Mineshaft History – 2014

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11/12/14…These three Buddha carvings by our own carver in Bali were unpacked and sold within the day to one of our Buddha collectors in the UK.

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8/12/14….Parcels everywhere. We have received an avalanche of  stock arriving for Christmas. Lots of jewellery, small gemstone carvings and a parcel of rare phantom crystals including rare green phantom clusters. Phantoms from $5 to $300.

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16/11/14……..Boulder Opal specimen. We call this unique piece “THE OPAL CAVES”. This is possibly the best boulder opal specimen we have had in many years. You can see the way the opal was deposited and colour is quite beautiful. The specimen measures 280mm by 165mm by 100mm and weighs 2.85 kilo. Click on the smaller images for a larger picture. We are open to offers from serious collectors. Click on the smaller pictures for a better look.

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14/11/14……… Meet Pedro PUSSY. This is Peter and Marianne’s new baby. Perhaps not your classic gem but precious no less and he has just spent his first day with his new family.

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BALTIC AMBER GANESH. This is a large Ganesh carved in Baltic Amber. It weighs 100.2 carats and measures 63mm by 36mm by 23mm. The price is $300. (SOLD)

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29/10/2014. Peter is back from Bali. He has picked up a few pieces from our carvers and a large parcel is being shipped of finished carvings and jewellery. This Buddha has been carved from Indonesian (Java) amber. It is a very large carving for this material. It was sold within an hour of unwrapping. We will have just a few more of these large  amber carvings when they are completed.

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9/09/2014….AUSSIE WOOD & FOSSIL MAMMOTH IVORY CARVINGS. This week I will be putting out  many of these beautiful carvings. Our carvers have been busy for quite a few months producing these wonderful carvings. We have had our gold plated bases made especially for this line. With a price range from $50 to $80 they are a very affordable unique carving.

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17/7/2014……….Today Marianne has finished this strand of Fossil MAMMOTH Ivory. Each Mammoth bead has been hand carved with a total labour time of several days. She has put some AMBER  beads and Sterling silver spacers. There is only one strand and the price is A$250.

23/6/14…….Phantom Quartz with a “martian eye” included. This is a really unusual phantom crystal that has just been put out. It  weighs 37 grams and is 40mm long. Perhaps you have a better suggestion as to what the mystery circle is. In any case it is for sale for A$120.

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12/6/2014……..GAME of STONES TV show on FOX. For those few of you that watched Episode 1 last week in Australia you will recall it featured “One of the worlds rarest stones…Himalayan Beryl”. Well, how about that! This stone is better known as GOSHENITE (colourless Beryl) Most of you would know the green variety (Emerald) or the blue variety (Aquamarine). I loved the show but I just wished they would “call a stone a stone” . Straight from our shelf is this sterling silver GOSHENITE (colourless Beryl) weighing approximately 10 carats set with 4 Aquamarines. The price is A$200! Not bad for “One of the worlds rarest stones” quote!

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12/6/14……..Here are three items I have just added to the website. I spent all this week working on our website. There is always something to do. Items to be removed and new ones to add. Even taking the pictures takes time, as I want to get the closest looking image that best depicts the item as truthfully as the camera allows. Michelle and Marianne have both been busy stock taking. This is also extremely time consuming. Sam and Allen were busy all Saturday with several customers throughout the day needing information about gemstones. Word is spreading fast about Allan’s knowledge on the art of gem faceting.

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28/5/14……..Every now and then something happens in here that is spontaneous or “out of the blue” On the 7/5/14 (See down below) we showed some new Tibetan double terminated Amethyst crystals ($10 each). Well, last weekend our resident gem connoisseur and faceting expert (Allan) decided to take one of these home and facet it. Quite amazing as you can see. Allan says the shape of these is perfect for high yielding stones. He says if orientated right, the band of darker Amethyst in most of these crystals, can be used to cut an overall darker and very bright stone. So he has selected from the shipment 36 pieces that will all facet. The total weight is well over 300 carats. The price of this selected lot is $300. If there is a customer out there who wants some nice rough……here it is!.. SOLD

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25/5/14…..Over the weekend Peter played around polishing some of the really nice pieces of fossil mammoth bark that arrived in a parcel of rough. Some will be put on sale in the shop and some may be used in our future jewellery designs. Here are a few of the pieces.

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23/5/14…….We have just put out on display  a wide section of mammoth ivory jewellery carvings. Here are six typical pieces.

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7/5/2014…GEMSTONES GOING. Most of the website is about items coming in. Well today I sent off this parcel of gemstones to our master carvers for the next lot of special carvings. These will be back in the shop to wow you in approximately 4 months.

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28/4/2014…GIANT PHANTOM CRYSTAL. Here is Marianne with the biggest of a new batch of phantom crystals we have just put on the shelves.