Cady Mountain Plume Agate (California) cut by Michael HendrixWinter Snow Ring
   |
|
This small stone has a lovely snow-covered landscape in it with a curious mauve sky. But I really shouldn't tell you what to see should I? You will write back and tell me about the circle of curious individuals listening to a lute player. Well, I see that too. Every time I look at stones, or at my tile floor, I see different things.
In Agates (once again available, see below), Zenz defines plume agate rather narrowly: "In the strict sense of the word, the term 'Plume agate' generally means a clear, colorless chalcedony, including three-dimensional plant-, bush- or flower-like patterns or plume-shaped forms. Contrary to the usually two-dimensional dendrites, these structures reach into all areas of the agate mass and consist of usually thicker 'trunks' where stems branch off." Bryzs concurs. However, sometimes, as in this case, plume simply means "feathery or fern like inclusions." Ron Gibbs notes, "Moss agates, tube agates and a few plume agates tend to be hard to differentiate."
Cady Mountain Plume Agate isn't well represented in the Agate books I have, or on the web for that matter. The Cady Mountains are practically in my back yard, I hope to hike there soon and maybe find a pretty rock or two! But hey, why wait for me to lug rocks across the burning sands and cut 100 lbs of them to perhaps find one stone as lovely as this one? You can order this little beauty today! Be sure to tell me what size you would like.
