• An irregular piece of rough yellow leopardskin jasper with a light tan rock background spotted with orbicular patterns. There are colored veins running horizontally across the piece, in a gradient from golden yellow at the top to a darker red-orange at the bottom, and highlighted with a dark gray border.
  • Another side of the piece, lighter ten color showing a lot of background. There are thin veins across the face, golden yellow and the bottom and deepening to red at the top. The orbicular pattern isn't very well-formed but is yellow-mustard at the bottom and red-tinted above.
  • Another side of the piece, with good veining in a red-to yellow gradient, with stripes running horizontally and diagonally. There is white in the center of the veins, creating a streaky paint-like pattern. There are some well-formed orbicules of white, yellow, mustard, and dark gray rings.
  • Detail view of the uneven rock surface, with the radial growth lines of the orbicular patterns visible. The veins have a white quartzy looking material in the center.
  • Captioned "wet," the piece while wet, showing more vibrant colors to the orbicular pattern and veining. The background color takes on a tint of yellow or red as well.
  • Captioned "wet," a side of the piece while wet. There is a yellow vein bordered with dark gray running across the piece. Below that line, the piece is tinted yellow with good yellow orbicular pattern. Above the vein the piece is tinted red with red veins crossing it.
  • Captioned "wet," an angled view of two sides, with the veining n a color gradient from yellow to golden yellow. Some veins are wide and have patches of white quartzy mineral in the center.
  • Captioned "wet," a side of the piece with excellent veining in vibrant red-to yellow colors, with a few large spherulites. In places one can see the veining is composed of spherulites. The radial growth pattern is apparent.
  • Captioned "wet," a detail image of the surface on a yellow side while wet. It again shows the veining is composed of spherulites, with radial growth pattern apparent.
  • Captioned "wet," a detail image of a side with red-to yellow gradient while wet. Red and orange veins cross one another near the middle, and have formed a larger red-orange spot.
  • Scale image of the piece of leopardskin on a measuring mat, showing it is almost five by two and a half inches
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Leopardskin jasper with red-to-yellow gradient

Leopardskin jasper with red-to-yellow gradient

$14.00 USD
$14.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Locale: Mexico

Approx dimensions: 4.5 x 2.5 x 2.5"

Approx weight: 480g

 

Leopardskin jasper is in fact not a true jasper, but a variety of rhyolite. A lot of jaspers are actually rhyolite! Mineralogically jasper is a variety of chalcedony, which is a form of quartz. Rhyolite is in the family tree, an igneous rock composed of quartz and feldspar. 

Leopardskin provides a textbook example of orbicular growth: round 'orb-' or eyeball-like patterns in minerals, often showing multiple rings of color. Alternatively these are called orbicular spherulites; spherulites are minerals composed of dense radial needle-like growth from a point to create a sphere (hence "spher"ulite). Spherulites are typically crystalized feldspar forming within volcanic igneous quartz-based rock. They commonly appear as distinct circles with rings of color as in the case of leopardskin jasper.

Leopardskin can also have veining or bold colorful banding, which covers this piece more than the orbicular pattern. Studied closely, these veins are composed of spherulites. There is a gradient of color in the stripes from golden yellow on one side of the piece to red on the other side, for a lovely sunset effect.

Add the rough piece to your collection, drier terrariums, or use as an accent in a succulent bowl. Chunks of rough like this are commonly sold for lapidary purposes, to be polished into tumbles, slabs, carvings, or jewelry. The rough material is already quite beautiful, but colors deepen if polished; images labeled 'wet' preview what to expect if you do wish to polish.

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