Baxter’s Desk Lamp: Translucent Malachite

I thought light coming through a translucent malachite lampshade would be particularly beautiful—and eerie enough to reflect the surreal world of Baxter as he guides Charlie through madness. I’d heard of opaque malachite, of course, but translucent malachite?

I searched all over the Internet. I called all the main mineral and gemstone dealers in the US. I could not find a picture anywhere. Nearly everyone said they’d never heard of it.

And then I wrote to the extraordinary company Crystal Classics Fine Minerals in England. And here is what Phil Taylor wrote back:

Many thanks for contacting us concerning translucent malachite.  Ian Bruce is currently in Denver, so I have been asked to address your question which I am only too happy to do.  I work for Ian as a mineralogist at Crystal Classics Fine Minerals in Somerset, England.

You are indeed correct, translucent malachite does exist, although as small crystals.  I do not recall seeing a large specimen of this.  No doubt you are familiar with what I’d call “typical” malachite, occurring in botryoidal mounds of banded opaque green specimens.  A lot of this material you might see on the market derives from the copper deposits in the DR of Congo, formerly Zaire.  You may also have seen carved animals, beads, ashtrays or even chessboards using such malachite.  All of this is massive (i.e. non-crystalline) and opaque.

Malachite, a copper carbonate, does form beautiful crystals, some of which are translucent and even transparent, but occur as small micro-crystals of a few millimetres and less.  Their colour can vary between many different shades of green.  Such crystals are often what are termed acicular, meaning a needle-like morphology.

Your novel sounds intriguing to have the potential for such an unusual mineral!  To help you visualise such specimens, may I refer you to the following website where you will find a comprehensive and varied selection of such specimens.

Google mindat.org

On the home page of “mindat” look for the menu bar near the top of the page and then select, third along, “Photos”.

Another menu bar will now appear; select first along, “Photo Search”.

Enter “translucent malachite” and press “Search”.

A mosaic array of images will appear.  Click on any image and it will zoom to fill the screen.  You will also see a small greyed-out arrow near the centre-bottom of the image.  Click on this and written information opens describing the selected specimen.

I hope this is useful and I wish you all the very best with the new book.  It all sounds very exciting!

Kindest Regards,

Phil

Philip G. Taylor | Mineralogist, Crystal Classics Fine Minerals 

Not only would such a lampshade be eerie, but rare enough for Baxter.