Post by krazydiamond on Oct 8, 2005 15:11:17 GMT -5
a while back i won a slab of malachite on eBay, it was one of those "i just GOT to have that slab" kinda thing and i probably ended up paying way too much for it, but....when the red mist rises, it can cloud a normally sensible brain.
when i got it i realized how thick the darn slab was and i kind of put it aside to just kind of look at it and decide how to cut it up, having never worked with the stuff before.
well, i finally couldn't resist and i marked out a bunch of shapes and proceeded to trim it up on the saw....what a mess! it fractures, it flakes, it makes GREEN everywhere!!! i lost a lot of material to the tumbler pile, let me tell ya. now, i don't know if this is the general nature of malachite, but this particular piece i had was just not cooperating!
anyway, got them over to the ginder to rough them out to shape and wow, i thought i'd made a mess on the saw! there was green mud in the trays, on the wheels, on the floor, and i stained my fingers and finger nails a brilliant shade of green!
so i'm grinding away underwater, thinking, ok, no dust, i'm cool, but the spray of the green mist started to dry and voila! look at all the pretty green dust! oh, the toxicity!
got one dopped and finished today and i guess you can't beat it for finished looks, but MAN, what a pain in the bracket it is to work with! i had to finish one piece just to make sure it would be worth it to finish the rest...
i wish i could take a better photo of this, it's really deep. here are a few more i finished today, i don't what this material is, it's almost glassy like obsidian, this will be a mother-daughter set when done:
and lastly, a beautiful piece of Pietersite i got from Kim a while back, i have more ready to grind, the blue flash is amazing!
thanks for looking and listening to my rant!
KD
when i got it i realized how thick the darn slab was and i kind of put it aside to just kind of look at it and decide how to cut it up, having never worked with the stuff before.
well, i finally couldn't resist and i marked out a bunch of shapes and proceeded to trim it up on the saw....what a mess! it fractures, it flakes, it makes GREEN everywhere!!! i lost a lot of material to the tumbler pile, let me tell ya. now, i don't know if this is the general nature of malachite, but this particular piece i had was just not cooperating!
anyway, got them over to the ginder to rough them out to shape and wow, i thought i'd made a mess on the saw! there was green mud in the trays, on the wheels, on the floor, and i stained my fingers and finger nails a brilliant shade of green!
so i'm grinding away underwater, thinking, ok, no dust, i'm cool, but the spray of the green mist started to dry and voila! look at all the pretty green dust! oh, the toxicity!
got one dopped and finished today and i guess you can't beat it for finished looks, but MAN, what a pain in the bracket it is to work with! i had to finish one piece just to make sure it would be worth it to finish the rest...
i wish i could take a better photo of this, it's really deep. here are a few more i finished today, i don't what this material is, it's almost glassy like obsidian, this will be a mother-daughter set when done:
and lastly, a beautiful piece of Pietersite i got from Kim a while back, i have more ready to grind, the blue flash is amazing!
thanks for looking and listening to my rant!
KD
I think I'd wear one, probably without all the beads, but maybe with just a nice stone on a leather type strand....Once Again, thanks for making us all Drooooooooooooooooooooooool!
