A septarian nodule is a rock composed of Calcite (yellow), Aragonite (brown) and Limestone (grey). These beautiful and unusual rocks are found in southern Utah, a relic of ancient seas that dried and returned several times with geologic changes. I have often seen them carved into eggs, spheres, bookends and the like, (usually from Madagascar), but rarely are they seen as cabochons. This nearly-rectangular one was purchased at a pow-wow I visited many years ago. I married it with Japanese matte-grey/bronze beads in both tubular and flat peyote and added bronze baroque pearls as an accent.
The alternate pendant is a piece of sulfur-rich pyrite, a special piece because of its origin locality. It comes from Skytop Mountain, in central Pennsylvania, and was excavated during the construction of Interstate 99 through that part of the state. The lapidarist formed the cabochons and then treated them with polyethelene spar varnish, ending any chemical decomposition which might take place from exposure to air. The cabochon is hard to photograph, but has a nice metallic sheen, exhibiting both silvery and golden colors of pyrite. You can read more about Skytop Mountain pyrite here:
Completed 3-11. >>MPK
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