Machine-Ground Mineral Spheres

[m!b$]

I bought these cuz I thought they were purty They look way better in hand than the photos would suggest. But I don't know anything about them. Like...do they come out of the ground that way (not round like that, of course)? Or are they a conglomerate of different minerals artificially put together? Are they dyed? Any info anyone can offer is appreciated.

Mineral Spheres

[marblemansion]

I bought these cuz I thought they were purty They look way better in hand than the photos would suggest. But I don't know anything about them. Like...do they come out of the ground that way (not round like that, of course)? Or are they a conglomerate of different minerals artificially put together? Are they dyed? Any info anyone can offer is appreciated.

Mineral Spheres

Boy I don't know 'nuff about stone marbles to talk much = but that set I have up at auction now has several marbles similar to those of a variety of colors too....so maybe they are dyed...I didn't even know stones could accept a dyeing process until earlier in another thread.

[david Chamberlain]

Are they cold and maybe a little heavier. I'll tell you what, they actually look like painted and kiln fired pottery marbles. The fact that the four are each different(color and such) makes me less inclined to think of them as mineral ALTHOUGH there are some minerals that do have this textured appearance. You getting the idea here that I have no idea!? David

[lstmmrbls]

Neat mineral spheres. Not dyed IMO. Possibly Leopard Jasper

[david Chamberlain]

That's the one mineral marble that came to mind but I couldn't think of its name but you'd expect the surface to be much smoother if ground and polished; this surface looks textured like pottery. David

[lstmmrbls]

I believe the light reflections being nearly identical in the second pic show them to be very smooth and shiny

[m!b$]

Here are better pictures of two of the spheres. Yes, they are smooth and shiny, and they have been machine-ground, leaving lots of little pits and spidery cracks, like a polished damaged marble would have. They are heavy, like glass marbles, definitely not clay.

They certainly do look like Leopard Jasper (thank you!). Here are some similar-looking gemstones.

#1

#2

#3

Leopard Jasper Slab

This is really wild!