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Blah Blah Blog
Blog
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Thu, 17 Jul 2008
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 Having fun
Recently, we celebrated our FIFTEENTH WEDDING
ANNIVERSARY! So that was very cool. One of the
things we did was have dinner at a beautiful
restaurant. Another was that we went with our boys
to the Anahi gem manufacturing plant to see
Bolivianite crystals (also called ametrine) being
made into gems(15 years. . . crystal anniversary .
. .get it? I don't think Tom planned it that way;
he just thought it would be a fun tour. But I
thought it was a very clever way to spend part of
our 15th anniversary celebration!). It was very
cool. Definitely a trip worth taking. The plant
is packed with millions of the rocks. . . that is
impressive on its own. But then to watch them
sorted, cut, faceted, prepped to be made into
jewelry. . . it's quite a process. Bolivianite
stones sell here from less than two dollars each to
over $7,000 each. . . depending on quality, cut,
polishing, size, setting etc.. They say that lowland
Bolivia is the only place in the world where this
particular gem is found and mined--it is a blend of
amethyst
(purple) and citrine (kind of gold-colored) that
grow together in a specific pattern. Anahite--also
a Bolivian gem--is prepped at the plant as well.
It is pale lilac, not dark
purple. One of my favorite finds was burned
citrine. . . they tumbled the stones and then
heated it a gazillion degrees. . . then set them
into necklaces and bracelets. They looked kind of
like pale honey throat lozenges :-). They were
BEAUTIFUL! And since citrine is not a high-demand
gem--and some of the ones there had internal
fractures, they sold us a whole bag full of them
for ten
dollars (I think the tour guide thought we were
going to do some major anniversary shopping . . .he
was mistaken . . .all I really wanted was the bag
of citrine stones!) I tried to find a picture of
them online to share with you, but the "burnt
citrine" pictured online doesn't look at all like
what we bought. Maybe I'll take a picture sometime
to show you. When Tom and I get a little
more time, he said he can try to drill them for me
and we can set them. . . I worked in a jewelry
store and love crafty stuff like that. . . and he
is Mr. Handyman and a whiz with power tools. He
has done some jewelry making in
the past, too. For now, though, back
at work, we are amping up our schedule for Vacation
Bible School! This is the fourth one I've helped
with at the English church here (well, one I didn't
help much with, so maybe 3 1/2?). The theme this
year is "Treasure Hunt for Truth". . . don't look
for it online because we made it up! It's a
Biblical archeology theme about the truth of the
Bible. Starts NEXT WEEK! Anyway, I guess I'll get
back to cleaning house and making treasure maps for
VBS. Blessings to you all this week! Keep smiling
bright!
Posted 20:25
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