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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 30, 2013 20:32:45 GMT -5
Did a couple of these a few weeks ago, and did three more over the weekend. This first one, it looks like Montana agate, but is nowhere near that hard. I have no idea... in gold filled wire. Another shot (reflection is my avocado tree) Opalized wood in gold filled another shot Coprolite in silver another shot Indonesian coral in silver, possibly my new favorite another shot red agate with "eye" in gold filled Not a ring, but these gold flakes were recovered from 1 1/2 buckets of dirt, collected a week ago Saturday at a friend's property in Ramona, CA. Not gonna get rich that way, LOL! Thanks for lookin'!
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Thunder69
Cave Dweller
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,102
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Post by Thunder69 on Sept 30, 2013 20:37:06 GMT -5
Beautiful rings ..I have to agree on the coral..Nice job.....John
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rolanstones
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since August 2013
Posts: 95
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Post by rolanstones on Sept 30, 2013 21:24:39 GMT -5
Love the Indonesian Coral!!!! All look really nice.
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Post by pghram on Oct 1, 2013 15:27:43 GMT -5
Really nice rings. I'll never understand how you can make the wire do that. I especially like the opalized wood.
Rich
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
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Post by grizman on Oct 1, 2013 17:48:24 GMT -5
WOWWWZERS! Your ability to work with your wire wrapping is truly amazing! I can't even imagine the skill it takes to keep your bends and parallel wires so perfect. Great work, that's for sure.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2013 20:10:00 GMT -5
That coral is way way over the top lady. Absolutely gorgeous. And your wraps are very precise.
What would it take to get you to make a ring for me? You would not want my eldest child but anything else I have could be yours. Well except for a short to medium list of things that I can not part with. I have rocks, slabs, rocks, slabs, pre forms, cabs, child's swimming pool, trampoline. That is all I can see from the window but I have lots more stuff.
If you would happen to and even if you don't happen to what is the best height for the stone. I have a stone that is the first cab that I made. It is (almost) perfectly round but quite high. 1/2" plus or minus and about 3/4" diameter. Maybe too wide? I can check the size tomorrow.
Soooo, I will get off your awesome thread. Thanks for taking the time to show those. Jim
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2013 20:13:03 GMT -5
BTW When I was prospecting I would hardly get that much gold from ten buckets. I would have been tickled pink if I got that much from two buckets. Did you pan it or sluice it? Jim
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2013 4:54:03 GMT -5
Panning.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,179
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Post by jamesp on Oct 2, 2013 7:55:53 GMT -5
Great rings Jean. Have you been a metal worker for long time? I think you said you just started wrapping. No way.
Can you imagine Jim on his trampoline?
You got it goin on Jean.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2013 9:12:15 GMT -5
Thank you all for your comments! John and rolanstones, you have excellent tastes (Indonesian coral). That was from a small slabette I picked up in Quartzsite in January.
Jim, I'll have to get with you on that.
Thanks, James. I keep a notebook of all the pieces I have done, so I know what I have in them. My very first wire wrap pendant was an ammonite fossil, wrapped in non-precious wire (already sold). I made that on 6/30/10.
The very first ring I did on August 1, 2013, so have been doing the rings for only two months. Have done 13 so far. So that's not so long, is it?
As for metal work, used to make/repair stuff for an antique lighting company. Mostly lights, designed and also prototyped from the lighting guy's sketchy sketches. There is a building in La Jolla that has 30 lights installed on the outside of it that we built. We also did three large fireplace fronts out of copper and brass for a rich person's ski lodge up in Boise, Idaho. I'll have to get my scanner hooked up so I can post the currently non-digital photos. I never did learn to weld (bad for your eyes, can cause cataracts over time), but I can swing a mean grinder, LOL! I also did texturing, sitting on the floor of the garage and beating metal with a hammer. Once I get started posting pics, you will beg me to stop!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 9:25:54 GMT -5
Would love to see your metal work. I worked with metal most of my life and created metal art as a hobby so I am very interested in other people's work.
Did the grinding give you any wrist problems? Jim
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2013 9:47:37 GMT -5
Okay, Jim, you asked for it! No, no wrist problems from grinding. But like waxing the truck, it can really build your biceps!
I really loved the work, but the guy we worked for turned out to be a jerk. Like I said, he'd draw/describe his thoughts, tell us about how big he wanted it, then I'd draw it up and we'd make a prototype. :et'sd say he'd want six of them made up. He'd tell us to jack up the bid a bit, then he'd take the prototype to another shop and see what they could make them for. For the most part, he paid well, and he always paid on delivery. But I was always the go-between, since the two men did not get along. I felt like a referee or translator at times, also the delivery driver.
The project I was working on when I got the metal in my eye was for a light made with a large steel ring, about four inches wide (flat like Saturn's rings)four feet in diameter, with three or four spots that it hung from a chain by. He took a large sheet of opaque glass, and took it somewhere they had a large kiln. They slumped it into the ring and trimmed it up, he added the light fixture, hanging chains, wired it and probably just painted it (since it was only steel). Any other metal he would have put a patina on. If I recall, this light fixture went into a pizza restaurant. We didn't always see the finished products, but he gave us pictures of a lot of them.
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Post by wireholic on Oct 2, 2013 15:22:55 GMT -5
WOW! I can't believe you've only just started with the rings. Every one of them is spot-on! That coral is gorgeous
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2013 15:55:44 GMT -5
Thanks, wireholic. I had borrowed an old tutorial on VHS tape from the late 80s, I think. It was propduced by Universal Wirecraft Company in Bradenton, FL.
It's been at least a year since I made a wrapped pendant. Now I find these rings so easy and fun to make, I am having problems doing a red dino bone pendant for a friend. Started it on Sunday, and I didn't like how it came out. Ended up scrapping the wire, have to start over now.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,179
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Post by jamesp on Oct 2, 2013 19:06:49 GMT -5
Would love to see your metal work. I worked with metal most of my life and created metal art as a hobby so I am very interested in other people's work. Did the grinding give you any wrist problems? Jim 4.5 inch and 9 inch grinder is hard on the wrists. So is a lot of stuff Jim. But the grinder is a wrist eater for sure.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,179
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Post by jamesp on Oct 2, 2013 19:09:11 GMT -5
I want to see your lights Jean. My wife does them. Her company is 'Tinkerlighting' on etsy. Darn if she doesn't kick butt w/them.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2013 20:52:12 GMT -5
Okay, okay, but I still have to scan photos. Frustrated today with lack of progress getting older scanner installed on newer computer. But, I just remembered another Win98 computer that I can install on. Will give that a try in the morning, hopefully can get pics scanned and posted soon. (Will start a new thread. Whadaya think? Member photos?)
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