What's New at The Shop?

 Like the rest of the world, we have been in a state of suspended animation and isolation. We thought we would have the shop open all summer but then we had another total shut down and now it looks like early July might be our opening- if we open at all this summer. We sure do miss all our visitors!

Anyway, life goes on. I am back in my Lapidary workshop- the Lap of Lapidary- and have had both the 10 inch Hi-Tech saw and the Cab King Lapidary unit along with the trim saw attachment humming at various times. I have cut a LOT of rock, which I'll show in subsequent posts but today I'd like to show some of my recent completed projects. Last year I cut a beautiful piece of rhodochrosite from a mine in Argentina and I've just completed a set using one of the pieces.

The rock is so beautiful and since it was found in a silver mine, I thought it appropriate to combine it with sterling silver. I just love the way it turned out and I have two slices left!

I have also worked several stone to completion. The one in the center of this pic was sold to a lady who saw it on Instagram. It is a great piece of Mexican Crazy Lace Jasper and I can't wait to see what she does with it!

The weather here is still not great- sure wish global warming would show up! But the tumbler is on its third load and I have spent the really cold days making Viking knit chain in copper and sterling silver.

Just love the way they transform when drawn through smaller holes on the draw plate.

So we're keeping busy and if the shop ever opens, will have plenty of great pieces for you to see along with our amazing selection of hand dyed premium Seawall Fibres yarn.

In the meantime, check out our on-line shop- The Seawall Emporium, at www.seawallemporium.com

Stay safe and sane!

Anatomy of an Agate Pendant

 It starts, as it always does, with a stone. In this case it was a nice hunk of peach coloured agate that "She With The Agate Eye" brought back to the shop. As she is want to do, she insisted that I should cut it because there was treasure inside- she just knew it. Over the last 50+ years, I have learned to go with her hunches so I cut and by pure chance, cut right through a crystal druzy pocket not visible on the surface. I cut a slice and then cut a shape and after grinding and polishing on my Cab King this was the result.

It is a really beautiful stone but it lacked "pop" against any light background so I decided to try a copper backing. Now all my copper is reclaimed and upcycled. I have several sheets (thanks Dan) and it starts out looking like this.

It would be a stretch to get someone to wear copper like that so here's my process. First, I have to come up with some ideas and I was fortunate to have two other talented artists "in residence" at the time. Here are some of the ideas we considered.

The one on top was very interesting but not workable (sorry Sandra) so we eventually settled on the one in the lower left. From that, I made a pattern 

and then I cut a rough version of the shape from the copper plate. After a lot of filing and sanding, I had an exact fit to the pattern and now it was time to make the copper beautiful. To do this, I first flattened it by running it through a rolling mill and then started sanding the surface. I could use a Dremel but prefer to do it by hand and after starting with 100 grit, I keep working it through 12,000 grit. That takes time but the results are just what I want- a burnished piece of copper that retains the vestiges of it's previous life.

As you can see, backed by the copper, the stone takes on an amazingly warm hue and the druzy really stands out because of the spot of burnished copper that shows through. I now drilled holes in the bottom of the plate to hold a copper chain from which we suspended a nice matching Swarovski crystal and after rolling the "tongue" to create a bail for the neck cord. this is the result.

My objective is always to showcase the stone as best I possibly can and I'm pretty happy with this result. As usual, feedback is greatly appreciated and this piece will be available for purchase either through my "virtual store"- The Seawall Emporium (www.seawallemporium.com )- the Lap of Lapidary- or at the real store- The Artist's Mark- on Digby Neck, Nova Scotia. Hope to see you this summer!

Time to Shut Down The Cab King

 Half way through the summer I bit the bullet and bought a Cab King cabbing machine and it has exceeded even my high expectations!

It was so much fun that even the lady with the agate eye tried it out!

But now the days are getting shorter and it's getting pretty chilly in my Lap of Lapidary Shop so it's time to shut 'er down and do a clean up and let me tell you, it will be a lot easier with the Cab King! I may even be able to con "The Real Artist" into helping if she wants to collect the rock dust to make pigment!

My last task was to finish a bunch of local Bay of Fundy agate and jasper I had rough cut earlier and I have to say they turned out even better than I had hoped! The Cab King is awesome!

I also finished off some more petrified wood so there will be lots to work with on the jewelry bench when the snows are being blown around by our winter gales. And speaking of that, we are going to get a visit from Hurricane Teddy on Tuesday with wind gusts supposed to top out at 130+ KPH so that should be exciting!

Work is continuing on our new web site- the Seawall Emporium- and I have about 35 pieces ready for photography with a goal of having 50 listed by the end of October so stay tuned!

Stay healthy and sane!