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.

Latest Creations

While it has been a pretty benign winter to date, it is still too cold to do much in the lapidary shop so the focus shifts to the jewelry bench. Over the past months, we have been busy creating items for sale on our new on-line venture- The Seawall Emporium. First, we created a number of pendants featuring beautiful petrified wood from Arizona.

Then we started working on copper pieces and made everything from the simple to the complex.

The REAL Viking artist taught me how to make Viking Chain and we made several beautiful bracelets.

And recently, we started working with an exciting new material- used guitar strings! These strings are amazingly complex and have characteristics that offer exciting design opportunities.

We were so excited we formed a new collection- The Phoenix Collection- to celebrate the potential for this upcycled material. It can be used for lightweight earrings (above) as well as more elaborate pendants and necklaces (below). In fact, we're just starting to explore the possibilities!

And we even had time to create some commissioned pieces.

So what's next? Well, the days are getting longer and soon we'll be back on the machines. I have a big backlog of rock to be slabbed. We have decided to open the Artist's Mark Shop this summer and while we don't expect as many visitors as in previous years, we look forward to meeting some new friends so if your travels take you to Nova Scotia, look us up!

The Eye of the Tiger

 Summer is gradually coming to a close and the sun is appearing farther south on the horizon every morning. The mornings aren't yet cold enough to turn on heat but we're getting there.

The good old Lot-O-Tumbler is doing its last load for the year and once I have worked a few stones for "She Who MUST Be Obeyed" I'll start cleaning the machines and the Lap of Lapidary will be shut down except for the drill press that I'll continue to use for metalwork through the winter.

Last year I participated in a little product research for Hi-Tech Diamond, a great American lapidary equipment company and as thanks, they gifted me with a beautiful thick slab of Tiger's Eye. This material appears to be the type formed by altered asbestos or chrysotile so I call it the ugly duckling. It starts life as an ugly, potentially dangerous mineral and, after it has been altered by silicate fluids, it becomes an amazingly beautiful gem rock that exhibits "chatoyance" or a shimmer of light that causes the stone to look different as it moves. It's an amazing, complex process that I won't go into here but the results it produces are visually stunning.

When I got the slab, I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. It was large enough for me to get 3 pendants and thick enough for me to do a complete drop- that is curved surface front and back. I needed 3 pendants of differing size- the largest for Vickie my wife (she with the agate eye), a medium sized one for my older daughter Lisa and a smaller one for daughter Sandra- the runt of the litter.

First step was to define the shapes using a magic marker and doing a rough cut of the slab. I used my 10 inch Hi-Tech saw because the slab was so thick. Then I ground out the outside shapes on my new (and much loved!) Cab King cabbing machine.

Next, while the stones still had flat surfaces front and back, I located the mid point and cut a groove around the perimeter as shown in this stone, using a machine with a 1 mm. bit that lets me cut horizontal grooves.

The groove holds the wire I use to set the stone and doing it with a flat surface lets you make a nice straight cut. I like using this technique because it doesn't interfere with the colour or patterning of the stone.

Then it was back to the Cab King to grind the curved shapes on both sides, smooth them out and then polish with a mixture of tin and cerium oxide. I love the results!

I used bronze wire to complement the golden yellow of the stones and now the girls just have to decide what they want me to hang them on. Here's a video showing the effect of chatoyance but in all honesty, it is much more pronounced in person.

I hope you enjoy this and now it's on to new adventures. We have almost completed work on our new web site and enterprise- the Seawall Emporium- and I am now figuring out how I can incorporate old guitar strings in my creations so stay tuned (get it?)  and stay sane and healthy!

Our Online Shop is Open!

Well, it's taken a while but we're finally ready to go!

For several years, people unable to visit us here have asked if there was a way they could buy some of the product we have featured on this blog. Now there is!

Several years ago, our daughter Lisa, inspired by the amazing local rock, started a venture- Seawall Fibres- to sell her hand dyed yarn. This has become so successful (we ship thousands of skeins of yarn around the world each year) that she made the decision to sell directly via her own dedicated web site. To see the site, go to www.seawallfibres.com
This decision has made it possible for us to offer our rock jewelry and guitar picks directly to you. We're starting with the guitar picks and over the next several weeks, we will be adding select pieces of  rock jewelry- rings, pendants and ear rings.

So take a minute to visit her site and see our beautiful selection of hand made rock guitar picks. And when you see the beautiful yarn, you might even decide to take up knitting!

What IS The Artists' Mark?

Since this is a rather odd name for a shop, I am often asked the question in the title. First, I'll clear up a few misconceptions. My name isn't Mark (it's Peter). Also, although the shop is only about 200 square feet, there is a lot to see.
The shop gets its name from the fact that pretty much everything we sell is hand made. Thus it shows the mark of the artist- tool marks, brush strokes, variations in shape and colour- all the things that make a piece unique and something that is disappearing rapidly in our modern buy cheap and throw away society.
There are actually three components to our venture.
First, there is the art studio. The following pic is a panorama shot of this area.

This was originally Vickie's painting studio but she "generously" offered to share the jewelry bench area with me. (Actually, I moved my stuff in when she was out shopping one day). So here's a pic of our jewelry bench, complete with one of two studio cats.

The second component is the rock lab where I do my lapidary work. Here's a panorama.

And here's a close up of my 50+ year old Mercury grinder/polisher and my Rock Rascal trim saw.

On the other side is my Lot-O-Tumbler (vibrating), 10 inch Mercury saw, drill press, slant lap and trim saw/ grinder.

When you visit, if you are interested in seeing these areas, just ask and if we aren't busy we'd be happy to show them to you.

The focal point of our venture is the retail shop and as I said earlier, we've packed a lot into a small space!. Here are some shots.

Front window with rock slices and free tumbled rock box

Yarn and jewelry

Rock guitar picks, jewelry and art

Lots of hand-dyed yarn, knitted goods and jewelry

Polarized sunglasses, beach bags, jewelry

Buoys, art, jewelry and polymer clay beads

So that's The Artists' Mark- a great place to show the kids how rock gets shiny, art and jewelry get made and where everybody takes home a free piece of "The Neck"!

Oh, and a great place to buy a truly unique piece of jewelry and the most gorgeous hand dyed yarn in the world!

We can't wait to show you in person.

 

Back in the Rock Lab

We have had snow and high winds on The Neck for the last few days but with my industrial heater, it's warm enough to work in the lab.
So here's an update on the material I showed you in my last post. I have finished the cab and guitar pick I made from petrified work and here's how it looks before I do the final polish.

I am actually going to use the red pebble grained leather behind the stones to create a "setting" for the guitar pick and it will become a pendant for Vickie's 48th wedding anniversary. (I looked it up and 48 years is petrified wood- actually, it's home improvement but that's no fun!). I won't polish the pick because it will become too slippery to use but I'll probably use my tin oxide and Fordham Buffer on the pendant.

I also finished one of the two pieces of Rhodonite (I love this material!). Again, this photo is taken before any polishing but just as it came off the 8,000 grit belt.

This stone is 4.5 cm x 2.7 cm and I have actually cut a groove all around the edge of the stone to hold a silver wire which will be the only setting. The stone's patterning and colour are so striking I want to show as much as possible. This one along with the petrified wood piece will be available eventually in the Artist's Mark Shop.

So that's how I'm spending Black Friday. Hope that wherever you are, you have a great day!

Working With Petrified Wood

Last summer, my friend and fellow lapidary Glenn Cook from Arizona gave me some beautiful slabs of petrified wood from his "stash". I would tell you the extent of said "stash" but you'd never believe me. Let's just say it's... significant!

Anyway, Glenn cuts thick slabs and this one is about 11 mm. I was originally going to make a pendant and Vickie created a shape so I cut the slab and did a rough grind on the shape. Here's what it looked like.

Since it was too heavy, I thought I would try a little experiment to save me a lot of grinding. Could I actually cut this into two ovals without using a vise? First step was to draw a guide line.

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that my line wasn't exactly straight but I knew that if I cut on the top side of the line on the left and ended up in the middle of the line on the right it would be perfect. Since I would be feeding the stone by hand, I decided to use my thin MK trim saw blade to give myself a little more margin for error. I carefully started to feed the stone into the blade and here's my result.

The thick piece on the left is now about 6 mm and I will now do a bevel around the edge on the good side and grind it smooth. If it is still too heavy, I'll grind a bit off the back. The one on the left is a shade under 4 mm.Again, sharp eyes will notice that there is now a shape defined on the right. That's the guitar pick that I'm going to make Vickie for our 48th anniversary in a few weeks. I'm thinking I might drill a little hole in it so she can wear it as well as use it as a pick.

Stay tuned for the final result!

Picking Time on The Neck

Winter is coming.

All the signs are there. Today, we had some snow and the high winds and sub freezing temperatures  made the walk from my office to the rock lab "refreshing". The hatches have been battened down, roof leak repaired and the wood stove is cranked up. We're ready.

The industrial heater in the rock lab makes it nice and comfortable out there and over the last week I have finished a new batch of guitar picks.

I started with 23. 3 broke and the guy who fixed my roof bought 2 so I am left with 18 which should be enough to get me through the holiday season. The patterning in these is awesome and the light ones are mostly amethyst. Now I have to make some more leather pouches.

Fortunately, I have a lot of leather blanks ready to go and they can be done where it's nice and warm.

And speaking of warm, my friend in Arizona sent me pics of some slabs he is bringing me next year. These are slabs of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest in Arizona.

Pretty awesome, huh? Can't wait to do some cutting and polishing!

We will be taking the sign in pretty soon so it doesn't blow away but if the car is here, we're here so come on in.

This has been a super busy week at the shop, with several pendants going to new homes. Today it is raining heavily so it's a perfect time to catch up on filling a few holes in the inventory.

First off, I have to tell you about my new venture- stone guitar picks!

To date, I've made about 25, using different types of local agate and jasper and I've sold about 5 or 6. The picks themselves have to be very thin (2 mm) which has resulted in my two index fingers becoming a little shorter and a certain amount of blood loss but it has been a lot of fun. We came up with a design for a simple leather pouch which, I am proud to say, I've done by myself, including the cutting, drilling and sewing. Best of all, we are using all re-purposed leather. I sell them with the pouch for $35 and if it keeps up like this, I'll be making a ton more!

Sewing all these leather pouches gave me an idea for a pendant design and we cranked out our first effort today.

Sorry for the pic. The leather is actually black and the stone is a gorgeous orange/ brown slice of carnelian. I'm looking for feedback on this before I make more but it certainly is "unique"! We are thinking of calling the line "Biker Chic". Any thoughts?

The last piece is a slice of petrified wood that has a small pyrite cube in the upper right hand corner (just visible in this pic) and a lot of visible cell structure.

Again, it is a truly unique piece featuring a beautiful local stone. The last two pieces will be available in the shop for $50 each.

We also just restocked the yarn shelves with recently hand dyed yarn so if you are a knitter, check out Seawall Fibres on Etsy and Ravelry.

Hope to see you soon.

Cheers!