stephani stephenson on thu 1 mar 07
Paul, Hank, Joyce,all
interesting the character of these materials. there
was an outcropping of older andesite, poking up
through the more recent deposits at Painted HIlls in
C, oregon.. what was amaing was how this rock would
'ring'
you could tap it with another stone or something hard
and it would ring and resonate. who knows what
crystlline quality or qualoty of heating and cooling
casues this..it was very dense smooth rock , but had
this quality of ringing which made it feel like there
was inner 'space' to it....in the way that ceramics
does seem at times to be wonderfully and naturally
magic...i wonder if an andesite bowl could actually be
an andesite bell....?
also
there is a still an operating (mostly for handpick
gemstones) mine
near here at Pala, where you can pick up a truck load
of lepidolite....the nice purple stuff is hanpicked
for gemstones but the big stuff is just , big rocks,
and
unfortunately it is still a bit chunky....
by the time it was ground it would be a hugely
expensive material, but the urge is still there!!!!
they use to mine it for lithium for lithium
grease...
reading on the history of California China Products
(tile) company in early 1900s I was always fascinated
by the story of how a ceramics engineer/prospecting
minerologist found a deposit of kaolin near here,
thinking it would be the finest porcelain...hauled the
stuff down off the mountain by mule, built a rail spur
to meet the mules, ran the spur down to the bay, built
a factory near the bay and began producing..only to
find the porcelain was not as 'fine' as they thought,
but that it made a durable light color cone 13
stoneware they called 'kaospar'..the floor of the
Santa Fe rail depot, built in 1911-12 is made of it
and not showing any age, and the domes of balboa park
tiled with it...
i was looking through the geological records of this
county, at the historical society, and every gully and
deposit in this county had a mining claim associated
with it..most by companies such as "los angeles
pressed brick" "gladding McBean, etc etc... and i am
amazed at the number and types of minerals and
materials found, mined or at least searched for here.
i imagine this is a scenario found throughout much of
the west.
Stephani Stephenson
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