FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jamison Brizendine]

Elise,

To answer your first question, I can't really give you an adequate answer because I don't know it! Vlad didn't take "before" pictures and I don't know what the cluster looked like prior to it being placed in the autoclave.

In March 2015, he showed us some broken clusters that he brought from a dealer at our March meeting and then showed us the finished products at our November meeting. I think the run time total was approximately 6 - 7 months for the full regrowth.

[Jamison Brizendine]

This is a large cabinet specimen of (formerly) amethyst from the J.B. Ivey Property (Farm), Warrenton, Warren County, Georgia, United States and then altered by a hydrothermal silicon dioxide solution. The “rehealing” was done by Vlad Klipov of Cleveland, Ohio.

This specimen has been altered from its original state and then was placed in a steel autoclave and allowed to “reheal”. The total time of “rehealing” took approximately six to seven months.

The original quartz was a “top” of a scepter, with the “rod” portion broken off, probably in situ. My objective (foolish hope) for this experiment was that the “rod” portion would regrow and the “top” of the scepter would only regrow slightly.

What happened instead was that the “top” continued to grow along the c-axis, and enveloped what remained of the “rod”. What you have now is “almost” a double terminated quartz, similar to a “Herkimer Diamond”. Like the “Guerrero” experiment before it, the color has been greatly reduced, but the overall luster has improved.

The photos below shows the specimen before and after the regrowth experiment. Enjoy!

[Jamison Brizendine]

In 2016-2017, Vlad has expanded some of his experiments with his hydrothermal solution quartzes. I have acquired several specimens that he has regrown and will share them here on the FMF site.