Saturday, July 26, 2014

New Gift Shop Items

This blog posting features new gift shop items available at the Gitche Gumee Museum.  At the Moose Lake agate show last weekend, I purchased 200 pounds of rough Lake Superior agate.  Thanks to Sharon Smith and Michael Carlson for selling me high quality rough at a great price!  In May I purchased a lot of larger Lake Superior agates.  Plus I acquired some larger agates this past spring when I purchased a small rock collection.  But what I needed now was small lakers.  Mission accomplished.  Thanks to Bob Beal as well for selling me 20 pounds or so of beautiful polished agates!



Also thanks to Brian Costigan for selling near the remainder of the Jequitinhonha river agates from Brazil, other than a few he has for sale in his internet store.  As those who have visited the museum know, I have been selling and showing these amazing agates for the past four years.  These Brazilian agates that were taken from the Jequitinhonha River look like they are coated in lacquer.  However, they instead were naturally polished by the African diamond dust deposited in the river sand when the South American and African continents were connected as part of the supercontinent, Pangea.  Thus, these agates are proof of plate tectonics.  I have three large specimens for sale (33,33, and 21 pounds) plus a dozen smaller specimens.






Other new items for sale include these amethyst points....


It has been a couple of years since I had any chalcopyrite for sale.  Also called peacock ore, this copper iron sulfide mineral has a brassy to golden yellow color as well as a mixture of other colors that varies depending on the exact chemical composition.  It has a hardness of 3.5 to 5 on the Mohs scale. Chalcopyrite is present with many ore-bearing environments such as in volcanic sulfide ore deposits and sedimentary deposits, formed by deposition of copper during hydrothermal circulation. Chalcopyrite is concentrated in this environment via fluid transport.

This ore can be found at several locations worldwide.  One of the largest deposits is found in Canada.


From a dealer I also purchased some new upright agate tea light candles.


The onyx marble dice are selling well.


For the first time I am selling alligator teeth key rings.


I have some smaller (1.25 inch) labadorite hearts.


 I packaged up these raw crystals into 1x3 inch bags.


I also have several new agate window panels.  Here are a couple, including the first one below with a large slab of puddingstone.



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