• A square face of a wedge-shaped piece of jasper, with a light tan starburst pattern and spotting, on a dark brown background.
  • The other main face of the piece, also square and covered with starburst patterning. This side has a milky coating on it, muting the pattern.
  • A triangular side of the piece with several large spherulites showing their three-dimensional radial surface pattern. They are on an attractive background of streaky dark brown, red-brown, and yellow-brown.
  • Detail of the rough surface showing the growth patterns of the starbursts. There are red-brown spots between some.
  • Detail of the spherulites on the main face, with three-dimensional radial pattern of growth visible. There is a crisp delineation between the light starbursts and dark background. There is a small quartz vein at the bottom with pinkish discoloration around it.
  • A side of the piece coated in a sandy matrix, mostly obscuring the pattern.
  • Captioned "wet," the main face of the piece while wet, stood on end. The pattern is a more vivid orange color compared to dry, with orange-toned starbursts on a brown and red-brown backgrounds.
  • Captioned "wet," a detail view of the main face while wet. The quartz vein stands out more obviously, and the red and orange coloration is intense.
  • Captioned "wet," a view of a triangular end of the piece, mostly mottled with streaks of red-brown and orange coloration with some large spherulites mixed in.
  • Captioned "wet," the more muted face of the piece while wet, showing the pattern is much more visible and vibrant with a lot of red-brown spotting between starbursts.
  • Captioned "wet," the side of the piece covered in sandy matrix while wet. Some spherulitic pattern is visible around the edges of this matrix.
  • Scale image of the piece on a measuring mat, measuring three and a half by three inches.
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Spider jasper

Spider jasper

$9.00 USD
$9.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Locale: Mexico

Approx dimensions: 3.5 x 3 x 2.25"

Approx weight: 490g

 

Spider jasper is called a lot of names in the industry, including chrysanthemum, starburst, and fireworks jasper, due to its distinctive radial starburst pattern on a dark chocolate-brown and red-tinted background. 

Spider 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. This material would most accurately be named "chrysanthemum rhyolite" but you know I can't pass up a goblin-y name like spider jasper.

The starbursts in the rhyolite are spherulites: 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 banding as in the case of leopardskin jasper. With spider jasper, the spherulites are loose collections of thick needles resembling a firework.

This piece has a broad face of bold pattern and sits or stands well as a display piece. 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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