Avila Brecciated Rhyolite Agate

by georgeingraham on May 18, 2010

A member from my Lapidary / Gemstone Community forum (Polished Pebble, Connie) sent me this most unusual material.

This is Avila Brecciated Rhyolite. Also called “DeeDeeite” by the rock club nearest the deposit about three miles from California’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.

Most of this type has larger rhyolite pieces floating in the agate…but these pieces have the smaller pieces making it better for smaller lapidary work.

This comes from a very SMALL area and your would think because it is on the beach that would make it easy to find & take home. WRONG. Because the sand is always moving….one time you might see 15 ft of rock exposed (most is just a jumble of rhyolite), the next time it is all covered by LOTS of sand & only 3 ft is exposed.

I was fortunate to receive both the brecciated and non brecciated examples of this. There are also areas of Marcasite. Really pretty !

A couple of brecciated examples…

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Then an example of the non brecciated material with one blown up to show some of the beautiful Marcasite.

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It was not long after recieving these slabs that was figuring out a couple of preforms ! Here is the first cab from the brecciated material.
Not sure just how many cabs of this material I am going to offer in store. Have not actually even decided if am going to part with any of it !
But.. If you are interested in a cab fro a piece of jewelry from either the brecciated or non brecciated, just drop me a line.

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

georgeingraham May 19, 2010 at 10:40 pm

Hi there Bentiron,

I was lucky to have recieved 5 slabs. Most are a bit small but there is one nice larger one too.

Am thinking about offering just a couple of cabs from them. Really thinking about hanging on to most of this. Just too darn cool looking !

Yes.. There are some nice areas on the slabs that will make for super nice cabs.

Do you have a shape and size in mind ?

Bentiron May 19, 2010 at 9:17 pm

That’s a nice looking cab. Is that the only one you got out of the slab or is hard to come up with more than one that is pleasing to the eye?

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