Post by Bluesky78987 on May 4, 2014 20:28:43 GMT -5
Had a good time at the Searchers show down in Anaheim this weekend. I ended up going TWICE, more on that later. Got to see PaulS there.
Here are some slabs I got:
South African Green Quartz (never heard of this stuff before):
Olympic Poppy:
Ira Agate (or, California Picasso Stone they are trying to sell it as) from Laguna Beach. I call it Ira Agate because Ira sells it. It smells like crude oil on the rough grind.
Feather Ridge slabette (going to need some vug filling):
I also made a huge tactical mistake for my rockhound/rockcutter future. I bought an opal. A little Welo. I figured, hey, for $8.50, how dangerous can it be? Little sparkly rock like this? Never having tried opal before, I figured I would ruin it, and that would be a fun experiment and that's all. So when I got home, got the flat lap going, and cabbed it right up. Easy peasy. And it came out really nice! Not exactly oval, and not exactly perfectly domed, but pretty good considering it's about 6x8mm and I didn't dop it. I was all smiles! That was Saturday.
So TODAY, Sunday, I realized the show was still going so I just HAD to run BACK down to Anaheim, for a few more, and some Ceriam Oxide to polish them with. Wallet is now quite a bit lighter. Loaded up the felt tip on the Dremel with CO and bzz bzz bzz, opal all shiny!
Here's a (sort of not too terrible) video of it. I think it's probably a pretty so-so opal, nothing special, but I loooooove it. It has every color of the rainbow. It's clearer than shows in the video - pretty much transparent. You can read type or read my fingerprints through it. I'm working on setting it now (rubs hands together).
And, sadly, I'm hooked. I know this is going to be a NOT GOOD THING for my wallet, especially when the Opal Show rolls around in October . . . Sigh. But I'm smiling!!! I made a pretty thing!
Here are some slabs I got:
South African Green Quartz (never heard of this stuff before):
Olympic Poppy:
Ira Agate (or, California Picasso Stone they are trying to sell it as) from Laguna Beach. I call it Ira Agate because Ira sells it. It smells like crude oil on the rough grind.
Feather Ridge slabette (going to need some vug filling):
I also made a huge tactical mistake for my rockhound/rockcutter future. I bought an opal. A little Welo. I figured, hey, for $8.50, how dangerous can it be? Little sparkly rock like this? Never having tried opal before, I figured I would ruin it, and that would be a fun experiment and that's all. So when I got home, got the flat lap going, and cabbed it right up. Easy peasy. And it came out really nice! Not exactly oval, and not exactly perfectly domed, but pretty good considering it's about 6x8mm and I didn't dop it. I was all smiles! That was Saturday.
So TODAY, Sunday, I realized the show was still going so I just HAD to run BACK down to Anaheim, for a few more, and some Ceriam Oxide to polish them with. Wallet is now quite a bit lighter. Loaded up the felt tip on the Dremel with CO and bzz bzz bzz, opal all shiny!
Here's a (sort of not too terrible) video of it. I think it's probably a pretty so-so opal, nothing special, but I loooooove it. It has every color of the rainbow. It's clearer than shows in the video - pretty much transparent. You can read type or read my fingerprints through it. I'm working on setting it now (rubs hands together).
And, sadly, I'm hooked. I know this is going to be a NOT GOOD THING for my wallet, especially when the Opal Show rolls around in October . . . Sigh. But I'm smiling!!! I made a pretty thing!