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!

The Jooltool- A Preliminary Assessment

Like many others, I have difficulty working in my rock lab in the winter months. I have an industrial heater but can't leave it on when I'm not there so water tends to freeze and wheels don't turn like they should.
My daughter, Lisa, has used a machine called a Jooltool in her work with polymer and precious metal clay and since she is so busy dying yarn for Seawall Fibres she sent it to me to try because it can be used anywhere with no mess. Here's what it looks like.

It is basically a rotating spindle to which you attach these "ninja" type wheels which vary in coarseness from about 100 to 50,000 grit. You work the stone from underneath the wheels but when they are spinning, you see the stone perfectly because of the gaps. here's mine set up on my bench.

As you can see, it doesn't take up a lot of space. I worked on it for a few hours this morning and was surprised at the lack of dust, especially since you don't use a lot of water. And it doesn't make a lot of noise- perfect for indoors.
To test it, I took a stone that I had cut but not worked at all.

 It still had a few saw marks in it so I started with the medium grinding wheel and took it through to 50,000 grit and then cerium polish. And while the stone had some flaws and I didn't spend a lot of time on it, here's the result:

Honestly, I was pretty impressed! I also did a bit of shaping and it worked well. So then I tried it on a specimen piece that had previously been worked to 325 grit on my slant lap. Here's a video of the finished product.

So here's my assessment so far.
If you don't have much space, you could do a lot with this machine. The same goes for those who live in northern climates and can't work in their usual manner. It is a real advantage to be able to see the surface of the rock while it is being worked. The Jooltool isn't cheap- in fact, it's quite expensive. Buying the basic set up needed for lapidary will set you back $1300 Cdn. plus tax. But I have to say that if, like me, you have serious cabin fever and need to work on some pieces, I actually think it is well worth it. A lot of thought has gone into the design and it is incredibly well built.
So check it out on line and keep checking my blog because my next project will be to make a domed cab. As always, I'll be perfectly honest in my assessment.
And if you want to see it in person, contact me and I'll set something up.
Cheers

P.S. I am not a dealer for this or any other lapidary machine.

Another new Piece Off The Bench

I thought some of you might be interested in how some of these pieces are designed and made so I'm going to go through this one step by step.
It started with a beautiful piece of local straw agate that had an irregular shape and beautiful live edge. So we decided to mount it to a sheet of German Silver that was cut to reflect the stone's shape.

The plate was distressed and holes were drilled to allow for wire wrapping and jump rings to attach a cord. Both sides of the plates were distressed.

The stone was then glued to the plate using clear Gorilla Glue and left to set overnight. The next day, German Silver wire was used to wrap the stone to keep it from moving in any direction (in theory, the glue should do this but you never know...).

The back shows how the wire has been secured and tightened.

Then we chose a beautiful premium Greek leather cord and decided to use a very labour intensive method to create "eyes" in the leather by wrapping them in German Silver wire to match the stone wrapping. The cords were then attached to the plate using a German Silver jump ring.

Finally, I used a premium silver clasp on the other end of the leather cord and the piece was complete!

So waddya think? I love mounting stones like this and will post more on the blog in the days ahead. And if you want to see this piece in person, just come by the shop.
Cheers!