Happy New Year
Wishing all our customers a Happy, Healthy and prosperous new year.
2017 is now upon us and here at madagascan direct we are getting back into the swing of things and are ready to
embrace what the year has to offer us. We are just about to photograph and list some lovely optical calcite Rhombohedrons which we purchased in October and then had them polished. They look really stunning with striking hues of lavender or a pale citrine like yellow, and also the classic iceland spar clear which is very sharp and bright and water clear, they also display some amazing multi coloured rainbows too.These optical calcite crystals are very popular with crystal healers. It is very difficult to polish optical calcite as it is very soft and cleaves very easily and measures 3 on the mohs scale. Photographing these crystals is a bit challenging but we will be doing the best we can to 
capture their beauty. We have just added a new section to our website for large crystal display pieces and large fossil display pieces so these can now be seen altogether in one area.
I have just booked my flight to Madagascar for early March and i will be looking forward to catching some sun again after the long dark nights here. Madagascar's weather is hot and sub-tropical being colder in the mountains while the south and west region are particularly dry. The wet season in Madagascar is very hot and humid.
In the workshop in Madagascar at the moment we are having prepared some items for my next visit, fossil
wood logs are being graded and selected for their tops to be polished. Blue calcite pebbles and spheres are being
shaped, Carnelian is being worked into hearts, pebbles and flame shapes. Ammonites cretaceous and jurassic are also being gathered to be sectioned or entire polished. Looking forward to the next adventure.
Mark Avis.