Can you tell us a little about the source of this material?
Sourced from Aurangabad, a city in Maharashtra, India, our Moss Agate is mined by one miner who works closely with local farmers to create a mutually gainful use of farming land. After the annual harvest, the mining takes place just before replanting for the next growing season. This collaboration helps identify the best mining spots during cultivation and ends with a collective effort in replacing topsoil when the time comes to plant.
As the farmers plow their fields before planting, they often find pieces of moss agate (as well as bloodstone). These discoveries indicate potential mining areas after harvest and are noted to come back to. The miner then uses an excavator to expose the seams of agate below the topsoil and breaks the solid pieces up in order to be extracted. After this process is completed, the miner refills with the topsoil to prepare for the next season of agricultural planting.
Moss agate is found in a few other areas, but India is the largest producer and has some of the best material.
What kinds of sizes, shapes and cutting styles can be found?
We cut a very wide range of shapes and sizes in both faceted and cabochon styles. Generally, we will cut stones up to 5 carats in size as the rough offers larger pieces to cut from. While it is possible to cut stones larger than 5 carats, we typically choose not to. What many do not know is that the ‘moss’ inclusions are very heavily visible in this rough, which means larger stones have a larger portion taken up with these inclusions. At times, this can make it nearly impossible to distinguish individual moss-patterned inclusions. The delicate patterns created by these inclusions are what makes this material so sought after and we find that cutting 5 carats or smaller tends to highlight this feature best.
While this is still a newer variety for us, introduced in January of 2023, we have a variety of shapes and sizes including hex tablets, emerald cuts, faceted rounds, sugarloaf cabs, baguettes, small pears, and more. As always we continue to experiment with different shapes and love receiving feedback on what our customers would like to see more of.
