Try GOLD - Free
Making a SMOKEY QUARTZ INTAGLIO
Rock&Gem Magazine
|May 2025
Carving With a Master

No matter your experience level, the opportunity to pick up new tools and techniques and take a private stone carving workshop with a master carver helps lapidaries to become better carvers and learn a bit, too. Darryl Alexander, an award-winning gem carver who has won the prestigious AGTA Spectrum Awards multiple times recently offered a private workshop for Rock & Gem readers.
CLASS SET UP & MATERIALS
Darryl and his son Nick are the suppliers of the Mountain Mist diamond carving paste compounds, a favorite for many. This class was put together by Doug Malby and took place at Doug's summer home in Chester, California. Doug facilitates communications among carvers and faceters and is involved with the University of Arizona's Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum.
A table was set up in his driveway along with a tub of quartz crystals and scepters collected from the nearby Hallelujah Mine. A smokey quartz with a good shape was chosen for this workshop. Its termination had natural, undamaged frosted faces but the sides were a little beat up.
A Diamond Pacific Pixie machine, a flex shaft machine, a 4-inch trim saw and a Hi-Tech brand flat lap were also set up along with the polishing compounds and wheels to be used with the flex shaft machine. Each grit and the wheels used with it were separately bagged to avoid cross-contamination.

The Hallelujah Mine produces smokey quartz and amethyst ranging from small, simply terminated crystals to massive scepters with huge complex terminations. The base of the crystals is attached to the wall of the vugs they grew in, creating a crystal with a distinct terminated top and a rough broken bottom.
This story is from the May 2025 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Rock&Gem Magazine

Rock&Gem Magazine
The Black Prince's Ruby and Other Cursed Gems
Submitted for your consideration: A collection of gems whose acquisition has often been synonymous with terrible loss but whose sparkle still holds fatal attraction. Meet some of the most cursed and feared - gems in history.
7 mins
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
The Minerals of Transylvania
Whether you're in it for science, beauty, spooky stories, or all of it, Transylvania's minerals offer a little something for every rockhound. Deep in the heart of Romania, the Carpathian Mountains are known for gothic lore and vampire legends. In this land of Dracula, Transylvania's rugged geology, shaped by volcanic activity, has made it one of Europe's most mineral-rich areas.
2 mins
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
Is Earth's Magnetic Field Linked to Atmospheric Oxygen?
The scientists making the observation were surprised. A time series analysis of geological records over the past 540 million years of Earth history seems to show a highly correlated link between oxygen levels in the Earth's atmosphere and the strength of the planet's magnetic field, and both seem to be slowly increasing in sync.
1 min
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
The Best Archaeopteryx Yet
Archaeopteryx has been an icon in the world of paleontology ever since the first one was uncovered in 1861.
1 min
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
Ancient Proteins Survive Much Longer than Expected and offer new insights into rhino evolution
In paleontology, the old days of pick-and-shovel and drawing evolutionary relationships based on anatomy alone may not be long gone, but they’re certainly being overshadowed by advances in the lab.
1 min
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
PENNSYLVANIA'S FOSSIL FOREST
Some 300 million years ago, near the town of St. Clair, Pennsylvania, the land was covered by lush green forests with a wide variety of plants and trees.
3 mins
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
From Waste to Rock in No Time Flat!
Ever wonder how long it takes for rock to form? It could be as little as minutes when molten lava hits ice-cold water beneath the sea to instantly form igneous basalt.
1 min
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
Maribel CAVES & HOTEL...
Haunted Ruins With 'New Hope' For Caves
7 mins
October 2025

Rock&Gem Magazine
THE GEOLOGY OF GRAVESTONES
Along with black cats, witches and jack-o'-lanterns, cemeteries are iconic symbols of Halloween—and for good reason. Shrouded in mystery, superstition and folklore, they can elicit feelings of foreboding and fear.
4 mins
October 2025
Rock&Gem Magazine
Is Subduction “Infectious?”
Earth’s surface is composed of huge plates of relatively stable continental crust and oceanic crust that are constantly forming and recycling. Where they meet, subduction frequently occurs, with ocean crust plunging beneath continents. Thus oceans open and close, appear and disappear.
1 min
October 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size