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Post by stardiamond on Jun 25, 2023 20:52:36 GMT -5
I've heard of a lap dance. Is a lap walk for seniors?
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 25, 2023 17:03:29 GMT -5
Lapidary is an expensive hobby. My previous hobby was golf which I believe is more expensive. I don't tumble and that is a less expensive hobby. The problem with getting cabbing equipment is that new equipment is expensive. There is a tremendous amount of less expensive used equipment but most sellers don't ship. This site has a lot of used equipment and maybe you can find some near where you live. www.facebook.com/groups/LapidaryEquipmentMarketplaceThe key to cabbing is selling your work and hopefully make the hobby self funding.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 24, 2023 18:51:29 GMT -5
I sat through 4 hours and got a smaller slab of Guadalupe poppy jasper. As it was being announced I bid $40 and the auctioneer said he was looking for $45, but he sold it to me for $40 because I showed initiative one of his catch phrases. Another piece showed up later, smaller not as good a pattern and showed fractures and it went for more. Guadalupe is tough to find, expensive and nasty with vugs and fractures. I multi task during the auctions. They were getting good prices for stuff I would give away. As an example Leopardskin jasper. I've made some cabs and haven't even bothered to list them on Etsy. I'll take a quick look through my boxes and see what I have.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 23, 2023 17:04:00 GMT -5
another one today
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 23, 2023 14:36:24 GMT -5
Roy and Tony post here post at full moon rock shop. Ken Pearson frequently posts at Chiming Rock and Wild West Slab and Rocks Facebook groups. Shipping is expensive and quality is high. Groups to check cabs and slabs the slab depot, the creative slab connection, full moon rock shop.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 22, 2023 20:02:44 GMT -5
Lots of it from facebook sellers.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 22, 2023 18:52:38 GMT -5
I logged in again and sat through hours of looking at stuff that I don't need. A lot of agates. I saw a lot of feeding frenzy. For a few minutes people were doing a BIN before a price was stated. There were two things of interest for me; small Bruneau rough and small super seven rough.
I offered to do one of their webinars with the topic being buying lapidary material on the internet. Two keys are knowing the material and knowing the yield. I need know the yield to know if I will make money or lose money on the purchase. I finally saw a small Bruneau piece with a full pattern that went all the way through. It was small but would produce two nice cabs. Bidding started at $20, I bid $25 and the other bidder gave up. They had a few nice pieces of super seven. I didn't keep notes about how many grams the pieces I bought at Facebook weighed but bidding got beyond what I would risk quickly. All auction items are no tax and free shipping.
On Saturday they are having a huge slab auction startin earlier in the day. I'll join the zoom meeting but am not optimistic about getting anything after having a good sample of the buyers' behavior.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 22, 2023 18:38:15 GMT -5
The greatest value of this technique is when someone will be using it to evaluate your work. I use a combo method for dopping. The cab may be dopped but I also use my fingers directly on the stone and when in doubt I use my fingertips to validate the shape. Looking at the cab from point to base and base to point is good feedback.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 22, 2023 13:23:14 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 22, 2023 13:20:06 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 21, 2023 19:24:08 GMT -5
backlit.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 21, 2023 18:52:28 GMT -5
These are what I finished today. The Willow Creek now looks to me as a goat standing in front of a cow. The other one is one half of a super seven specimen I split.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 20, 2023 21:02:40 GMT -5
I use water glass or carpenter's glue. Water glass dries quicker and soaks off faster but I haven't muuch luck with larger rocks. Carpenter's glue takes longer to dry and getting the last slab off can be difficult.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 20, 2023 19:01:08 GMT -5
It expired. I posted it on this topic on the 17th and it expired on the 18th,
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 20, 2023 18:02:55 GMT -5
Did you get the discount?
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 20, 2023 16:29:55 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 19, 2023 15:42:29 GMT -5
This covers a lot of ground:
I got an Etsy message from my best customer, a silversmith in New Mexico. She sent me a picture of a pendant she made and wanted to know if I had more of the same material. I can recognize every cab I ever made and I knew that I didn't make it. I went through all my sold items and couldn't find it. She replied it was part of an off Etsy sale. There were two. One in 2020 and one in 2021. When the 2020 order arrived, she couldn't find an item but nothing was asked of me. The 2021 order was for 18 cabs and 15 pairs of earrings. I usually pack sold items in little cardboard jewelry boxes. I can usually fit 6 cabs in a box; two rows of three. I decided to try something different. I cut out three pieces of cardboard and attached everything using double sided exterior tape. Earring pairs were together and everything was lined up. I then took photos of the cardboard with the attached items and sent her the photos When the package arrived nothing had come loose. The cab I supposedly made was not in the photos. It was either Willow Creek or Tahoma. I sent her a picture of a Tahoma cab that looked similar. What she really wanted was custom work and I don't have any Tahoma slabs. I have a ton of Willow Creek and suggested that she look at WC cabs I've made to see if there was any material she liked.
The 2021 order included a lot of earrings. I don't like cutting earrings because I am not suited to precision work. To make things worse, she negotiated a price of $20 a pair for earrings. I have a current customer who is willing to pay $30 for what is basically one earring to make a ring. The material is Nipomo Marcasite. It takes about 1.5 times more making a pair of earrings than a regular cabochon. Earrings also need to have a pattern match in addition to a size match. For pricing two things come into play; the market and the cost of material. What a silversmith can ask for a pair of jasper earrings is limited. Since I make cabs as a hobby I don't pay myself an hourly wage. My goal and pricing is to produce cabs that I could sell for three times the cost of material. This effects my pricing and shopping. A good friend of mine's father was a gold smith that only did original work priced his work at double the cost of the gold. One advantage of making earrings is that they can use material that is not suited to regular size cabs.
My goal is to make stuff and selling only is to pay for material and supplies. I had 4 large cabs and 4 pairs pf earrings that I made for the customer but were never ordered. I included a picture of them in the message exchange and I have a sale. No negotiation this time because the pricing had been established in previous sales.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 19, 2023 11:05:04 GMT -5
Paypal is generally accepted. Each seller has their own policies regarding payment and shipping and they are posted with each item listed.
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 18, 2023 22:12:49 GMT -5
Thank you Stardiamond! Yes I think this might be dangerous to find some consistent online markets for rough. I'll be losing plenty of sleep and cash. Mark I want to make some stuff out of jade. I have a couple nephrite slabs to practice on but ultimately I'd like a small inventory of the good stuff - icy blue guatemalan princess jade, or apple green. Also looking for nice color and stable chrysocolla, chrysoprase. Sugilite, charoite, malachite, datolite, imperial jasper, binghamite, ametrine, pietersite, larimar, ruby zoisite. . . also interested in agates that have parallax or highly contrasting band colors. I've bought from Tanner. He just listed a bunch of stuff you could look at. www.facebook.com/groups/THESLABDEPOT
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Post by stardiamond on Jun 18, 2023 21:39:31 GMT -5
The nodules look similar to Royal Imperial.
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