of green jaspers and even a new find of dark, rich hunter green serpentine have been making it to the states. The serpentine often has contrasting white markings, making it very dramatic.

A few years back, Brazil sent us some green diopsite spheres with a little shimmery quality and we still have a few of them around (for which we’d offer a discount to anyone interested!). In the last couple of years we also found some green fuschite from Brazil.

In the lavender range, another favorite is the very sparkly lavender or dark lavender lepidolite coming out of Brazil, some of this with pink tourmaline or rubellite included. This tends to be darker than the lepidolite that comes from San Diego or from Mozambique.

In just the last couple of years, there have been some other vibrantly colored spheres on the market from Brazil—a wine red magnesite, deep rich orange calcite, blue quartz and a green quartz.

Combining many colors is one unique jasper “Autumn Jasper” that blends pinks, reds, beiges, browns and other colors of the fall. We have about all that is left in the U.S. of this pretty stone.

Transparent/Translucent/Gemstone

Agates

From bright red agate (carnelian) to blue to grey to brown to orange, natural Brazilian agate is a category unto itself. This wonderful classic stone, with limitless patterns and color combinations, is unparalleled and endlessly fascinating.

Transparent/Translucent

Brazilian quartz is the best in the world. Only Madagascar can stake a claim of approaching the same lofty heights. Brazilian quartz goes from the precious and hugely expensive optically clear, to the more affordable AAAA—A grade and then of course, the less clear B and C grades. And often times, spheres can be purchased with the most awesome inclusions found anywhere on the globe.

However, if you’d like interesting clarity, you may also want to look at the clear Brazilian calcites with brilliant rainbows. These are hard to describe…they look as if they have been cut and reassembled on parallel plain—and has a “liquid” quality to them.

Back to quartz for a moment, some of the nicest and richest smokey quartz also hails from Brazil. This can be a dusky grey to a rich golden cognac-color. Clarity increases its value. Smokey quartz tends to be the Rodney Dangerfield of quartz—it doesn’t get much respect, though it has a richness of its own.

South America also supplies the best amethyst in the world, along with wonderful golden citrine—and their lovely blend: ametrine. Look closely at an ametrine sphere in the light and you can see both the purple amethyst and the golden citrine.  Brazilian amethyst is also on display in the wonderful amethyst geodes that are imported worldwide.

Of course, Brazil’s rose quartz is top of the line. Crossing over between translucent and transparent, it can be virtually see-through, chatoyant with a six-pointed star, or just pretty pink opaque. In recent years, you’ve also been able to find it in occasional geodes!

We also favor a form of quartz called Cacoxenite – it’s a brownish quartz with a belt of shimmering gold. It is extremely rare and hard to find.

Then of course, there is the aptly named Brazilianite, a yellow/green transparent mineral that can be found only in small amounts.

Gemstones

Brazil produces rich green emerald in dark matrix—and sometimes even with flashing hematite in the same stone. These spheres with huge emerald crystals can be quite large—as big as six inches!

Aquamarine from Brazil has been on the market in abundance in the last couple of years. This can have a wonderful translucency and play of color.

Last year we found a few little rhodolite star garnets from Brazil, a dark rich red.
We’ve also secured some green tourmaline in quartz on occasion.

However, one of our all-time favorites is a rare pale pink gemstone—morganite—and on very special occasions, we can find one of these spheres.

So next time you hear a samba or see a news story on Rio’s Mardi Gras Carnival…think of Brazilian spheres…a tribute to Brazilian virtuosity!
 

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Sphere Collector News

Spotlight: Christina Howard

Christina Howard may be the leading semi-precious and natural mineral marble collector in the country. Residing in Denver CO, Christina now has 371 marbles in her collection. Here is her account of how that collection grew:

How it all started:  It all started three or four years ago when my grandmother showed me a large family portrait. Taken in 1887, the photo showed my Great Grandfather as a boy and his family.  In the photo his sister sports old-fashioned boots and a bulging dress pocket.  Her pocket was full of marbles!  She proudly stated she was the marble champion of the block.   I planned to have the photograph reproduced and framed.  And wanted to put a jar of marbles on a shelf under the photograph.  So off in search of an antique jar and marbles I went.  I purchased some clear glass antique marbles, then a jar with a zinc lid.  Alas when I put the marbles in the jar, the jar was too big.  So it was back to the antique store for a smaller jar.  I thought perhaps I could put marbles made from semi-precious gems in the larger jar, and so my collection began.  I found Sphere's to You on the Internet, and began frequenting the local gem and mineral shows.  Three hundred and seventy one marble-sized spheres later, my growing collection is displayed in a very large hand-blown glass bowl.   Ironically, the larger antique jar remains empty and the photo still awaits reproduction.

My Favorites:  Moldavite, Red Sphalerite, Larimar and Blue Chalcedony (all from Spheres to You).

 If you have interesting news about yourself or your collection, please email us
at marcela@iswest.com or jackie@spherestoyou.com. Please put “Sphere Collector News” in the subject line.

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We just spent a week in Denver hunting for spheres and it’s sad to report that it’s getting harder and harder to find new spheres—and even the same quality of old favorites. Given the high cost of mining in the world today, new government regulations that discourage miners, dwindling supplies of many top quality lapidary minerals and dealers who are aging and no longer want to mine or travel, the pickings are getting slimmer. Nevertheless, we intrepidly continue to bang on doors, coax dealers into finding special things for us and look under tables and in boxes to find exciting new pieces! So here’s what we unearthed!

· A brilliant shiny silver in quartz sphere with the largest amount of silver we’ve ever encountered
· Fabulous mixed caramel and red rhodochrosite spheres, one that’s even split with half caramel and half cherry red rodochrosite, and one that’s breciated!
· An incredible included quartz with a dozen floating cubes and a spray of white rutile shooting in all directions
· Red garnet crystals against the green iridescent chrome muscovite, with patches of baby blue kyanite and black staurolite
· Lovely mink colored siderite, a rare mineral from Canada
· Both ruby and sapphire in one little sphere!
· A new Algerian brown metallic meteorite. We found some marbles of this, too!
· A wavy dumortierite, dark blue patterns on light blue
· Amazing new moonstone colors—A deep orange/red, a mixed bronze and peach, an interspersed  peach and aqua
· Spheres from a rare group of Canadian metals—bornite, safflorite and nickeline
· A green beryl in feldspar also from Canada
· A vivid red cuprite wave divided between two wings of green/blue chrysocolla—looks like a Christmas ornament
· A rare find--Illinois blue/lavender fluorite with great clarity
· Deep blue Indian iolite with tiny patches of golden sunstone
· A wonderful Cripple Creek jasper with varying rings of color from green to yellow
· Fabulous Pink Navajo wood from Arizona…we’ve not seen much of this material for years!
· Our opal in agate sphere looks like a stromatolite…with wavy little “worms” spreading out all over in the dark matrix
· A spotted kyanite—Even little spots of baby blue kyanite in matrix throughout the sphere
· A unique garnet in pyrite from Canada
· Amazing fluorescent white scheelite and red calcite that looks like a Jackson Pollack painting with splashes of brilliant red across a white and black background
· A lush purple/yellow fluorescent Sterling Hill wollastonite
· A fun orange/pink fluorescent tremolite/tirodite from Balmat NY.

Marcela’s Metaphysical Corner

Shiva Lingham Stones
Our Newest Sphere Merchandise

The Shiva Lingham Stone is a crypto-crystalline quartz found in the shallow river beds of the Narmada River in Onkar Mandhata—one of India’s seven holy sites. The soft patina of its polish shows off in shades ranging from dark greens, red, beige, tans, gray and brown in any combination of these. Metaphysically, this stone is known as the Stone of Nurturing. It combines the female energy of wisdom and intuition with the male energy of dynamic expression and knowledge to help achieve a harmonious balance. It is also a welcome Feng Shui addition to enhance and direct the energy flow of your home.

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2005 Show Schedule

January 29 – Feb. 12:   Arizona Mineral & Fossil Show                    Tucson
April 22 – 24:              Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show (Spring)     Denver
May 13 –15                 West Coast Gem & Mineral Show (Spring)   Costa Mesa, CA
August 12 –14             East Coast Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show       W. Springfield MA
September 14 – 18      Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show (Fall)          Denver
September 16 – 18      Colorado Fossil Expo                                     Denver
November 11 – 13       West Coast Gem & Mineral Show (Fall)      Costa Mesa, CA

For information go to: www.mzexpos.com

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Radio Psychic
The world’s leading radio psychic Linda Salvin can be heard every weeknight. Ask her your questions or hear the wise, interesting, witty counsel she gives others. Go to www.lindasalvin.com to learn where you can hear her show.  For a private session, call 888 509 1077.

 
Wicks of Wisdom
….To bring someone closer
….To improve health
….To make your home more peaceful ….To increase your prosperity

Wicks Of Wisdom candles are a unique line of Spiritual Candles, petitions and formulas developed by guidelines handed down through the ages. They release a power that helps you achieve your goals. www.WicksofWisdom.com
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THE SPHERICAL WORLD
Editor:  Jackie Lapin
Published By:
Sphere’s To You
 PO Box 1270
Agoura Hills, CA 9l376
Phone: (8l8) 991-5143
FAX: (8l8) 707-3543
E-mail address:
Spheres@iswest.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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