What's New at The Artist's Mark?

 We are now well into fall and that means I get to start making pieces with all the beautiful stones I created through the summer. But first, I have to finish off the ones I left at the beginning of spring. here's a sample of a few.

 I even finished a few popular sea glass pendants. So a lot of the empty spaces in the shop have been filled.

The last job in the rock lab was to finish a few specimen pieces. Here's one- a gorgeous piece of local plume and fortification agate..

This one is pretty special since that sparkly quartz druzy pocket goes all the way through. So my plan is to mount this to a piece of driftwood with a tea candle right behind the druzy.I've tried it and it creates an amazing effect. Look for this in the shop next spring but I predict it won't last long.

The "Real Artist" is painting up a storm and threatening to make a few mixed media statement pieces with me so stay tuned!

Back in The Paint Business

The weather has changed and we are now in the crisp, sunny days of fall. For anyone planning a trip to Nova Scotia, this is a great time to come.

 One of the things I really enjoy when visitors come to the shop is showing all the things we actually do. Earlier in the summer we had a visitor who also does lapidary and when I showed him how Vickie made paint from the rock sludge, he said he would send us a piece from his stash and sure enough, he did. It was a fist sized piece of jasper from Africa that was amazingly fine grained and the most beautiful orange/ red colour. After cutting a small slice to use in making some jewelry pieces we proceeded to use the Cab King to grind it down to a fine powder.

Then Vickie got to work collecting the dried rock dust and here is just a fraction of what she was able to get.

She then did a test run to see what quality of paint she could make and was very pleasantly surprised!

Here's how it looked using slightly different mediums and paper.

And with the slice I kept, I was able to make several pieces. Here's a ring showing how beautifully it polished. I'm working on a pendant earring set and will post pics when it is finished.

The dark specks are actually little cubes of pyrite which, depending on the light, show as black or metallic gold.

We are calling it Cox jasper in honour of the donor. Thanks again Bill!

The Great Cabochon Project is Complete!

 Well, it's been a hectic couple of months but the cab project is almost over- just a few days after I turned 75! And yes, I'll admit I got a little (well maybe a LOT) carried away.

My original goal was to produce 100 quality cabochons from my existing rocks and slabs. The first step was to choose the shape and I let the rock determine that as much as possible. In a few cases I kept a raw edge if it enhanced the look. Then I had to cut out the shapes using my trim saw attachment for the Cab King and it worked amazingly well.

Here I want to say a word about Cab King. I'll tell you flat out that I would not have tried this venture with my old equipment but it was possible because the Cab King is faster, much quieter and far more comfortable to use. Some say the wheels don't last but mine are great and after two years including this batch, they have plenty of life left. Also, the watering system is wonderful. One last bonus- I don't know if they recommend this but I mounted the saw in place of the fine grit wheels and was able to switch back and forth between cutting and shaping. Just have to have some protection from the turning saw blade.

So yes, I got carried away and ended up with closer to 200 stones, which is way too much for my jewelry needs for the upcoming winter but the lady with the agate eye just keeps bringing me so much beautiful rock- agate, jasper, amethyst, sparkling druzys, petrified wood- and virtually all of this batch is local from the Bay of Fundy.

There is some amazing patterning.

But some of these are just awesome when you see them with a light behind them! Here's the same batch backlit.

So my plan now is to take out any that have flaws (sometimes cracks appear towards the end) and polish some of the best pieces to 50,000 grit if I think they will look better (they are at about 14,000 now). Sometimes a surface that is too glassy can detract from the visual effect of the patterning.

Then I will post pics of smaller groups on IG and Facebook and possibly here as well and offer them for sale individually, either as loose stones or made into jewelry on site.

It has been an awesome learning experience and now I can cut some more slabs!

Covid restrictions have eased in Nova Scotia and we are getting some visitors from the rest of Canada so if your plans are taking you to this area come on by and say hi and see what we are working on.

Cheers!