Jellybean Jasper Agate Nodule Half 2.25x2" 3.252 oz Haystack Butte Oregon PP-00009
Jellybean Jasper Agate Nodule Half 2.25x2" 3.252 oz Haystack Butte Oregon PP-00009
Jellybean Jasper Agate Nodule Half — PP-00009
A hand-collected agate-filled nodule half pulled from the center of a working jellybean jasper pocket at Haystack Butte in the Owyhee high desert of southeast Oregon. I prospected this piece myself in the field, hauled it home, and halved it on my own lapidary equipment to reveal the interior.
About this piece
This is an uncommon find: an agate-filled vug nodule from directly inside the jellybean jasper host formation. The jellybean jasper at Haystack Butte is a brecciated jasper, and most of what comes out of the ground is solid jasper all the way through — but occasionally the host rock contained open cavities that were later filled by silica-rich fluids, which crystallized into chalcedony and agate. The result is a nodule like this one, where you can see the contact between the translucent agate fill and the jellybean jasper host.
On one face you're looking at the freshly cut interior: a rich golden honey agate zone transitioning through pale chalcedony into a dramatic purple-plum zone on the opposite side, with a striking contact area where the orange and black-dendritic jellybean jasper host rock bleeds into the agate fill. The other face preserves the natural nodule exterior with conchoidal fracture surfaces showing the glass-like structure of the agate underneath. Hold it up to a light and the amber and plum zones glow with strong translucency — this material is genuinely high-silica, glass-like, and will take a mirror polish.
This piece tells the story of how agate actually forms inside a jasper host rock, and it's a standout specimen for collectors of Owyhee material who want the uncommon variations, not just the typical slab.
A note on photos and shipping condition: These photos were taken with saw oil still on the piece, straight off the lapidary saw. It will ship to you in that same condition unless you request otherwise in the order notes. The color and translucency you see in the photos are exactly what the stone looks like wet, and exactly what a polished face will look like.
Specifications
- Material: Agate-filled nodule with jellybean jasper host contact
- Locality: Haystack Butte, Malheur County, Oregon (pulled from the center of the jellybean jasper formation)
- Dimensions: 2.25" × 2" × 1/2" (≈ 57 × 51 × 13 mm)
- Weight: 3.252 oz (≈ 92 g)
- Form: Halved nodule, one sawn face and one natural face
- Finish: Sawn face unpolished — ships wet with saw oil
For cabbers
Plenty of solid, high-translucency agate material for small-to-medium cabs. The golden honey and plum zones would each make beautiful translucent cabs on their own, and a cab cut across the contact zone capturing the agate-meets-jasper transition would be a one-of-a-kind statement piece. Material is glass-like and should cab and polish without drama.
For collectors
Works beautifully as a standalone display half on a small easel. The halved presentation — one natural face, one polished interior view — is the classic geode/nodule display format and shows the full story of how this piece formed inside the jellybean jasper host.
About Plume & Prospect
Plume & Prospect is a one-person operation run by a working prospector in southwest Idaho. I'm a prospector first — chasing gold, minerals, and rough across the Owyhee high desert — and I rockhound everything beautiful I come across along the way. Every single piece in this shop is a specimen I personally gathered in the field, then brought home and worked by hand on my own lapidary equipment. I'm not a reseller. I don't import rough from overseas, I don't buy at shows and flip it, and I don't sell anything I didn't pull out of the ground myself. If it's in the shop, I prospected it, I cut it, and I can tell you exactly where it came from.