Post by paulette on Oct 4, 2011 18:51:28 GMT -5
My husband Terry and I are rock hounds and club members (Courtenay Gem and Mineral and Ripple Rock Rock and Gem Club) on Vancouver Island in BC Canada. We have a growing assortment of trim saw, Genie, various sized saws - largest is 18 inches, grinders and not-quite-working stuff we acquired second or more hand. My husband is the saw smith...
I love to drool over (and buy) slabs at shows but have a stubborn belief in working with local stuff. We have an assortment of jaspers (usually fractured), serpentine, epidote in white quartz, various mine rocks (copper and gold mines)and an amazing variety of breccias (this island formed out of sea floor spreading and had a lot of tectonics and subsequent infusions and low to middle grade metamorphics. None of our local stuff is knock your socks off but I feel loyal to it somehow. The Dallasite (a locally named breccia polishes well as does serpentine. We go to the Fraser river when the water is down and drag home a vehicle full of stuff every year as well.
My wire wrapping is chaotic and uses material that my electrician husband salvages at work and out of old TV sets, etc (lots of copper). I am more interested in having fun that being precise. Same for the shapes of my cabs. My trade name (not licensed because I'm not producing enough) is Agent of Kaos. Good name for an ADD lapidarist - yes?
I will have fun "mining" this site. I do trades - our stuff for your stuff. This always works out for me - no matter what I get back in the box.
My most recent play involved trying to polish some chlorite phyllite we found last weekend. It is a schisty material and I made a square cab (is that the right word for a squared rock?), the top of which was oriented with the linear crystals. When wet it was beautiful, once dry it was smooth and dull. I am considering spraying it with something - acrylic maybe. (I did say I was more interested in fun that traditional and precise). Anyway - I used the Genie and lots of water and wore my glasses and must have gotten spray in my eyes. Maybe chlorite is particularly shard-like. I rinsed my eyes and used eye drops because I felt like I had done a BAD THING to them. Glasses are not enough! I'll remember that for awhile anyway...
Glad to find you all. Paulette
I love to drool over (and buy) slabs at shows but have a stubborn belief in working with local stuff. We have an assortment of jaspers (usually fractured), serpentine, epidote in white quartz, various mine rocks (copper and gold mines)and an amazing variety of breccias (this island formed out of sea floor spreading and had a lot of tectonics and subsequent infusions and low to middle grade metamorphics. None of our local stuff is knock your socks off but I feel loyal to it somehow. The Dallasite (a locally named breccia polishes well as does serpentine. We go to the Fraser river when the water is down and drag home a vehicle full of stuff every year as well.
My wire wrapping is chaotic and uses material that my electrician husband salvages at work and out of old TV sets, etc (lots of copper). I am more interested in having fun that being precise. Same for the shapes of my cabs. My trade name (not licensed because I'm not producing enough) is Agent of Kaos. Good name for an ADD lapidarist - yes?
I will have fun "mining" this site. I do trades - our stuff for your stuff. This always works out for me - no matter what I get back in the box.
My most recent play involved trying to polish some chlorite phyllite we found last weekend. It is a schisty material and I made a square cab (is that the right word for a squared rock?), the top of which was oriented with the linear crystals. When wet it was beautiful, once dry it was smooth and dull. I am considering spraying it with something - acrylic maybe. (I did say I was more interested in fun that traditional and precise). Anyway - I used the Genie and lots of water and wore my glasses and must have gotten spray in my eyes. Maybe chlorite is particularly shard-like. I rinsed my eyes and used eye drops because I felt like I had done a BAD THING to them. Glasses are not enough! I'll remember that for awhile anyway...
Glad to find you all. Paulette