The Great Cabochon Project is Complete!

 Well, it's been a hectic couple of months but the cab project is almost over- just a few days after I turned 75! And yes, I'll admit I got a little (well maybe a LOT) carried away.

My original goal was to produce 100 quality cabochons from my existing rocks and slabs. The first step was to choose the shape and I let the rock determine that as much as possible. In a few cases I kept a raw edge if it enhanced the look. Then I had to cut out the shapes using my trim saw attachment for the Cab King and it worked amazingly well.

Here I want to say a word about Cab King. I'll tell you flat out that I would not have tried this venture with my old equipment but it was possible because the Cab King is faster, much quieter and far more comfortable to use. Some say the wheels don't last but mine are great and after two years including this batch, they have plenty of life left. Also, the watering system is wonderful. One last bonus- I don't know if they recommend this but I mounted the saw in place of the fine grit wheels and was able to switch back and forth between cutting and shaping. Just have to have some protection from the turning saw blade.

So yes, I got carried away and ended up with closer to 200 stones, which is way too much for my jewelry needs for the upcoming winter but the lady with the agate eye just keeps bringing me so much beautiful rock- agate, jasper, amethyst, sparkling druzys, petrified wood- and virtually all of this batch is local from the Bay of Fundy.

There is some amazing patterning.

But some of these are just awesome when you see them with a light behind them! Here's the same batch backlit.

So my plan now is to take out any that have flaws (sometimes cracks appear towards the end) and polish some of the best pieces to 50,000 grit if I think they will look better (they are at about 14,000 now). Sometimes a surface that is too glassy can detract from the visual effect of the patterning.

Then I will post pics of smaller groups on IG and Facebook and possibly here as well and offer them for sale individually, either as loose stones or made into jewelry on site.

It has been an awesome learning experience and now I can cut some more slabs!

Covid restrictions have eased in Nova Scotia and we are getting some visitors from the rest of Canada so if your plans are taking you to this area come on by and say hi and see what we are working on.

Cheers!

More Amazing Agate and Jasper from Digby Neck

A while ago, I had a bit of surgery done on my chin and the doc told me to stay away from my machines for a bit but after a follow up visit, I'm good to go again!

So this morning I cut several pieces, mostly to define and cut out shapes for cabs that I will work on over the winter.

This piece is from a beach so we really have no way of knowing where it originated but since I have a drill core of the same material from a site nearby, I'm pretty sure it is local. Here's how it looked on the outside.

This is what's known as brecciated (broken) jasper and here is what it looks like on the inside.

Pretty spectacular, huh? The broken pieces of jasper have been re cemented at a later date and in the process, small cubes of pyrite have formed. They show as shiny gold shapes in the picture.

And if you think that looks good, How about this? Recently, a friend brought me a piece he had found while exploring his property "somewhere" on the neck. He is a fellow lapidary from Arizona and has given me some amazing slabs of petrified wood so since he has no equipment here (bring a saw on your next trip Glenn) I offered to cut it for him. The patterning on the outside looked "interesting".

But I must admit that I wasn't prepared for what lurked inside.

This is called "fortification agate/ plume agate" and it is one of the most amazing examples I have ever encountered. Now I have to find a way to "liberate" it!! (heh,heh).

I am amassing some awesome material to work on over the winter and later in the fall but I also have some beautiful cabs I just finished to amuse myself with.

Man I LOVE cutting rock!

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!

Officially Open For The Season.

As usual, spring is taking its sweet time getting here and because of all the cold water, cool temperatures and fog are the order of the day. But I have it on good authority that warmer weather will arrive at some point. So today, the sign went back up.

Yup! The Artist's Mark is open for business!
People who have visited previously will notice that we have reconfigured thing so we can cram in even more stuff.
We still have Vickie's popular gorgeous totes:

And a HUGE selection of Seawall Fibres hand dyed yarn in all weights along with hand knitted items, unique patterns and knitting supplies:

And more polymer clay and stone jewelry than ever before:

We still have amazing original art and this year, we will be selling individual polymer clay beads for those who want to create their own pieces. Of course, we always have a great selection of local rock and mineral specimens. We even have the world's largest diamond! (OK so it's a Herkimer diamond which isn't really a diamond but it's still cool to see)!
So if your travels take you to Digby, come on out to "The Neck"- a truly unique part of Nova Scotia. You can tour the Rock Lab and see jewelry being made and don't forget, every visitor gets to choose a tumbled polished local stone so they can take home "A Piece of the Neck"!

Big Storm!

So after a long stretch of beautiful weather, we had a real doozy hit last night and it will get progressively worse through the day today with wind gusts hitting 110 KPH. So instead of rockhounding yesterday, I spent the day preparing- including the removal of our large sign in the front by the road.

    In that big a wind coming from the south, the sign might end up in New Brunswick!

I will probably leave the sign down until the spring but will still change the smaller Open/ Closed one so if you see Open, come on in! We just got a new large shipment of yarn and I have completed about 30 pieces of inexpensive pendants. Got the flat lap wheels I was missing so it is back to work today!                                                                                                                                                  

Beautiful New Piece

Since I got my clean bill of health from the doc on Thursday, I've been really busy in the rock shop. New shelves have gone up and the machines have been humming.
One of the things Vickie has wanted to do is create jewelry pieces with a "live edge".
Woodworkers will be familiar with this since it's common to leave a natural edge on things like tables and mantles- basically leaving the wood as it was cut with little or no shaping or sanding.
The same can be done with rock if you get the right piece and in our latest haul there were several such pieces.
So Vickie gave me a shape to work to and here's the result.

The botryoidal patterns are truly amazing and now Vickie will design a setting to hold the stone.
Wharf Rat Rally this weekend and then things should slow down.
I have one more load to do in the big tumbler and about 6 in the small so they should be all done by the end of October and then I will just concentrate on cutting, grinding and getting all the machines ready for next summer.
It is a beautiful time of the year here on Digby Neck so if you are in the mood for a vacation or even a day trip, drop by and see us. We usually stay open regular hours to the end of October but after that we are open with reduced hours until the end of the year. So if you are looking for a truly unique gift, we probably have it.

The Wisdom of Listening To Your Wife

Every once in a while, you should listen to your wife.
Wait, it is often good to listen to your wife.
OK Vickie, a husband should ALWAYS listen to his wife!
Can I get my keys to the rock shop back now???

One such occasion was during a recent trip to nearby Gulliver's Cove on The Bay of Fundy. Gulliver's is a beautiful spot and there is a spectacular look out as well.

Gulliver's at Low Tide

 We decided to try out my new hip and see if I could get down to the coves. The hip worked great and we got down to an area where we had previously found some nice agate.

One Of Our Favourite Spots

Vickie Hard at Work With Her Personal Geologist's Pick (Thanks Jonathan)

Eventually Vickie found a seam of chalcedony that looked quite rotten so I told her not to bother. After all, I'm a highly trained geologist and I KNOW what is usable.
She bothered and got a few pieces since I told her just to take a few.
We lugged everything home and were going through it when I said "You might as well throw this out because I can't do anything with it." She demanded-yes DEMANDED- that I at least cut one piece. So to preserve my perfect record of one year marriage contracts, I did. And while the outside was so rotten it broke as soon as it got near the saw blade, here's what was inside:

Gorgeous Chalcedony With Beautiful Botryoidal Patterning

Of course I had to cab a couple up to see how they finished and, as you can see, they finished up pretty darned nice. So I spent the rest of the day cutting rotten chalcedony and getting some superb material.

Naturally, I gunked up my saw pretty good so I'll have to clean it up and change the oil before I can cut MY stuff but hey, an unblemished record of marriage contracts makes it worth it!

ALWAYS listen to your wife!

The Best From Nature

As I mentioned, our friends John and Nancy Hood from Scotia Gems  (www.scotiagems.com) stopped by last week to deliver some large slabs John had cut for me. They also left two beautiful pendants that John had set in silver for us to sell in the shop.

This is a gorgeous piece of Nova Scotia Crazy Lace Agate with a beautiful area of Fortification Agate and a small topaz at the bottom on a really nice silver chain- spectacular!

This is just so unique! It is a piece of Nova Scotia Agate including native copper! The little blotches on the silver setting are just a lighting issue and this photo really doesn't do it justice- a true one of a kind!

John and Nancy are a very interesting couple. Not only are they true rock hounds, John is an amazing jeweler and they also keep a lot of bees on their farm which Nancy turns into the most wonderful non-pasteurized honey.

Having enjoyed it for several years, I personally can attest to the fact it IS The bees best! So if you are local you should check it out  if they have any left!

That's it for now. Hope to see you soon!

Bounty From New Tumbler

I have been working with my Lot-O-Tumbler 4 pound vibrating tumbler for about 2 weeks and have been promising to show some of the results so here they are:

There are some absolutely beautiful pieces of jasper, crazy lace, fortification and conglomerate agate and chalcedony. I even put in a few of the slices I had cut and they turned out great!
At some point, Vickie gets to choose which she wants for jewelry and then the rest either get sold as specimens or end up in the free rock box so if you come by, you may get to leave with a beautiful piece of Digby Neck. believe me, these stones are even more beautiful when you are holding them!
Cheers!

Mystery Rock

So today I am asking for your help.
Yesterday, I was cutting some rock in the shop and here is one that I cut open.

It is about 5 cm x 3 cm and the inclusions are between 0.5 and 1.5 cm. It is definitely a silicate bit apart from that, the only thing I can think of is some sort of chalcedony that might have inclusions that were formed by gas or H2O replacement.
It is absolutely beautiful and I'm going to try and cut two slabs to make pendants because I know it will polish beautifully.
As someone used to say on TV, "The truth is out there!"
Also just finishing a second lot from my new (old) tumbler and there is some beautiful material in it. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Catch of the Day

I like grinding and polishing and tumbling agate but I LOVE cutting it! You never really know what you're going to get.
This little stone was only about one inch by 2 inches but when I made the first cut, I knew I had to get as much as possible.

There is a beautiful contrast between the peach and dark brown and the last two pieces even have a little area of amethyst at the top.

So after we took this shot, I was able to cut one more section. I ended up with three beautiful sections for "The Boss" and one nice end piece for me that I decided to tumble in my new tumbler.
And speaking of the tumbler, here's a pic of some of the stuff I got in my first batch.

There are some beautiful examples of several types of agate and now I will sort them. Some will no doubt end up in our "free rock" box so if you stop by, you can take home a beautiful piece of the neck!
See you soon!

Between Two Bays Art Exhibition

Just a reminder that the Between Two Bays Art Exhibition (see post of July 13th) starts today, Friday Aug. 4th at 10 AM and runs through tomorrow at 4 PM.

Unfortunately, because of a communications error and timing issues, Vickie (Turner) will be unable to participate and we apologize to those of you who had dropped by the shop and said they wanted to see her work there.

Vickie's abstracts can always be seen in the shop so feel free to drop on by!

Again, we are sorry she can't show her work at that venue (Digby Neck Firehall) and hope that you can attend and enjoy the show

Summer Finally Comes To The Neck

Well, after a pretty lackluster, cold, damp spring, summer has arrived on The Neck. And just in time because we are seeing more and more out of province plates on a wide array of cars, campers and motor homes travelling highway #217.
I am pretty well over my hip replacement and complications so we are getting back to our normal schedule but I'll be in Kentville on Friday for most of the day so we'll be closed then.

An Amazing Super Moon
Last night we were treated to the awesome sight of a super moon coming up over St.Mary's Bay. It was so spectacular that cars were pulling over in front of our house to watch!

That means that we are getting King Tides (higher than normal). And when the normal tides are higher than 22 feet, that can be pretty spectacular.

Knit City
The girls are headed out to Vancouver in September to display our world famous Seawall Fibres yarn. The good news for knitting enthusiasts is that Lisa has doubled her shipments to us and we currently have the best yarn inventory ever. So if knitting turns your crank, come on by and pick up a skein or two of the yarn we are shipping all over the world!

The "Rock Shop"
Starting next week, I hope to be back in there churning out specimens and jewelry for sale in the shop. I am also exploring the possibility of getting a few more machines to enable me to do even more. So if you have ever wondered how we make all this beautiful stuff, come on by and I'll show you!

So summer's here. The scenery is great. We have new places to see and eat on The Neck so if you have some time, take a little road trip down one of the most unique areas of Nova Scotia- the totally awesome Digby Neck!

Vickie's Latest Work of Art

Vickie is back on her polymer clay horse and has decided on the theme for her next collection.
She is calling it predator and she is taking her inspiration from the teeth and talons of some pretty nasty beasts whose shapes she finds beautiful (go figure).
The first in the series is the Mako.
When we lived in Jacksonville Florida, Ponta Vedra Beach, actually, we used to find a lot of shark teeth. Each shark has a distinctive tooth design and the Mako's are particularly beautiful.

actual fossilized mako shark's tooth

So starting with this figure, Vickie hand cuts her own forms and uses several different polymer clay techniques to form representational shapes with unique and beautiful patterns. She then combines them with agate and metal spacer beads to produce a beautiful necklace. A set of ear rings, a bracelet and a pendant will complete the set and she plans on doing several in different colour combinations.

The Mako Necklace - no two alike - collect the whole set!

These pieces will be available in the shop next spring and will also be for sale on our new Etsy site (more about that in the next post).
Out here on the Neck, the sun is getting stronger every day and most of the snow has melted. Although we are expecting a big snow storm next week, spring is just around the corner so make your plans now to visit our little piece of paradise out here on scenic Digby Neck.
See you soon.

A Great Way to Experience the Digby Area

I am fortunate to live in an amazing area. Digby is located within the UNESCO Southwest Nova Biosphere- one of only 16 areas in Canada recognized internationally as being one of the world's most important nature areas and home to many endangered plants and animals. The geology is fascinating (see my earlier post) and the scenery can be breathtaking.
So a trip to this area can be the trip of a lifetime and a real learning experience for the whole family. In short, it can be something that your family will never forget.

Hiking at the Seawall on Digby Neck

 Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could have a really knowledgeable "local" take you to the best spots to maximize your visit? That's the idea behind Gael Tours.

Greg Turner- your Tour Guide

Greg Turner (no relation) is a life-long resident of the Digby area. An avid hiker, he knows all the really great areas off the beaten path and with 31 years experience as an educator, he can show you things that make this area so special and provide you with lifetime memories.
Greg conducts two different tours.

Plankton, Periwinkles and Predators:
This tour will help you explore the fascinating ecosystem of Digby- amazing sea life connected with the remarkable high tides and tidal pools of the famous Bay of Fundy. This tour is a Bay of Fundy Recommended Experience.

Stones, Steeples, Ships and Seafood:
Learn about the history of Digby and our world renowned scallop fishing fleet. In a short time, you'll feel like a native and you'll even get to sample local seafood (which is outstanding by the way).

Ecotours are the hottest trend in travel and a great way to maximize your vacation dollars and create family memories. If you want to learn more, go to www.gaeltours.ca

And while you're in the area, be sure to drop by our shop at the Artist's Mark on Digby Neck- right across from the Seawall cliffs and beach.
We look forward to welcoming you and sharing our amazing beautiful, unique area.