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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 6, 2014 6:59:30 GMT -5
Hey everyone....When you are done ,P.M. me a picture so I can catalog it and get it ready for the Poll...It is getting a build-up of excitement in here...I am ready to see some of the pretties that are finished...John Are we doing one picture of all 10 finished stones together or 10 individual closeups? I think individual shots would be great but then that's like 200 pictures for the poll. Could even do 2 photos per person with 5 stones in each to keep the photos to a minimum? Thanks Chuck |
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jun 6, 2014 10:45:12 GMT -5
Or if we wanted to, could we take individual pictures and combine them into one large grid or mosaic?
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Post by Rockoonz on Jun 6, 2014 18:17:04 GMT -5
My photo skills kind of suck, so I will try for pics in sunlight on a background that will show that the rocks are dry.
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Post by fantastic5 on Jun 9, 2014 11:52:10 GMT -5
Okay - starting to feel the pressure! Not having a working rotary tumbler I've been having to cut and rough in the shape before I put in the Lot-O. For some reason yesterday I went back through the culls and placed a few in my saw and to my amazement found beautiful colors patterns inside. Classic (freaked)rookie (freaked)mistake...discounting the things that aren't obvious. Now I am rushing to rough out some more of these for the final polish. It's going to be so hard to pick 10.
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,548
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Post by tkvancil on Jun 10, 2014 0:56:21 GMT -5
I'm thinking that each contestant should probably post/send one picture of their top 10. If we all did individual shots it would be several pages of pictures for the voters to scroll and sort through. That's likely a bit much for John too.
I personally wouldn't be opposed to a grid/mosaic. Don't know how to do that myself though.
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,548
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Post by tkvancil on Jun 10, 2014 12:30:50 GMT -5
Thought I'd show a few rocks that didn't make the cut for the final run. A pit here and a chip there. A crack here and a fracture there. They all had flaws that I felt would be grit trappers so will have to be finished later. A couple of these I had hopes for to make the top 10 but alas it just wasn't meant to be. I'm sure they will end up in my ever growing "favorites bowl". I have to say that the rocks Roy supplied have been some of the best I've ever had the opportunity to work. Here they are photographed wet to show what they could be .......  Rock on everybody and good luck.  |
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junglejim
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2014
Posts: 344 
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Post by junglejim on Jun 10, 2014 12:51:19 GMT -5
Some nice grit trappers, if my finished batch has that kind of shine I'll be thrilled. I'm starting the polish stage as of yesterday using Harbor Freight tumblers from start to finish. Spent two days rinsing between pre polish and polish and still wouldn't come clean and had to remove some pieces that I thought were causing the problem, lot's of fracturing with this stage for some reason. Took out the plastic beads before rinse process so barrel was only half full. Should I have left it in ?? Fingers are xxxxed that problem is solved. Did buy a Loto vibe this weekend so expect improvement in future batches.
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Post by cpdad on Jun 10, 2014 20:29:08 GMT -5
sorry guys...havent been around much....weather got warm so i moved to the lake....then went to northern arizona for a week or so...they got big lizards out there  . then flew back to augusta....and back to the lake....i did make it back in to check rotary tumbler...i am in 500....no time for 1000....which i like to do....will be going from 500 to polish on the 12th....and run polish until the 22nd....and then send pics...yes last minute also. i have no idea....i have not babied these as others i have done....but it is what it is...pic out of 120/220  |
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Post by rockjunquie on Jun 11, 2014 0:07:52 GMT -5
Just read this whole thread start to finish. Really enjoying the camaraderie! Y'all ROCK! Tumbling is all Greek to me, but I am really excited to see what you end with. In case anyone is interested... I use a free program called photoscape to make collages. You can download it from here. It does lots of other stuff, too. For the collage, you want to use the "page" function. You can set the size of the page and the design layout, then just add your pictures. real easy. |
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 12, 2014 19:17:09 GMT -5
Ok I don't want to give away too many clues about my contest rocks but here's a a couple sample cabs I tossed in with the contest rocks as benchmarks. The flat backs on cabs give me a good idea of how my ration of small's to big's are working. These pictures are right out of stage 3 (500 grit). I'll try to post similar pictures of the same cabs after the next stage to check progress. How's everyone else coming along? Tiger eye and hickoryite (never tumbled hickoryite before so no idea what to expect there)   Thanks for checking these out Chuck |
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jun 12, 2014 19:43:28 GMT -5
I have a half Lot-O batch done and another half batch moving to 1000 tonight. I don't know if I have winners, but they're looking good to me. I'm most worried about my photography skills or lack there of.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 12, 2014 20:10:51 GMT -5
Right now I am mostly worried about timing. If I mess anything up at this point I wont have time to fix it so I am taking the safe road and not trying anything too tricky. For the first time since this contest started I looked at all my rocks dry today and picked my top 20 and took photos. Now after polish I'll pull those same 20 and narrow them down to 10.
Chuck
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cathiasplace
off to a rocking start
Member since May 2014
Posts: 17 
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Post by cathiasplace on Jun 12, 2014 21:43:35 GMT -5
I am so looking forward to pictures! |
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tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,548
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Post by tkvancil on Jun 13, 2014 0:37:09 GMT -5
I've got my competition pieces that were roughed to my satisfaction in the vibe with 600. They are accompanied by some other agates and jaspers that were also ready along with a lot of ceramic media. I have decided to run the 600 for 96 hours. If it works for obsidian (per Krystee's tutorial) it should work for agate/jasper. Random pulls are promising, many have an "almost shine". Guess that this is somewhat risky as it completely new territory for me. The slurry has gotten much thicker than I anticipated and I may have come close to over watering the batch. Friday the 13th (my lucky day) everything will get cleaned and burnished. From there they'll soak in water until Saturday the 14th when the polish cycle starts. With the exception of three pieces I'm already "in love with" I'll let the final polish decide my top 10.
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jun 13, 2014 8:19:55 GMT -5
I'm thinking that each contestant should probably post/send one picture of their top 10. If we all did individual shots it would be several pages of pictures for the voters to scroll and sort through. That's likely a bit much for John too. I personally wouldn't be opposed to a grid/mosaic. Don't know how to do that myself though. I think either one shot of ten or maybe 2 shots of 5 rocks each pic would be good. If someone wants to post individuals of each rock though, we could start another thread for that. I would like to see each one, especially if it has commentary and tips included. No one likes the idea of a secondary contest of favorite individual rock? |
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jun 13, 2014 8:33:18 GMT -5
I think either one shot of ten or maybe 2 shots of 5 rocks each pic would be good. If someone wants to post individuals of each rock though, we could start another thread for that. I would like to see each one, especially if it has commentary and tips included. No one likes the idea of a secondary contest of favorite individual rock? I plan on posting the remainder of my rocks from the contest rock tumble to the "rock tumbling photos" section after the contest is judged and over. I think these rocks will deserve full size individual pictures but I know that's too many photos to handle for the contest. The mosaic would work but even then each picture would be kinda small (like 300x300) for showing detail. One overall picture is probably best but then we are putting all of our eggs in one basket and have to count on one photo to show 10 weeks of hard work..... Were gonna need roy and Thunder69 to chime in on this one. Chuck |
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Thunder69
Cave Dweller 
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,105
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Post by Thunder69 on Jun 13, 2014 21:27:04 GMT -5
Hey everyone!!!...I was going to say 2 pics of five would be good...But then I think just one would be the fairest way to go...It will be the coup de grâce pic of pics... ....I would also suggest to take the pic in different lighting to see which one gives the optimal WOW factor.....Let me know what Ya'll think...John |
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Post by roy on Jun 14, 2014 8:51:40 GMT -5
agree!
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riverrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2010
Posts: 1,395
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Post by riverrock on Jun 14, 2014 8:54:19 GMT -5
Well mine are now in the last stage .
So is it one more week?
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Post by roy on Jun 14, 2014 9:23:07 GMT -5
second place prize  1st place is tempskya petrified fern polished slab  and third place is a grit kit from JS Gems (thanks john) |
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