Rutile / Rutiliated Quartz Gemstone Cabochon Bezel Jewelry Design
Members on my forum join in with bi monthly semiprecious gemstone cabochon contests. This time instead of picking a particular mineral this time we are doing any mineral type in freeform. Any way, as a result I ended up choosing Titainium Rutile in Quartz for my entry. Wanted to share my limited experience working with rutile minerals.
The very first example for me was black Tourmaline in quartz.
Then as a result of choosing a rutile Quartz for this cabochon contest this Gold Titainium Rutile in Quartz is only my second experience with rutile minerals. Here is a pic of the piece I sliced off the rough and the finished cab I got from it. Very hard to work with. With this Titainium the rutile ran not only up and down, but also from front to back. Difficult to orientate and think ahead about the final cab shape and utilize the rutile in the very best way possible.
This was a lot of fun and in the end very rewarding. Very pleased with how this Gold Titainium turned out. I am actually very motivated to do more rutile minerals. Although what I realize now that I am shopping for more is that quality rutile minerals of any kind are very expensive. The above black Tourmaline in Quartz as an example is next to impossible to find with any good concentration of rutile. Same with the Gold Titainium. Just can’t find nice material without sacrificing my first born.
I have just recently started to try my hand at silver soldering. Now I catch myself putting some stones aside instead of selling them thinking that sooner or later my soldering and overall designs will be better. So although I did sell all the black Tourmaline cabs from what little rough I had, I am keeping this Gold Titainium one for a future piece.
Actually as long as your here reading this blog entry, if you have or know of someone offering “reasonable” prices on material like this I would sure appreciate knowing about it. Also more than willing to barter. If you have some that you would like cabbed, would be happy to do it for you in exchange for some of the same!
Thanks for stopping by and reading this entry.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for your very interesting and informative blog – I enjoy all your articles – these photos above are spectacular. Beautiful work – you are talented.
I enjoy rockhounding and prospecting – I presently do my exploring in NW Montana –
Please visit my blog at:
http://nandugreen.typepad.com/chasing_the_wind
March 29th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Thank you Marlene. Stopped by your blog. Sure wish I had ten thousand dollars worth of meteorites to sell those folks!
June 11th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I really enjoy your blog!! It is very helpful. Here I would like to attach some photos of some rare cat’s eye rutilated quartz and rare star golden rutilated quartz, hope you will enjoy it!!
cat’s eye rutilated quartz beads
cat’s eye green rutilated quartz pendants
star golden rutilated quartz
June 12th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Thanks Jack !
The images will not show up unless you or I have the html type code for them.
I did go and check out your site though.. Very nice !
Thanks for stopping by !
September 20th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Love the titanium gold quartz! Thanks for sharing the article with me!