Wraps 7/24/21 - Thundereggs

Wow! I especially like the last one. Do you wrap these by hand?

jasoninsd - both hands! These are amazing. I always wondered if people did the wraps by hand or if they were pre-made... especially when yours look perfect. Thanks for clearing that up. They are truly beautiful and hope to one day have a fraction of your talent! I've been making some freeforms but the domed pieces I have tried chipped and broke in the vibe. But I will say I'm fairly new to all of this, so there's time. I feel ya on the reading glasses...

Thank you so much...that really means a lot!

To be honest, I think a lot of mine has been that luck was on my side. I've been blessed to have acquired and hounded some really amazing material. I really do believe that in itself is half the battle.

You want to know something? I've got a lot of respect for anyone attempting free-forms! I don't have the artistic skill to make it work...I've tried a couple and the shape ends up looking like a squished prune! LOL - I enjoy the "paint by numbers" way of following a stencil pattern. So keep on doing the free-forms - it's a talent I will never possess!

Awhile back I tried to put some cabs in the vibe and didn't get good results. I know now that I didn't do it right, but it ended up destroying several cabs. I really do prefer to finish them by hand...but that's just me. I know a lot of people have great success finishing their stuff in the vibe.



Thanks Jesse!

I absolutely love all of the Thunderegg cabs...but #7 is also my favorite out of this batch! It wouldn't be so hard to let some of these go, if I had some of the SAME material to make more...but when it really becomes a "one-off", that's when I cringe about having to let them go someday. I know...I just need to take pictures of them and be happy in the knowledge they were mine for a little while! LOL

And I can't tell you enough how much your words of encouragement mean to me. I'm not really one who lacks confidence...I'm really not! However, I will admit it seems to be the knowledge in what I believe I can achieve versus where I'm at right now that sometimes still gets to me. I just want to keep getting better.

Edited to add: I've actually never bought them straight from the Ranch yet. I've gotten them off eBay so far. I didn't realize until recently I could just get them straight from Richardson's Ranch. I believe they'd be the Priday Thundereggs (https://richardsonrockranch.com/rock-prices/) and at $2 a pound (if it is still that amount), then it's well worth it.

If you haven't seen this link, it's worth perusing! LOL

www.thundereggs.co.uk/

One of the best songs ever written or sung:






To be honest...I had NO clue what I was doing when I started. I started with a Dremel and quickly learned I didn't want to continue doing it that way! So I got the slant cabber right away! LOL - It's been a massive learning curve over the last 9 months...and I'm still learning  - or trying to at least! LOL

A really big saw is a really big help and a really good start! One thing that helped me when I started was to work with material I didn't care about...meaning stuff that was readily available and cheap. For me that was Prairie Agates. Looking back, I feel like that was a good material to start with (for me) as it's pretty hard on the Mohs scale and polishes up nicely when you do it right.

Do you have material you could mess around with that you don't care if it's "practice" material? If not, let me know and I can send you some stuff...



Edited to Add - Because it just dawned on me!!! LOL:

I don't believe there is any hijacking of any of my threads...it's like a conversation...sometimes it takes a sideways detour, but I think that's what allows people to get to know each other better!

I really like working most Jaspers...I haven't worked much petrified wood that hasn't had pitting or fracture issues (the exception being some George West from Texas). I had to look up Angel Wing Agate...wowzer! That could make some really nice cabs!  

I will be watching to see the unveiling of the saw!

The method for making a domed cab on a slant cabber (flat lap) is, on a basic level, the same as using the wheels. I think it's harder to do a straight edged cab on a flat lap than it is on wheels, because there is more of the cab in contact with the grinding surface than there is on the wheels - which creates a single point of contact along that straight edge. The only thing you can't do on a flat lap is create an inside swoop like you can on the wheels...

I checked out West Coast Mining's website (http://wcmining.com/) but their site is "under construction". They say to check them out on eBay, but they don't have anything listed at this time. They have a Facebook link, but I don't do Facebook...my wife does enough of that dang site for the both of us...and some of the neighbors too! LOL

I Googled Polka Dot Agate, and I realize I've seen some of that listed on eBay here recently. I also Googled Polka Dot Agate Mine Thunderegg and saw a few pictures of some beauties! I appreciate the offer on helping with the shipping. We may end up having to do a trade of some kind one of these days.

Thundereggs are second only to Teepee Canyon Agates! LOL - When you get a whole nodule (of either) the same kind of "surprise" exists for both of them!

I'll definitely do that. Since I don't do Facebook at all, I'll need to get my wife to look it up for me. She's the FB junky aficionado!

Thanks my friend!

One of these days, I'm going to call Richardson's Ranch and order some moss/plume Thundereggs direct from them.

jasoninsd

Copper (or is it bronze?) works well with the colors in these thundereggs. Your more ornate wraps exhibit a level of craftsmanship that belies your short amount of time doing this.

I generally prefer to see all the cab and to have any ornate details on top or off to a side, but I can see that you put some real thought into those decisions. You don't cover up the best parts of the cabs with wire (a pet peeve of mine). Instead, you use the ornate details as a way to embellish less interesting parts of the cab or to better frame the best part. #4 is a good example of this.

And when the whole cab deserves to be seen, that is what you do -- like #5 and #7.