#bumblebee stone

CREATIVE WAYS TO USE STONES IN THE GARDEN

 Looking to renovate your garden without spending tonnes of money? All you need is some rocks! Stones are natural, require no maintenance, and you can find them everywhere. In fact, your garden is probably full of them already. You just have to pick them, get inspiration from some of the ideas below, and voila! Your garden will look elegant, brand new, and unique. Painting stones Why not…

I guess daggers could work? Bumblebee Stone is said to increase vitality so I can see that working, but I think we could do better than that.

A rock by many names: Bumblebee Jasper, Bumblebee Agate, Mustard Jasper, simply Bumblebee, Eclipse Jasper/Stone, and many more. To get this out of the way first, this material is not a jasper, agate, or a quartz at all. In fact, these rocks have very little to no quartz in it.  It is a type of carbonate rock, despite there being some mixed classifications (some refer it as a variety of calcite while others simply call it a sedimentary rock). Often described as a matrix, the mineral combination is not entirely understood (or rather it’s different according to each source), but some common ones include colorless calcite, sulfur, arsenic, pyrite, and realgar. Orpiment is sometimes said to be included, but this is debated. Bumblebee Stones are a soft, porous material with a hardness of 4 - 5. They were formed in volcanic fumarole or vent environments, many of these specimens found at the foot of volcanoes. Bumblebee Stone appeared in the market as early as the 1990s and is only found in the west Java province of Indonesia. 

Fun Facts:

Because it contains arsenic materials, it should be handled carefully. 

Since it has a low hardness, jewelers frequently coat Bumblebee Stone with clear, epoxy resins to enhance stability as well as color and hardness. It’s also used to eliminate its porosity.

This rock does have metaphysical properties. It enables you to accept change, find new opportunities, increase your self-esteem and make decisions without relying on emotions. Bumblebee Stone also helps with bringing forth creativity and increase vitality.  

Sources:

http://www.igc-gemmology.net/igc34-proceedings/content/pdf/IGC3419.pdf

https://celestialearthminerals.com/atlas-of-minerals/bumble-bee-jasper/

http://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/summer-2014-gemnews-bumble-bee-jasper-indonesia

http://www.mindat.org/min-46602.html

https://www.healingcrystals.com/Bumble_Bee_Jasper_Articles_13103.html

http://sonatona-gemstones.blogspot.com/2014/10/stone-eclipse-stonebumble-bee-jasper.html

Oh, you’re not a bother at all, anon! 

Yeah I know, it really sucks. Bumblebee Stone isn’t the only victim of the false jasper claims (I’m just about  to make an informative post to help others out with this issue) because the lapidary market likes to slap words on stones so people are more likely to buy the stones (so blame them for this mess!).

People think Bumblebee Stone is an agate because of its banding. However there are other non-quartz gems with banding (like Rhodochrosite). Mindat says Bumblebee Stone is a banded calcite, but I’m really not sure about that because it has a whole bunch of other minerals in it (like sulfur, orpiment, and hematite). Classifying it as an auripigment-bearing rock would probably be more correct.