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 Post subject: Druzy
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:04 am 
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Hi,

Does anyone happen to know where the name "Druzy" comes from?

Also, I've heard a designer say some crazy things about the way this material was found. The story she tells is of some miners heading off in the wrong direction inside the mine and just happening on this stone?? And the different colors of the stone indicate what locality it's from.

I totally don't believe that, but I didn't get much info on it while getting my G.G. No one at the GIA really seemed to know much about this material?

I don't think this has been a popular gem for that long?

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:20 am 
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I was under the impression that "druzy" referred to a crystal formation, not a specific gem material. I've always used "druzy" to refer to a continuous coating of small crystals over a surface -- e.g., you can readily find druzy calcite and druzy dolomite in the Indiana limestone around here. Both are useless as gem materials, but nice as mineral specimens.

Maybe the rock-hound usage of the word is different from the gemology usage. As you note, I don't recall much, if anything from my GIA training on this.

I have no clue about the origin of the word, but it's always reminded me of "drizzle" -- as in, how you might put chocolate syrup on you ice cream. Maybe that's just because I like both crystal coatings and chocolate syrup... :D

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 Post subject: Possible origin
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 12:09 pm 
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I'm not entirely sure which direction the movement of the word goes, but "Druse" is German for geode. Perhaps the word was imported into English to describe the small (don't ask me to define small) crystals often found in their interiors.

John

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 12:46 pm 
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Ah, that makes sense -- most of what I've seen described as druzy comes from the interior of vugs or geodes. Thanks for the insight!

peter

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 12:51 pm 
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John,
Your definition seems to agree with the etymology of several on-line dictionaries, like this one:
"NOUN:
A crust of tiny crystals lining a rock cavity, usually composed of the same minerals that occur in the rock.
ETYMOLOGY:
German, weathered ore, probably from Middle High German druos, gland, tumor, from Old High German"

I can see how geodes might be likened to glands -- especially if butchering food animals was part of one's everyday experience as it probably was when the term originated.

Rick Martin


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:03 pm 
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Drusy means nothing else than a piece of rock that is full of vugs.
Drusy Quartz f.i. means Quartz full of vugs.
The term drusy doesn't tell anything about crystal formation, or if there are at all crystals inside the vugs.

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Harjo


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 Post subject: druzy
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:52 pm 
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Back in the stone age (hippy era late 60's early 70's) we used to buy "thunder eggs" to get the fine small crytals they contained (if we had held our mouthes right and said the magic words before cutting)

We squared off the back and made cufflinks. tie bars and ear rings from tehsmall crytals. but to be honest with you the first mention of the word 'druzy' i have ever cmae accross was form our friends at JTV. Like all other gems and jewells they manage to get much higher prices for their druzy jewellry than we ever did.

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 Post subject: Re: Druzy
PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:24 am 
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christine wrote:
Hi,

Does anyone happen to know where the name "Druzy" comes from?

Also, I've heard a designer say some crazy things about the way this material was found. The story she tells is of some miners heading off in the wrong direction inside the mine and just happening on this stone?? And the different colors of the stone indicate what locality it's from.

I totally don't believe that, but I didn't get much info on it while getting my G.G. No one at the GIA really seemed to know much about this material?

I don't think this has been a popular gem for that long?

Thanks!


I have a necklace and matching earrings composed of rose quartz. One of my customers said it was nice and "druzy." Checking up on this adjective I found that it is commonly applied to describing the naturally cloudy appearance of rose quartz. Just try to find some VVS1 (yeah,sure) rose quartz. I will buy all that I could get. Fat chance! :(

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:44 am 
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I must have heard the term a long time before JTV came in, to describe continuous coatings of small crystals either on ornamental table-top rocks (vugs in chalcedony, external layers on carstic formations, patches of uvavorite garnet on whatever-that-matrix-is) and small patches of these cut to be set in jewelry. You can find entire cave walls coated with this 8) - impossibly beautiful!

It looks like the sugar-coated look can occur on a vast number of colorful materials, all equally called druzy. There seems to be endless possibilities - considering how many options a specialized shop could possibly dig out (DruzyDesign): uvavorite, dioptase, crysocolla, cobalto-calcite... why not.

'Never heard the word referring to cloudiness in aything, only the above and the category (or look) seems consistent.


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:03 am 
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I agree almost completely with Valeria. "Druse" or drusy" have been widely used for many, many years to describe any stone surface coated with small, uniform crystals. It's most often applied to quartz xls but can be applied to any mineral with a similar appearance. I've never heard it used in any other context.

The only way I disagree is in her spelling. Druse and drusy were the original spellings describing that type of material. The Druze on the other hand are members of a Middle Eastern religious community associated with Islam, and mineralogists have tried to discourage that spelling for the crystallized minerals.

Rick Martin


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 12:20 am 
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ROM wrote:
I agree almost completely with Valeria. "Druse" or drusy" have been widely used for many, many years to describe any stone surface coated with small, uniform crystals. It's most often applied to quartz xls but can be applied to any mineral with a similar appearance. I've never heard it used in any other context.

The only way I disagree is in her spelling. Druse and drusy were the original spellings describing that type of material. The Druze on the other hand are members of a Middle Eastern religious community associated with Islam, and mineralogists have tried to discourage that spelling for the crystallized minerals.

Rick Martin


Very good point. Let's go with using "druse" and "drusy." We certainly don't want to offend any religious group. I apologize for making that error, myself. This has been a very good thread. I have had to re-think the description of my rose quartz as being "drusy," and I am discarding it. It is cloudy and I thought that the adjective "drusy" applied to internal features. I am glad that it isn't expensive material!

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 1:27 am 
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Tom Goodwin, G.G. wrote:
I have had to re-think the description of my rose quartz as being "drusy," and I am discarding it. It is cloudy and I thought that the adjective "drusy" applied to internal features. I am glad that it isn't expensive material!


I have rose quartz that has microscopic silk fibers that give it a somewhat cloudy and luminous effect; could that be what's in yours?

Druzy crystals are on the inside in the sense that they frequently coat the insides of geodes. I love druzy, and collect as many different types as I can find. MoDo was an angel last year and picked up some natural and some dyed black druzy at Tucson for me, and I just picked up a piece set in silver that has druzy embedded in mother of pearl, which I'd never seen before, and didn't even know existed. It's the most fabulous druzy I now have! \:D/

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