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!

Cutting Perimeter Grooves in Petrified Wood Cabochons

I am now well into my petrified wood project. Just to recap, I started with several beautiful slabs of petrified wood and used a magic marker to define shapes.

I then cut them out and finished them on my new Cab King. The results were pretty spectacular.

Recently I was contacted by someone who wanted to buy these three.

So today, they had to have grooves cut around the perimeter to prepare for wire wrapping. I prefer this technique when stones have a lot of patterning or colour shifts so the wrapping doesn't "compete". I have included this video to show the process. Hope you enjoy it.

In my next post, I'll include a video on my process for wrapping with a groove cut.

Enjoy!

Latest Pieces from The Lap of Lapidary

Well, it certainly has been a "different" summer- in many ways.

First, there has been the weather- definitely not the year for "fun in the sun" as we have had very few nice days to date.

And then there's "the Virus".

Although there are tourists from other parts of our "Atlantic Bubble" in town, we decided not to open the gift shop because of its small size and will look to establish a significant web presence in the fall. That has meant that it is really quiet around here and while we miss meeting all the interesting people who stop by, it has given us more time to "create". Vickie has been doing some very interesting artwork which is nearing completion and when finished, I'll do a post on it.

It's been fun playing with my new toy- the 8 inch Cab King and a new old (50+ years) toy- my 10 inch Mercury oil saw that daughter Sandra updated with a new and more powerful motor.

I am in the midst of a massive project to create pendants, ear rings and rings from the beautiful petrified wood slabs gifted to me by Glenn Cooke (miss you guys!) but have taken some time to finish a few pieces of local stone that are now ready for wrapping.

The first one is a perfect Digby Neck pendant.

It is shaped just like The Neck- right down to Brier Island- with little druzy pockets in each segment and is made up of the basic rock that makes up The neck- basalt and agate.

The next piece comes from Brier Island- a beautiful piece of dark green brecciated (broken) jasper

I plan on cutting a groove around the edge and wrapping it with silver wire. Should be dynamite!

And then there are these two little gems. They come from a small stone found on a nearby beach that offered a really nice surprise when cut. The smaller is about an inch long.

The colour and detail on the patterning is awesome and deserving of a nice setting.

All for now. Hope to see you soon. Cheers!

Petrified Wood Project Update

In my previous post I showed the slabs of petrified wood with the shapes I had defined using a marker. I have a combination of pendants, ear rings and a couple of rings.

It took me two days to rough cut all the shapes using a Cab King trim saw and my Hi-Tech 10 inch saw with a thin blade to accommodate some of the larger pieces. I was really pleased with the results since I started with 55 shapes and only lost two due to shattering along fractures. Here's how they looked then.

This morning I switched out the trim saw attachment for the right hand wheels on my Cab King and got busy grinding off all the excess material using my coarse (80 grit) wheel. I was amazed at how fast it went and now they look like this.

So now I am ready for the next step where I will use my 220 grit wheel to do the final smoothing around the perimeter and grind off rock on top to produce "domes" that will allow the rocks to polish. This is a much slower process but it is worth it to get stones that are well shaped because any flaws introduced now can't be undone down the road.

I continue to be really impressed with my Cab King, especially the water delivery system and removal system. And it is really easy to convert back and forth to the trim saw.

Stay tuned for the next step in this rather large project!

Cheers!

My Next Project

One good thing about no tourists is that I'm getting to spend a lot more time in my "Lap of Lapidary" shop. So today I embarked on a rather large project.

Fortunately for me, I have an amazing amount of quality local rock to choose from. And if that wasn't enough, I have a good friend- Glenn Cooke- who has gifted me a wonderful assortment of agate and jasper from the Petrified Forest in Arizona (all ethically collected).

This rock was formed about 225 million years ago or about 100 million years later than the rocks on Digby Neck (a wink of an eye geologically speaking). Over the eons, the trees, buried in sediments, were converted from wood to rock and what a conversion! There is an amazing array of colour in the jasper and agate and many pieces have retained the trees growth rings etc..

The first step involved defining shapes and cut lines in the slabs. here's a photo of the result.

Many of the slabs contain fractures so you have to be a little careful where you put your shapes. If there are a lot of fractures, I do straight cuts first to see how the rock will split. Here is another part of the assortment.

In all, I have defined 55 shapes so far for pendants, ear rings and the odd ring.

So now it is time to convert my Cab King cabbing machine to a trim saw and start cutting. Once that is complete, I'll go through the off cuts and probably be able to get another 5 pairs of ear rings and a couple of rings. Then I'll convert my machine back to the 6 wheel grinder/ polisher and start doing the final shaping and polishing. In all honesty I have held off doing this for a long time but my new Cab King is so much faster and easier that I felt now was the time (especially since there are no tourists!).

So stay tuned as I intend to show updates as the work progresses.

By the way, did you know that the Cliffs of the Bay of Fundy are a Unesco Geopark? I live in a Geopark! You should definitely check it out.

Cheers from Digby Neck!

Latest output from the Rock Lab

OK, so I haven't posted for a bit but it has been a little hectic around here. We had visitors from Vancouver Island and a few days later daughter Lisa arrived. Then daughter Sandra joined us for a few days along with Lisa's daughter Sydney and Sandra's son Erik.
Are you getting all this?
As well, the tourist traffic has picked up so I have been busy selling.
But since I have a fair bit of finished local stone, I thought I'd do something with a few beautiful slabs Vickie brought back from out west. So first she defined shapes on the slabs that she thought were the most interesting and then I cut them out, ground them to their final shape and polished them and here are the results. The first pic is a group of cabs made from an Australian stone called Mookaite that my Aussie friend Ted brought me on one of his visits. He was actually born in Montreal but lives there permanently now.

This stone is a very hard type of Jasper and because of that, polishes beautifully, showing amazing colour and patterning.
The next lot is cut from a slab of petrified wood brought to me from my friend Glenn Cook from Arizona. It too is extremely hard and takes a great polish that highlights the amazing organic patterning.

Vickie was in Kelowna last year and visited Black Mountain Artisans owned by the Rembrandt of lapidary machine restoration, Carey Sirhan. You should really check out his restored machines that are truly works of art. In any event, he parted with two treasures. The first is a gorgeous specimen of Picasso Jasper (which is actually a form of limestone), a stone that gets its name from its striking patterning.

She also brought back a small slab of a rare commodity called Biggs Jasper, found at Biggs Creek. This stone started life as a volcanic mud that cooled on the surface of one lava flow and was soon covered by another. These stones are truly beautiful and rare and are going to make some spectacular pieces!

They actually look more like mahogany than stone.
And finally, I finished a few more local pieces and a nice moss agate to round out the lot.

So now it's time to let the wheels cool off and clean the place up, making sure to carefully collect the sludge so Vickie can make more paint! I certainly have an interesting winter ahead of me!
When finished, these pieces will be available in the store or on line at the Seawall Fibres web site but if a particular piece "speaks to you" let me know and if it is still available, I would be happy to do something custom for you.
Cheers!

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!

Getting The Most Out Of A Stone

I am very fortunate in that I have a lot of beautiful stone to work with so often my biggest problem is deciding which one(s) to choose.
Recently I was cutting some slabs to use for guitar picks (I'm working on a batch of 44 and they are going to be spectacular!). Being somewhat "frugal" I tried to get as many out of each beautiful agate slab as possible but there was a piece left over that was large enough to use to develop a pendant and here it is.

I just love this stone. The colouring and patterning are amazing but it is the live (natural) edge that does it for me. To me, that edge takes it to a whole new level of beautiful.

I am also working with an amazing piece of petrified wood.

I have glued it to a distressed copper plate and will now wrap it with copper wire through the holes around the stone. In this picture you can clearly see the growth rings but in other light it is jet black. But again, the part I like the best is the live edge on top and to the left. It adds an amazing contrast when seen from the side, regardless of the light.

Conversely, other stones need to be worked more to develop their full potential. Here are two local stones that I have shaped in what I hope are shapes pleasing to the eye and then contoured so the natural patterns etc. show to their best.

On the left is a nice piece of crazy lace with some crystal (druzy) pockets that I have enhanced by using curvature. This one will eventually be mounted to a copper back plate. The stone on the right is what we call Straw Agate. It can vary from dark to light in colour but this lighter piece really shows off the patterning which is even more enhanced by the curvature. This one has been drilled and will probably just hang from a silver jump ring so the amazing stone takes center stage.

So as you can see, we have plenty of new pieces in the shop. And speaking of the shop, our sign is back up and we will be officially opening for the first time this season tomorrow- Friday, March 22 so if you are in the area, drop by and say hi!

More Pendants off The Bench

I have finally had a block of time to finish off most of the pieces that I had started on. As you can see, they vary from simple to complex.
Here's a small but powerful piece of Mexican Crazy Lace and even at only about an inch high, it makes a big statement. Both the front and back have amazing colour and patterning (sorry for the pic quality):

This next piece is more complex but again showcases a beautiful local stone. All the copper work is hand made.

Since I was using a thicker copper wire as a design element, I had to come up with a neat way to make the connection at the back so here's how it looks.

Then there is this beautiful piece of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest in Arizona. My friend Glen, who is from the area, gave me the slab and it polished beautifully.

Up close the patterning is awesome and since it is a relatively large piece (2.5 inches) I kept it simple and elegant with an antique sterling silver bale and clasp.

This next stone is amazing with stunning colour and patterning.

The patterning in this local stone kind of makes it look like Digby Neck and I showcased it with some hand made copper work.

And finally, here's a gorgeous piece of local carnelian. I love carnelian, especially banded as this piece is.

The colour was so beautiful that I didn't want to lose one bit of the stone so I just left it free form and tumble polished it and attached it to a bit of hand made copper work with a glass bead for balance.

In the upcoming weeks, I plan on trying some new techniques so stay posted. Also, we are pretty close to being able to offer pieces for sale on the Seawall Fibres web site so check the blog as I will post it when it happens.

More Stuff For The Shop

As I mentioned, I have started a new series I call "Stone and Bone". I am combining polished stones with wire wrapped fossilized shark's teeth that we found while living in Florida.

Since it was very cold and snowy here today, I spent some time on the bench and here are the results.

The two on the outside are fossilized wood (jasper) from Arizona set in silver plate bezels and the one in the center is a beautiful local piece of agate showing amazing patterning and colour.. I'll probably hang them from a leather or buna cord.

Today we live in dangerous times but here's what keeps me awake at night.

If they ever learn the combination to the safe we're in real trouble!
Cheers,

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!