Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 3, 2022 14:35:39 GMT -5
Excellent Tommy - I hope it inspires lots of interest :-) Really like that Turquoise set of yours, that style of wire wrapping is one I haven't seen, The last set is also very nice , not sure what stone it is. Thanks, the last two sets are Ocean Jasper.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 3, 2022 14:07:58 GMT -5
Thanks Tommy , it should be a good contest. I specifically choose it as a challenge for myself & hopefully for everyone,
as I've never cut small cabs, or a matched pair.
Good Luck everyone :-) Patty
I think it's great! I'm definitely challenged and I'm going to do my best to get an entry in. I've only done it a few times and always drilled, and always part of a matched set to a larger pendant stone. I'm just posting these for inspiration - if I can do it with my big fat hands then anyone can.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 3, 2022 13:53:33 GMT -5
Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum cabochon contest where your cabochon making skills, creativity, and material will be put to the challenge. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to enter regardless of cabochon making experience, skill level, or machinery and methods. This contest is about having fun and challenging ourselves to step outside our comfort zones and learn and grow, while dazzling the community with our beautiful rock creations. July 2022 RTH Cabochon Contest, Contest Theme: Matched Pair as chosen by our May contest winner Patty liveoak. Contestants are asked to create a matched pair of cabs, suitable for use as EARRINGS. As far as size goes there is no exact numbers, but ask any woman and she will tell you that earrings need to be as lightweight as possible, so the size needs to be kept small. Any shape is OK except for round because circles are too easily created with mechanical means devices.
Links to all of the original front and side submission photos can be found below the photo collage. All of the original contest submission posts and responses have been removed from view during the voting period in order to remove as much of the popularity contest aspect from the voting as possible. All original content will be replaced in this thread at the close of voting. We sincerely appreciate all the feedback comments we get and want to continue to improve the contest as we go so keep 'em coming! Photo Links: Cabochon 1 - frontCabochon 1 - sideCabochon 2 - frontCabochon 2 - frontCabochon 3 - frontCabochon 3 - sideCabochon 4 - frontCabochon 4 - sideCabochon 5 - frontCabochon 5 - sideCabochon 6 - frontCabochon 6 - sideCabochon 7 - frontCabochon 7 - sideCabochon 8 - frontCabochon 8 - sideCabochon 9 - frontCabochon 9 - sideCabochon 10 - frontCabochon 10 - sideCabochon 11 - frontCabochon 11 - sideCabochon 12 - frontCabochon 12 - side Prize:The winner will receive a teeshirt or mug of their choice from the RTH Store. Contest Format:The contest will be contained in this single thread and has a theme that serves as the primary criteria for voting. The voting period will occur for approximately seven days around the start of the following month. The winner of the contest will have the opportunity to choose the theme of the contest occurring two months after the contest they won (ie: June winner chooses August theme). At the beginning of the voting period, a voting poll will be added to this thread and all contest submission posts and responses will be hidden from view in order to help insure a level playing field. All original content will be replaced in the thread at the close of voting. Contest Period:July 3rd thru 31st at 11:59pm PST Voting Period:Approximately Seven days beginning around the first few days of the following month. Entry Requirements:Participants may enter one hand-shaped, jewelry ready, rock cabochon, consisting of a visible dome on top and a flat backside. Variations on dome heights and girdle styles are permitted and ultimately it's up to the voters to decide if the contest criteria has been met. Entry cabochons must be made entirely by the member, within the contest month and feel free to let us know about the piece including how you shaped and polished it, and what challenges it presented. Please identify the material if you know what it is. Cabochon may have a hole(s) drilled but nothing attached to it. Photo Requirements:Three photos minimum are required including one non-backlit, non-glamourized or filter manipulated photo showing the cabochon directly from the front (if posting more than one front photo please indicate which one you want used). Also include a photo taken at as close to 90 degrees angle as possible showing the side of the cabochon so we can see the shape of the dome and girdle if it exists. The third required photo is of the preform or slab you started from. If you do not have all three of the required photos post what you have and let us know. Photography Notes:For size perspective it is helpful to include a photo alongside an object such as a coin or fingers. Until the conclusion of the voting period please do not post on any area of the forum, photos of your contest entry that has been turned into jewelry which includes the stone after it has been set, wrapped, or had any kind of bail attached. Back-lit photos are permitted as extra photos especially when the stone contains interesting features that do not photograph very well, but they will not be used as your front featured photo requirement. We don't want the competition to turn into a photo contest but also recognize that it is in your best interest to make sure your front and side photos are as focused, bright, and colorful as possible because these two photos will be cropped and presented in the voting collage. A highly zoomed in front photo is not as desirable as a more zoomed out photo that is well-focused on the stone and allows enough background for cropping to a square 300px x 300px and the side photo for cropping to 300px high x 100px wide. Voting Criteria:Please judge each entry based on the following while keeping in mind that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the difficulty levels of material vary as do photography skills and equipment. An exceptional example of creativity and skill might not always be flashy and bright, and we owe it to every participant to do our best not to allow it to become a photography contest. 1) How well was the theme challenge of the contest theme met? 2) How well did the shape of the stone meet the general contest requirements, or any special theme-based shape requirements? 3) General appearance, beauty, artistic creativity. 4) Photography - is there a direct and focused front shot and a direct and focused side shot for voting purposes? If a tie vote occurs, a new voting poll will be launched for the period of one day and will include only the stones that were tied for the lead. Community participation:As always on the forum, polite and respectful dialog and encouragement is very welcome in the form of 'likes' and comments. Advice or direction from the community is welcome only if the contestant has requested it. Members are welcome to enter work-in-progress photos but if the final photos are not added before the conclusion of the contest, the piece can't be included in the voting. Thank you to everyone who participates by entering and or commenting and encouraging others. We sincerely appreciate all the comments and feedback we get and want to continue to improve the contest as we go so keep 'em coming!
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 16:06:23 GMT -5
All, the collage photo and individual photo links have been fixed and include #16 side shot. Refresh your browser if you're not seeing the side shot yet.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 15:05:25 GMT -5
BTW, the flower pots weren't quite as old as I thought they were but we are still super happy with them compared to the absolute crap you see on the market at outrageous prices these days. They are signed... but I can't read it lol.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 14:57:32 GMT -5
Thanks all, I know y'all want to make me feel better but yeah, there are lots of flubs that I could point out. As long as Diane likes it that's all that matters right? liveoak - to answer your question Tela said in this post it was supposed to be Mohawkite but it looks more like Josephine's Crown and I agree with her on this.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 14:44:16 GMT -5
So I was there Thursday when the rocks in the labyrinth were still for sale. My problem with purchasing any of that stuff is twofold. I can't id a lot of it and I have no way to cut it. I already have a real nice piece of Stone Canyon in my backyard that I can't cut. I went back Friday and bought a large piece of petrified wood and a couple of larger rocks that I thought looked nice. I probably would have got more but I asked about pricing when I got there and was told it was "as marked" It wasn't until I got to check out with no time left that I found out it was 1/2 off. I thought I had about $120 or so worth the stuff and it cost me $45 I looked for you on Friday - we there from about 10am to 1pm. I thought I'd be able to recognize that beard from your avatar picture but didn't see anyone. I also purposely wore a "No rock is safe" shirt thinking if anyone from the board was there they'd see me There was conflicting information on the 1/2 off rocks - around noon when it went into place the estate sale manager told me that they home owner had decided not to include rocks and wood in the half off - but an hour later when I dragged my stuff to the counter he took half off of everything including rocks without being asked.
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Tommy
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Member since January 2013
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 13:04:31 GMT -5
It took a lot of guts for me to rejoin, and I expected (and probably deserve) to catch some grief. I know people think differently about me for it, but it is what it is. Thanks for not giving me to much crap for it. Thank you for signing back up - I know that couldn't have been easy. I promise that this is all the grief AND crap you will catch from me so seriously, welcome back. The reason we were all so shocked was because of how well liked and respected you are so again, thanks for this.
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Tommy
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Member since January 2013
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Post by Tommy on Jul 2, 2022 11:44:50 GMT -5
... in my previous RTH life I went by jadedvision. Welcome back. I have to tell you that your unexpected departure and deleted posts and account was a complete shock to a lot of us and a heavy blow for the forum. I spent the next few weeks asking people WTH went wrong - searching for clues why you left and wondering if it was something I said. Most of all, a bunch of your fellow community members mourned the loss of a great member who opted for the nuclear option of wiping out a ton of wise and experienced posts on his way out. Anyway, as you can tell I'm almost over it now so please don't do that again
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 1, 2022 21:07:58 GMT -5
Holy Moly! All this on a single estate? I can actually see the rock rings from Google Maps :-) Speaking of the rock rings - by the time I made it to the far back where the "rock maze" resides they had a sign saying it was off limits. According to the estate sale manager, the estate owner (the brother of the deceased) had had a "change of heart" and decided not to sell the rocks in the rock maze. This was an absolute shame because there are some really good rocks in there - in particular I found probably a 70# boulder of Stone Canyon looking jasper and told the estate sale manager I would give him five times the $20 asking price on it but he couldn't do it.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jul 1, 2022 20:54:08 GMT -5
So on a whim Eva and I took off for Ceres this morning. I didn't get to see it before it got hit at least twice but there was still a LOT of rocks for sale. It kind of just kept going and going the farther you walked into the back yard. I found one large pile of fairly undisturbed rocks that had a lot of thundereggs in it - in the old days I probably would have sat down and spent about three hours sorting through just that pile picking the eggs out of it but I'm still thinning out my own stash by cutting through it - and I have no business hauling home a bunch of new stuff. So the highlight of the sale was two authentic planter pots with grape vine decorations, very fitting to drag back to Napa with us lol. They are old and VERY heavy - they weigh probably 60 lbs each. They were marked $100 each which is already a steal at local prices here, but at noon today prices of everything were dropped 50% so I grabbed them. I did find a large chunk of faced Hornitos breccia that weighs probably 20lbs. It amused me because I see a certain rock celebrity on FB who claims this Hornitos breccia material to be a recent find by them as they sell 2 inch slabs $20 and people are eat it up. This chunk had probably 30 years of dirt on it. I had dig it up out of a where it has been undisturbed for a very long time and spray it off before I could even tell what it was. I was hoping to find a hunk of poppy jasper but this is as close as I came so anyway, I got it for $5 so that's good. I also couldn't resist this thick slab of local Magnesite. I can't tell if it's from Anderson Lake or New Idria - they look very similar. It's very cool and highly detailed in the trademark connected dots pattern. I searched for wherever this slab came from but it was all I could find. There was a TON of magnesite boulders in various places but none displayed the green translucent inclusions.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 30, 2022 17:00:55 GMT -5
So, who were you in a previous RTH life? Hahaha great minds think alike ... and at the same time
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 30, 2022 16:59:34 GMT -5
the artist formerly known as vision, aka Byron. Hi and welcome back! Just out of pure curiosity how long have you been gone?
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 30, 2022 12:12:28 GMT -5
Rockindad hope you are having a great day and getting to play with shiny objects.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 30, 2022 12:11:13 GMT -5
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Tommy
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Posts: 12,675
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Post by Tommy on Jun 30, 2022 11:57:21 GMT -5
That's only about two hours from us ... too bad I didn't know sooner as we were out just farting around all day yesterday looking for stuff to do.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 25, 2022 14:03:17 GMT -5
The package is on the way to you drocknut . I did my best to sterilize things - especially my hands before packaging it all. I didn't open individual cab bags since I got the package a few weeks ago so I kept my contact with all of that to a bare minimum of wrapping it in bubble wrap. I only took out the stone I wrapped and so I replaced it with this sanitized Rocky Butte cab: Enjoy the pendant! I'm not very happy about how it turned out for all the reasons stated earlier and I'm feeling quite vulnerable for putting it out into the world so ...
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 25, 2022 13:16:32 GMT -5
Happy belated manofglass! I'll try to be on time for next year's.
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Tommy
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Post by Tommy on Jun 25, 2022 11:05:24 GMT -5
For about a year I've not been able to access this forum from my home laptop. My IP address shown in that message is 143.198.20.195. Not sure what this is all about but if you know how to fix please let me know. Bob, if you can save a screen shot for me to pass along to support I would appreciate it.
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Tommy
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Member since January 2013
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Post by Tommy on Jun 24, 2022 19:06:19 GMT -5
markb Did you think your thread would go down this rabbit hole lol!? No I didn't, and oh boy what a hole it was! No kidding - I got sick and missed the whole thing and had to go back and read it trying to figure out how we went from lapidary safety to melting Teslas and covid
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