Don't Lose Your Marvels - Callie Endicott

I once saw this on a sign:  “You only get old when you’ve lost your marvels.”  By that reckoning, I’ve known people who were old at 17 and young kids in their 90s.  By the way, I want to stay in the second crowd.  My problem tends to be a whole lot of marvels. 

From my tumbler.
This is the first tumble.
It takes 3 more weeks
with progressively finer grit to be shiny

Ocean Jasper, Fluorite, Smoky & Rose Quartz

Non-gem-quality emeralds & rubies

Sapphires in other colors

I love rocks and have far too many hanging around the house.  I've even got a rock  tumbler.  It’s incredible how many different kinds of rocks and gems there are.  Luckily, I’ve never considered rubies and emeralds to be necessary, so that leaves me free to love all sorts of less expensive and still gorgeous stones.  Did I say no rubies or emeralds?  Let’s say I don’t need to have gem quality stones to be happy.  I’ve found some non-gem quality stones that suit me well. 

I also have a collection of sapphires in their less popular hues.  Did you know that sapphires come in every shade of the rainbow except ruby-colored?  And the reason there aren’t any ruby-colored sapphires is because if a sapphire is found in that color, it’s called a…ruby.  That info became part of my marvels; it's the same stone, different names.  Most rubies fluoresce, but so do lab-created ones and some rhinestones.  (I had brief images of amazing riches after I got some jewelry findings home from a yard sale and found two loose rhinestones that flashed gorgeous color under a black light, but I’m also realistic--they were rhinestones).

     

Most of these are cabs, though I'm not planning on making them into jewelry

Another marvel I discovered in recent years is marbles.  

The color came out different
with this photo

I went to a marble show out of casual interest and was stunned.  I used to think a fancy marble was a cat’s eye versus a plain glass one.  Then some enterprising toy companies started making a few other varieties.  Those are beautiful, but still factory produced.   At a special shop, I also learned that some people buy slag glass (factory leftovers) to make marbles.  That sounded nice, but time-consuming for what is basically still mostly plain glass. 

A marble with a lab-created opal
floating in it

This marble had some 
fluorescing material added to the glass.
I put a black light on it for the photo

     

Now I’ve learned that sophisticated marble-makers generally use a special glass similar to the kind used in baking dishes.  There are swirls and sparkles and amazing designs.  

These look far more "ethereal" in person

You can look into some marbles and would be convinced they are two or three times as deep as they possibly can be--there’s nothing like optical illusion to bend your brain.  On the other hand, maybe they are that deep and the interior actually is bigger than the exterior.  That’s true of most people, isn’t it?

Couldn't capture the depth, but this one
looks far bigger on the inside than outside

      

Same marble as above
but without the black light

Rocks and marbles are only two of my marvels.  What kind of marvels do you have?  I’m always looking for a few extras!

Mostly standard marbles
 The one on the top right
came from a building that burned
in Paradise, California

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callie.endicott.author/

FINALLY, A FAMILY (May 2019)
Harlequin (Paperback):  www.harlequin.com/shop/books/finally-a-family.html
Harlequin (eBook):  https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/finally-a-family.html
Amazon (Kindle): https://smile.amazon.com/Finally-Family-Emerald-City-Stories-ebook
Amazon (Paperback):  https://smile.amazon.com/Finally-Family-Emerald-City-Stories

In Finally A Family, Logan
gets interested in
micro-photography
on rocks

Can't remember what this one is called
But it was so attractive, I had to share it