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Its been a while since I updated anything here, but now seems to have the rush going on this month.
First up a Valentine contest project for RTH, and the only one finished thus far : What seems to be Turkic Dendrite material
The FA is ongoing for a while now, and slowly coming together
While I found a bridge between the coloured areas on top and bottom, there is still a huge gap and I'm not sure if the quality of colour that might be underneath is worth the effort. So I decided to use the hole as a sort of plug to attach something else to cover it and the noncoloured areas. Tried for contrast the cutoffs from the Turkic Dendrite, but broke 3 attempts, so I finally got an old Biggs breakaway from a few years ago in my hands and that worked. I like the colour as it blends the subject nearly too well into the background.
The use of Biggs was not too out of the blue, as at the same day a visiting Nephew choose a Biggs for a project of his own design based on an arrow.
Last but not least, my project for a FB Valentine Challenge. PolkaDot Agate (used that as a cab some months ago in another contest) Lets call it Cosmic birth of Love to get the relevance to Valentine Day.
That one gives me a huge headache. Normally, I only got problems to get shapes into pictures, but this time the colour and material blends so well that it is hard to make out the shapes even at hand. One has to really get close up to see whats going on, even though some cuts are nearly 5mm deep. Will have to figure that one out before the month is out.
Love Montana Agate, but as I don't have the tools to cut I need slabs. Sitting here in HK, makes for a horrendous postal charge, so buying more is only an option If you got something special that I can carve, shoot me a pm if you accept Western Union Payments.
OK, here is my submission for this months contest. This contest reminded my that i really suck at hearts, LOL! I think this is maybe my second one ever. Anyway, here is the slab, a rather large piece of tiffany stone that took some wrangling to get it positioned in my trim saw: Thanks for the contest! KD
Super nice material you got there. The cutting just needs practice thats all.
First piece for valentine contests, and likely entry here. One blade up to here. So for those of you with no Fordome or dremmel, that is something you can do. Given I got practice, and my wheel is a little smaller, you will have a harder time, but its possible.
Hi there everyone. Crossing platforms; I would like to invite those of you with access to Facebook, to vote for your favorite creation of the month in our Challenger Album just posted.
We are a small group of people jumbled together from many different styles, and challenge ourselves every month along a common theme. This month was our first try in allowing virtually everything as long as lapidary applications where undertaken. Every picture has been labeled with our logo (see first picture in the album), and any likes on any picture with the logo counts towards the final tally in 48 hours.
I personally love that we have everything, from relative beginners, to people pretty much on top of their game, mixing it up here. I think none of us walks away from this without having learned something, and hence improved our own path for future undertakings in this craft. So, I strongly belief that in the end, every entry is a winner in its own right, and numbers are just a necessary evil that we put on ourselves, in order to wake competitive spirit within us all.
As FB options are very limited, voting is possible for more than one of your favorites. The winner will be determined by the the highest number of likes in 48 hours.
We invited (and still invite for future challenges) cabers, carvers, faceters, in short any type of Lapidarists, to come in and step up to a themed challenge, by using any natural material.
We are still missing entries on the faceting front, and eagerly await more challengers from the cabbing side. Cabers: don't be shy, the carvers can only rule the roost when you stay away. A well made cab is just as attractive as any carving. So do join in, in our upcoming challenges..........
Please help us to determine a “Challenger” of the Month, by voting/liking the picture (likes on the share will not count (every eligible entry has a label with our theme of the month).
Thank you, for your interest, and help. Hope to see some of your creations participating in the future when the time is right for you.
Best regards, Kurt
Anything that is not given, is lost!
And once you realize there is nothing lacking - the whole world belongs to you ~ Lao Tzu
Introduction to my undertakings in this hobby: brilliantchallenge.webs.com/
OK, getting there. Cracking up, yes, but thats the best time to get unusual shapes. My whole carving journey started because cabs fell apart, and I did not want to waste the material.
Anything that is not given, is lost!
And once you realize there is nothing lacking - the whole world belongs to you ~ Lao Tzu
Introduction to my undertakings in this hobby: brilliantchallenge.webs.com/
When I started making rocking hearts one original ideas was to use the “Book of Stones” as guide to make healing hearts.
What’s neat about the book is the authors pair up complimentary stones. So if I was making a heart for a certain ailment I could reference the other complimentary stone to make the heart. I should go back to incorporating that idea more…mostly
I for one miss seeing your creations.
Anything that is not given, is lost!
And once you realize there is nothing lacking - the whole world belongs to you ~ Lao Tzu
Introduction to my undertakings in this hobby: brilliantchallenge.webs.com/
I challenge everyone to try it and see what happens
if your worried about breaking something, maybe take a piece of common material to work with, post the results regardless of the outcome.
I know for fact that they can be done on standard wheels as I have made 8 hearts already and they all sold. If you want to see examples of the ones I made look through my facebook photos.
If you have access to FB, here is a contest we did about two years ago on hearts. Out of 34 entries, 27 are from pure cabers and even better, 6 of them at the time where newbies.
That's exactly my point. I cant draw, I dont do well in general with arts & Crafts or music (love and admire them all). But I tried for so long in different things and it never worked out, until I started in stone.......
I'm absolutely sure that you and many others could do much better than me, yet will never realize that, simply because for the idea of failing.
Cost, is a serious consideration for the majority of participants. I too, I got a few pieces that I don't dare touch yet. I have no interest in monetary value of the pieces, but they are either way to expensive to replace, or simply do not exist anymore (as example; I got a deep-sea black coral harvested before the ban). I don't dare touch that thing yet.
By the end of the day, everyone needs to do the things that satisfies their own needs, and that is fine. The thing that stupefies me, is simply, that most people do not seem to have a longing to try and go beyond. I for one will continue to encourage people to go beyond comfort-zones, but its a lonely place, in an immense sea of contend participants.
Something to think about from a creative, but marginalized minority.
I love contests as they challenge one to do things that we where not able to acknowledge before we tried.
BUT,.......
I / we can't do that!
Where have I heard that before? The only cheerleaders here, are the ones holding everyone back on a standard curve. Thats the bread and butter for an industry, but has nothing to do with free-spirited creativity.
BORING
Now, I know that will offend a lot of people, but.......
1. Most of you folks have too much variety of materials available. 2. Since you started you where told that you needed to get a big machine, Kingcab, Flatlaps,... etc.. You obliged to the masses, now you are stuck with fabulous material and machine for one single purpose, yet have the ability to do it rather quickly.
Those of you who know me, know that I owe my whole being in this hobby to all the incredibly friendly cabers interacting with me over all those years. Without the generosity among cabers and rock-hounds, I would never have been able to advance to where I am today.
But you also know that I will always champion borderline creations, as I personally do not see any reason to be in this hobby to constantly repeat the same thing over and over again (mind you, I hold perfection in cabs in highest regard and fully respect the skills needed to create them). Freeform is fine, but ask yourself: are you going to actually vote for a true freeform? By following and participating in contests regularly over nearly six years, I learned and gained a lot of skills, but I also observed, that I needed to be in every contest simply because of challenging myself to do better with every piece, rather than winning. With freeform, winning was never an option, due to the extreme bias ingrained against them, from the majority of voters, when it comes to an actual vote. I have never been bitter about that fact, simply because I'm in for the personal challenge, not for winning.
We have such a huge pool of talent here, its sad to see that so few people follow their heart, instead of constantly listening to "I can't do that" cheerleaders.
Will miss this months challenge as my black and white challenge for the month is nowhere close to a cab. But shall be back for the heart-challenge next time round. And when Freeforms are welcome let me know and I shall gladly be part of the game.
Fad it is certainly not. Reputed properties of stones go back to pretty much the beginning of recorded history. Real or not? Lots of people swear on the truth in it, and lots of people died in vain.
The only thing I would swear by is that I get a headache every time I spend more than a couple of hours in crystal-markets looking around, and that there are (in retro-respect)such things as dream-stones. But reading up on them, does/did not yield a reference to the things previously experienced (repeatedly in order to get noticed in the first place). Over the years, any intentional use of crystals or stones, did not result in desired/stated effect. Not even once.
Anything that is not given, is lost!
And once you realize there is nothing lacking - the whole world belongs to you ~ Lao Tzu
Introduction to my undertakings in this hobby: brilliantchallenge.webs.com/
No snow here, but our hills are frozen over Popsicles. We had someone record the lowest temp here ever at -5.4 Celsius/22.2 Farenheit. At sea-level we recorded the coldest temp in 60 years and came very close to break the all-time record standing for a bit over 140 years.
I know in comparison to what you guys record right now, thats nothing. But don't forget, we are at the tropics of cancer, so everything is geared for heat, not cold. I for one kept my hands in my pockets while walking the dogs instead of the usual sanding.
This space is for temporary chat only and all posts drop off automatically and are not saved.
Members with real questions or comments that need an actual response, please post on the main forum - not here! Casual PG-13 posts only, no politics or religion please!
Wooferhound: Now , where did I put that Buried Treasure ?
Sept 21, 2024 12:20:41 GMT -5
amygdule: I don't remember where I buried it
Sept 21, 2024 14:03:04 GMT -5
parfive: Last night of summer and you can’t fix that w/a Sharpie.
Sept 21, 2024 22:39:07 GMT -5
1dave: Be the person to make others believe in good people again!
Sept 28, 2024 14:40:36 GMT -5
rocknrob: We could use more people like that now for sure. Or if being a nice person is too hard, just leave some tumbled agates around places where kids play for them to find!
Sept 28, 2024 20:14:18 GMT -5
Warzy Raptor: Just try being nice to -everyone-, you’ll be surprised at the results! My nasty supervisor will change her tone within five minutes when I kill her with kindness. And the local homeless lady Michelle and I have hour-long knee-slapping convos!
Sept 29, 2024 11:14:22 GMT -5
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!