Opal, Sodalite, Aventurine, Citrine

HELLO!!!! (said in a nice, sarcastic BUT admiring tone of voice)

Your pix DO NOT suck, they are amazing. Wow! I am still learning how to take "shiny" pix up close. You rock!

Your opals pop in the last photo. Thanks for the 2 photos for comparison.

I am wondering about the girasol opal; clear rocks in #4 photo, right? Never heard of them, but they are gorgeous.

Thanks so much for your amazing pix and info.
K

Thanks!

Karen -- Thanks. It's just that I do a fair amount of aquarium macrophotography and I kinda expect the same standards with my rock pictures. There's a trick to everything and I'm still learning. I hate hauling rocks outside to take pictures, so I'm buying a light tent.

Jack -- shouldn't be too long for the opal tree. I have it all ready except for the stones. The opal that I bought was horridendous; the pieces were either too big or not showing the fire I could see underneath. So I cut it all up with tile nippers and started retumbling. It looks a lot better now.

For the last picture I had to bounce the light off the ceiling and shade some to get the colors to come out.

Karen,

That is a beautiful tumble! It looks like you have a little apitite in with the aventurine and that does look like some of my amazonite in the second picture. Really nice Opal too! I haven't been too successful with citrine so far. I am hoping the next few will turn out. Yours looks great!
Fran

Thanks, guys!

My glue is here! Through the process of trial and error the ONLY glue I will use on my trees is 409 Loctite Industrial Bonder. LOVE that stuff, but of course I have to order it online.

Now that the glue is in da house, I can finish up the opal tree and get pictures for y'all.

Eileen

Jack,

Hubby just "bought" one of my sculptures so I'm buying a 30" light tent. Should be here early next week. I've tried making a light box but it's just a royal pain, y'know? I've no place to store such a beastie where it won't get ruined and I just can't get a decent size. I also make necklaces for horses and they run 60" in size. The 30" tent should do nicely for those and my sculptures, too.

Eileen, do you make the little rocks for the leaves or do you buy them already small? If you do it can you tlel me if there are any hints to do it right or should I just "whack away"? LOL

Both now, actually

It's really difficult to find leaves small enough for these trees -- unless you don't care if they look too big. So, sometimes I luck out and find some the exact size. Sometimes I find some that are twice the size that I need and I buy those, wack and tumble. Sometimes I can't find a dang thing so I buy the smallest rough I can find and just wack away

If you are seriously thinking of doing this, get a vibe to go with your rotary tumbler or stick with quartz, agate and jasper. The softer rocks will disappear on you if you don't baby sit them and many of them will undercut in a rotary.

The GOOD thing about doing the tumbles yourself is that you don't need good quality rock. Rose quartz, for instance, can be had really cheap AND with a nice color if it's crappy fractured stuff. The fractures you aren't going to care about -- in fact you WANT the fractures -- 'cause yer just gonna wack it anyhow. Fractures will make it break up really easy.

Try to stay away from transparent or overly translucent rocks until you get the hang of it. The metal of the leaves will show through and it's tricky to pick a metal color that will sort of "blend in" with the rocks.

Silver colored or galvanized steel wire is a good start as that blends in with just about anything.

If you want to try rose quartz, some pet shops that have aquarium fish and supplies carry nicely colored, but fractured, stuff for putting in fish tanks. It's cheap, too. That's where I got some of mine. And some yellow quartz. Oh, and white mica, which I use for cliffs and stuff.

HTH
Eileen