Because the weather has been so lousy of late (don't worry folks, a great summer lies ahead!) I decided to clean some of my lapidary equipment.
When I tumble or cut rock I generate a lot of "sludge" - rock dust mixed with water. The other day Vickie saw me cleaning up and asked what I do with it and when she found out I just dumped it (in an environmentally correct way of course) she said she wanted all I could give her.
As most of you know, she is a mixed media artist and apart from the solid black and white areas, this entire study was done with paint she made from my sludge!
Since seeing this, I've told her that the price of sludge has gone up- WAY up!! I'm thinking, though, that a better way to go might be to talk her into doing the cleaning for me so she could make sure that the sludge is being collected properly.Any thoughts?
Recently we have had visitors from China, Namibia, France, Austria, British Columbia and even Weymouth (inside joke) and holes are starting to appear in the displays so party's over- time to get back to work!
Open: Wed - Mon 2-7 pm; closed Tuesday ~~~~~ Location: 9613 Hwy 217, Digby Neck, NS ~~~~~ Contact: ptoceanwaves@gmail.com
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Monday, 10 June 2019
Summer Comes to Digby Neck
As usual, spring lasted about a week and summer is now upon us. All the signs are there- apple trees in full blossom, warmer temperatures, grass growing like crazy, sunsets at around 10 PM and lots of funny licence plates in town!
Recently, we have greeted visitors from China, Germany, Australia and even Weymouth (local joke)!
My new Hi-Tech saw is here and I have done some cutting and when I get the block of needed time and an assistant to handle the camera, I'll do a blog post on it.
But for now, I want to show you a few pieces I have been working on. Since I have an ample supply of copper wire in all gauges, I decided to see if I could make rings using just the wire. My first piece was a little gem of petrified wood (non-local) that I set using 14 gauge wire. That's a quite heavy, stiff wire but the results were pretty good:
In fact, they were too good because my "model" refused to give it back!
I then shifted to a 15 gauge, using a nice piece of Mexican Crazy Lace and it also worked well.
So I am going to work on maybe trying a thinner gauge and doing some local stones.
The typical moss agate found on Digby Neck is a golden brown colour and this piece I just finished is a good example of that. But what makes this stone special is the matrix.
Normally, the matrix is clear (quartz or smoky quartz) but I have looked at this in several different lights and the "clear" areas are definitely lavender so I am thinking probably amethyst.
This is the first time I have ever encountered this here so I will wait until daughter Lisa arrives and teaches me how to make a nice silver bezel for this one.
I am now on my 8th batch of tumbled stones so there are some great new pieces in the free box for you to take home when you visit.
Hope to see you soon!
Recently, we have greeted visitors from China, Germany, Australia and even Weymouth (local joke)!
My new Hi-Tech saw is here and I have done some cutting and when I get the block of needed time and an assistant to handle the camera, I'll do a blog post on it.
But for now, I want to show you a few pieces I have been working on. Since I have an ample supply of copper wire in all gauges, I decided to see if I could make rings using just the wire. My first piece was a little gem of petrified wood (non-local) that I set using 14 gauge wire. That's a quite heavy, stiff wire but the results were pretty good:
In fact, they were too good because my "model" refused to give it back!
I then shifted to a 15 gauge, using a nice piece of Mexican Crazy Lace and it also worked well.
So I am going to work on maybe trying a thinner gauge and doing some local stones.
The typical moss agate found on Digby Neck is a golden brown colour and this piece I just finished is a good example of that. But what makes this stone special is the matrix.
Normally, the matrix is clear (quartz or smoky quartz) but I have looked at this in several different lights and the "clear" areas are definitely lavender so I am thinking probably amethyst.
This is the first time I have ever encountered this here so I will wait until daughter Lisa arrives and teaches me how to make a nice silver bezel for this one.
I am now on my 8th batch of tumbled stones so there are some great new pieces in the free box for you to take home when you visit.
Hope to see you soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)