Mystery stone

Jewelry Discussion
1

I am looking for a stone for a customer, he says it is green,
and is found in New Zealand and changes to a clear colour when
wet. If anyone has any idea what this could be, please let me
know. Thanks, Claire,

2 
   I am looking for a stone for a customer, he says it is
green, and is found in New Zealand and changes to a clear
colour when wet. If anyone has any idea what this could be,
please let me know.

Might be some variety of hydrophane opal, perhaps a common opal
rather than precious (means no fire, not that it’s commonly
found)…

Any other guesses?

Peter Rowe

3

G’day Claire; The nearest thing to what you describe is NZ
greenstone, or nephrite jade to give it the correct name. But
that doesn’t ‘clear when wet.’ Maybe what your customer may be
thinking of is that when one sees demonstrated the rough material
in the Hokitika factories where they carve it. To show the
colour and appearance of the material when it is finally
polished, they wipe it with a wet or oiled cloth, then hold it
against a light to show it’s translucence. The properly
polished jade certainly doesn’t need such treatment. There is
a piece in the Orchid gallery;

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm

Cheers,

        /\      John Burgess
       / /
      / /      Johnb@ts.co.nz
     / /__|\
    (_______) The basic premise of The Scientific Principle is
  that everything in the entire Universe is capable of logical
  explanation by humans.
4

Dear Claire Townsend, I hate to be plebean, but could the mystery
stone be just sand-worn or tumbled glass? Fragments of river or
beach-abraded glass will appear opaque when dry, but become
transparent when wet. A fragment broken from the heavier bottom
of a bottle can become quite ambiguous over a long period of
time.

Kind regards,
Rex from Oz.