This is a pair of Dinosaur Bone cuffs that I commissioned several years ago. I truly love working with bone because of the variety of colors and the cell structure of this stone. When I tell people that I'm using Dinosaur Bone in a piece of jewelry, their eyes light up! "Dinosaur bone"??? Seriously? Yes! Seriously! Everyone has heard of Petrified Wood so I use it as a comparison. It's fossilized bone and it gets the color from the minerals in the soil. And, after it is in the ground for 180 million years, it becomes a rock. Many refer to it as "Gembone".
Usually, bone takes a very nice polish without a lot of work and keeps that polish for a LONG time because if it is agatized, it typically polishes very well since agates are higher on the Moh's scale. Diamond is a '10' and is the hardest while agates tend to be 6 - 8 on the scale. Compare that to Turquoise which is typically a '3 or 4'. But, bone can be softer and have lots of cracks so it isn't always so predictable and must be stabilized.
People often ask me "Where do you get Dinosaur Bone" and I tell them from the Dinosaur Bone store!! Just kidding..rock shows, collectors, dealers, eBay, however, the price just keeps going up and up and up. And the reason why is that it has gained in popularity around the world and there are no more dinosaurs producing new bone! The best bone has been collected in the 4 corner area, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Some of the collectors hate that bone is being cut up and used for jewelry and FYI, this jeweler only uses smaller pieces of bone. I would never cut up a specimen piece and don't ever do it!!! We need to preserve the past and many of those pieces need to be either in a museum or a display case collecting dust.
I am so fortunate that a local rock hound sold his collection to me several years ago. He was in his 80s and no longer had a use for the pieces he had collected. This was truly a 'pay it forward' moment in my life and I treasure every single piece. Many of the pieces have writing on them saying "don't sell". He knew that I appreciated gembone as much as he did and that I would do great things with it.
So, if you get a Dinosaur bone piece from me or someone else, imagine where it came from and the history behind it. Dinosaur bone is said to connect us to our past and heal or prevent osteoporosis issues. I just love it because.....well, it's beautiful!!
Comments