Wyoming Jade Options

[CP]

Wyoming jade was discovered in the mid 1930's by my grandfather L. B. Curtis and his partner Mr. Marion outside Lander. Sometime shortly following was a rush to file claims for jade around Wyoming which was referred to at the time as the "Wyoming gold rush". They gave up those original claims years later due to claim jumpers cleaning off most of the accessible material according to the family story passed down.
As you can imagine I've always had rocks in the house since I was a youngster (grandpa made sure of that ) and it's no wonder I ended up doing what I do.
Luckily Denise and I have the last of his original jade material collected at his claims back then and we thought we'd share a few pics of some of the rough and worked pieces. With colors varying from black (which is actually a very very deep green if cut thin enough), to bright greens with swirled patterns that sheen at angles.

This first pic shows a rough piece that grandad rubbed an edge of (black) with a heart and 2 cross pieces he'd cut and shaped but never finished out. Denise says she'd like to finish them out and I know she'll do a spectacular job too!




This pic shows several matching slabs of the darker green jade which shows it's deep green hues but not quite black.




Denise made this guitar pick out of some of the black jade which is an awesome pick. This one is the second made, first one is still the favorite of the player who tested them for us. At 1.7 mm it's still tough to pick up the green hue it's soo dark even with bright back lighting. As you can see, laying flat in hand, it looks black as midnight. Good work honey!




We'll add more pics of Wyoming jade we've worked as time goes and there are a couple of you here in the forums who've gotten pieces of this material from us too. What did you make from it? And don't forget, you've got material from the original discovers collection.

Some folks say they have a hard time polishing jade too, and I can say it's true for the darker colors........whew! Seems like for ever to get through the prepolish stages on it sometimes. But boy does it finish out nicely when the polish hits! Now if I can just get a picture of this solid black stone against a good background.....so much light, so many reflections...........

CP

[RichDColorado]

CP - Those jade crosses and heart are absolutely beautiful and I'm sure are treasured family pieces. I go to Wyoming on business from time to time and the last trip I carved a few hours one afternoon near Atlantic City, South Pass City and Miner's Delight. Very interesting area - have you been up that way? I noticed that GPAA has a claim in that area so I'll have to make a little open time available when I'm that way again.