What's New at The Artist's Mark

 I haven't posted for some time because we have been so busy. Lots of work to do to get ready for winter plus we celebrated our 52nd wedding anniversary few days ago. But we have had time to do some new pieces.

This is the time of year I make my Viking Chain. Here's how it looks when I weave it on the dowel (about 8 inches long)

And here's how it looks after I have drawn it through successively smaller holes in my draw plate. Now about 17 inches long. This one was done in 24 gauge copper but my next attempt will be with a thicker, 22 gauge wire.

I have also been collaborating with Vickie on some pieces. Vickie is a master of polymer clay and has developed several of her own techniques while perfecting museum quality jewelry. This time we used one of her beads, featuring a technique she calls her "Burlesque Blend" and hung it on an upcycled guitar string. Vickie also fashioned the wire work and bead work while I did the connectors at the back

I was able to use the original "eye" and attach another to make a really unique clasp.

I have also been making a lot of earrings and while I won't show them in this post, I will show you the display we made using some cool driftwood and plastic mesh. I even added some hooks at the bottom to hold three necklaces and eventually everything on it will be from the "Phoenix" collection featuring upcycled guitar wires.

 

Next time I'll feature more individual pieces.

Cheers!

Winter Hours

 Now that the clocks have changed, we change our hours to reflect it. Unless we are away, we are open every day until 5 unless the weather is really bad. We will close for the winter December 15th but will open the shop for those who call ahead- especially you local knitters. If you want to make sure we are open, call at 902 482-2188 or email me at ptoceanwaves@gmail.com

Also, since our winter winds can get really bad (and since we have already fished one store sign out of the marsh) we will be taking down the large store sign by the road. However, we will still be hanging our "Open" sign so if it is up, come on in!

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!

What's New At The Artist's Mark?

 Well folks, a very busy summer is finally winding down. First I want to thank all the nice people who stopped by and supported us (you know who you are!). We had time to do a bit of experimenting and here are two guitar picks Vickie made from polymer clay.

Thank you so much Jonathan for your detailed professional evaluation!

Vickie was also busy knitting socks from our gorgeous Seawall Fibres hand dyed yarn. Some were bought in-store but most (including these pairs) found their way to customers all over the place!

We also had some strange and exotic visitors. This white pelican, blown north by Hurricane Dorion, decided to spend a few hours in the marsh next to the shop.

But the next shots are even more rare. Our current exotic visitor is Ted, my geology friend from McGill, who made it all the way from Australia. But what makes these pictures rare is that he is actually working in the Lap of Lapidary alongside "The Lady With the Agate Eye". I know, good help is hard to find so you take what you can get. After a bit of rockhounding, we returned with treasure.

I was very proud of the two of them since they both used my Hi-Tech 10 inch saw to cut their finds and then finished them on the Hi-Tech 8 inch slant lap.

I know- they should have been wearing Hi-Tech aprons but they wanted to wear Cab King- especially since Vickie has customized hers to read "Cab Queen"!

We have pretty much finished up the lapidary work so as soon as the weather turns, we will begin fabricating new pieces to replace all those that went out the door!

As always, if your travels take you to Digby Neck, stop by and say hi and pick up your free piece of The Neck.

Beautiful Guitar Picks From The Lap of Lapidary

Recently, I've sold a lot of guitar picks so it was time to make some more.

Fortunately, I had been working on a massive cabochon project and had some very beautiful and interesting pieces of Mexican Crazy Lace Jasper left over that were large enough that I could define a pick shape in them.

Here are the three I made yesterday.

As you can see, this is gorgeous material. I've photographed it a little wet because they have only gone halfway through the smoothing/ polishing process. One of the best aspects of this rock is that it has amazing integrity- no cracks or softer spots. This is important because in order to make a playable pick they need to be thin- very, very, thin!

I use a micrometer to ensure that, when finished, they will be no more than 2 mm. thick. And since I never use a dop stick, this can be a little hard on the fingers- so much so that Vickie has mandated that if more than one finger is bleeding, I must stop! (It's called suffering for your art!)

For all you guitar players out there, I have been told that they play a bit like titanium picks and are a little harder on the strings but have a beautiful resonance. That suits me fine since I also make jewelry from used guitar strings! So buy a pick and send me your strings!

I sell them in the shop, complete with their own hand made/sewn leather pouch for the ridiculous low price of $35 Cdn. and I also ship.

The King of Agates

 I am now well into my 8th decade of fascination with rocks- especially agates.

Why agates you say? Diamonds and other gems bore me but agates, with their infinite variety of inclusions, never do. I'm drawn not only to the colours but also the amazing patterns and often wonder under just what conditions they could possibly be formed.

Recently I had a visit from a man who has the same fascination- on steroids!

Pat McMahan lives in Arizona but his agate obsession has taken him all over the world. In the process he has amassed a Smithsonian worthy collection- the second largest in the world!

A few years back, his quest for new varieties brought him to Nova Scotia and to my shop, "The Lap of Lapidary" on Digby Neck and he has now visited on several occasions. Pat is particularly interested in plume agate and sagenite and we are honoured that he has left with several of Vickie's finds.

This year's visit was special. Because of Covid he had not been here for a few years and I was able to acquire a copy of his book.

To say that Pat, over the course of years and with the help of his sons, has written and published a book is like saying Rembrandt "just" painted a picture! His book is titled simply "Agates" and apart from being breathtakingly beautiful(and I don't use that term lightly) it is a stunning treasure, loaded with gorgeous colour photos of agate varieties from all over the world along with unique, valuable information.

"Agates" is a true labour of love as Pat and his sons prepared all the specimens, did all the curating and all the photography themselves.

So if you like agates, you owe it to yourself to visit Pat's website at www.agateswithinclusions.com. If you are a lapidary, you will drool at Pat's shop and collection of equipment. And if you are true lover of agates and want to go on a worldwide trek to discover beautiful varieties, indulge yourself and get your own copy of this most beautiful treasure!

Pat in his shop

What Happens To The Rocks I Cut?

 My last post showed some of the local rocks I recently cut. But what happens next?

To a great degree, that depends on what I discover inside. If the rock has cracks, it will probably shatter when I grind it but if it has interesting features, I can sometimes make beautiful specimen pieces. If the rock is solid and interesting, I will use it to make cabochons. This requires me to rough cut the shape I want on my Hi-Tech saw and then grind and polish it on my Cab King.

Several of the pieces shown last time were good enough to become cabochons and I thought you might like to see the transformation.

This piece of petrified wood became ...                                                            this.

And this became ...                                                                                   this.              

This one was so spectacular I had to make several pieces:

Fantastic end result. Couldn't pick a best side for the teardrop so I finished both!

It is an absolutely amazing experience watching the transformation from a piece of rough rock to a finished piece. So if your travels take you to Digby Neck, stop by and see my shop.

The Fun of Cutting Rocks

"Life', as Forest Gump so famously said, "is like a bunch of chocolates". He was referring to the unexpected surprises (good and bad I guess) that serve to make our lives interesting. 

Cutting rock is much the same. Surprises, both good and bad are revealed. True, if you know what you're doing, you have an inkling. But you never REALLY know.

The weather on Digby Neck has warmed up enough so that my water cooled lapidary machines can be fired up and recently I did a bit of cutting. Here are a few interesting pieces.

The first piece looked pretty good on the outside, with nice pink colouring.

But it was only when cut that the beautiful patterning was exposed, including the gorgeous pockets of fortification agate.

The next is a piece of petrified wood found on a beach. It had all the earmarks of petrified wood on the outside.

But when I cut it, the beautiful organic structure became evident and the great colouring also showed up.

Sometimes you get a complete surprise. On the outside it looked like a nice piece of agate.

But on the inside, there was an amazing array of colour and patterning. This will make a couple of amazing cabochons!

I'll be doing more cutting next week so stay tuned. And if you are in the area, come by and see our retail shop as well as my "Lap of Lapidary!