southerly
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2013
Posts: 17
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Post by southerly on May 24, 2024 18:49:11 GMT -5
Carved this for one of my daughters friends who is an environmental scientist. She love Australia's river red gums, so this a carved River Red Gum leaf, gum nut and seeds. Each has it's own scale as the leaf is much bigger than the gumnut and the seeds are tiny in real life. All presented together in the style of a "charm bracelet" as a pendant. The leaf is nephrite jade from Tamworth, Australia; the gum nut is black nephrite jade from Cowell, Australia and the seeds are agate from Agate Creek in northern Australia.   |
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Post by rockjunquie on May 24, 2024 19:09:45 GMT -5
Very cool!
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,979
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Post by khara on May 24, 2024 19:39:23 GMT -5
Very nice carvings! What are your preferred tools/bits that you use to do these carvings? Are you using a flex shaft? The leaf looks quite delicate as it’s thin and the nut looks difficult to carve the very small gap details. I have been eyeing the Nova points which I understand to be similar to Nova wheels for cabbing but tiny and you can carve and polish with them.
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southerly
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2013
Posts: 17
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Post by southerly on May 24, 2024 23:42:29 GMT -5
Very nice carvings! What are your preferred tools/bits that you use to do these carvings? Are you using a flex shaft? The leaf looks quite delicate as it’s thin and the nut looks difficult to carve the very small gap details. I have been eyeing the Nova points which I understand to be similar to Nova wheels for cabbing but tiny and you can carve and polish with them. I use a Foredom and diamond bits. I do whatever work I can on the big wheels then move to the diamond bits. I general use the largest bit I can that will do the job, that can be a very small bit sometimes. The leaf is very tighlty felted nephrive, it is about 1.5 to 2.0 mm thick. The gumnut was shaped as you would a bead, the outside shape being done with the drilled stone glued to a mandril and mounted in a cordless dremel that is then roataed against a normal diamond wheel. The inside edges are done with small diamond wheel shaped bits and diamond drills. The sanding is done with carbide sticks, carbide paper and diamond pastes on wood and felt. Polishng with diamond. I have not found the noval points very useful but many others use them. David |
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,979
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Post by khara on May 25, 2024 6:09:15 GMT -5
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Post by liveoak on May 26, 2024 7:10:47 GMT -5
Very nice ! Lots of work in that pendant - I bet she loved it ! Thanks for sharing. I recently saw a youtube on making your own diamond bits for finishing. I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking it might be something to try.
Patty
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Post by jasoninsd on May 26, 2024 7:41:12 GMT -5
That is amazingly cool! Not only the workmanship...but the gift idea as well! Very beautiful...and very thoughtful...especially using the material from "down under"!  |
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lapidary1234
spending too much on rocks
"If you like rocks you can't be all bad!!" ~ old timer quote
Member since October 2021
Posts: 293
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Post by lapidary1234 on Sept 23, 2024 0:11:32 GMT -5
That is really neat! Nice job. Looks like it could easily double as a fishing lure if need be haha 😄
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