Introduction

My name is Becky Thorne. You'll see my company bio below - and I can't change that because it is tied to my work webpage. However, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about myself as a self-made expert on USA-Ammolite.

My cousin Gale and I have been rock-hounders for years - finding gemstones all over the state of Utah - garnets, topaz, sun-stone, red burrell, morganite, quartz, flourite, and on and on - as Utah has a great geographic history. It's not only igneous rocks that can be found - but being that Utah was once covered with an ancient seaway and later with great lakes, it is also very common to a great variety of plant and animal fossils. (Needless to say - Utah is a rock-hounder's mecca!)

Gale and I grew up in the Salt Lake City area and obtained our appreciation for rocks from our great uncle George. He was a rock-hounder himself, and helped to found the museum in Price, Utah.

If you had asked us what Ammolite was 6 years ago, we couldn't have told you. But since that time, we were introduced to it, shown a place where it could be found, and filed a mining claim so we could legally gather and sell it. It was fun to find it - it's like finding a treasure.

But then we ran into a BIG challenge - on how to take the raw stone and process it into a finished gemstone. It took Gale about 18 months of research and playing mad scientist in his basement to figure out the best processes and materials to use. (I can tease him about being a "mad scientist" - because in real life he is a near genius scientist....me - not so much.)

We've now figured it out and begun making beautiful stones and jewelry pieces that can be purchased and treasured. Gale has even written a book about it.

You can find our stuff at www.UtahSeafireGems.com, or at http://www.etsy.com/shop/USAmmolite?ref=pr_shop .

We'd love to hear from you what you think - or if you have questions please feel free to ask.

Becky