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Post by kk on Mar 21, 2015 12:24:38 GMT -5
It is great that you are sharing the blow by blow work. Much more interesting than just seeing the finished piece of art! Thank You! As I came here and another forum a few years ago, quite a few people did that. And it was seeing all the progress pictures , that made a rapid advance in my own skills possible. So I continue that way in the hope to give a little back. Without the effort of encouragement and documentation here on the forum I would not only not have been able to get where I am right now, but most likely would not even be in this wonderful hobby anymore. So this is a good opportunity to give a heartfelt shout-out of "Thank you" to all who made forums like this possible and all the fantastic members who keep contributing and spreading the word.
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Last Kiss
Mar 19, 2015 23:05:52 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by kk on Mar 19, 2015 23:05:52 GMT -5
Way to go. Thanks for the laugh. Had not been so mislead in a very long time. Great story leading to the puch-line.
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Post by kk on Mar 18, 2015 3:51:11 GMT -5
Looking good. Great to see you have actual orders for them. How much do they sell them for?
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Post by kk on Mar 16, 2015 20:39:40 GMT -5
Happy B'day. Wish you all the best and many more happy, prosperous, and most of all healthy ones to come.
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Post by kk on Mar 16, 2015 9:29:53 GMT -5
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Post by kk on Mar 16, 2015 8:44:06 GMT -5
Wonderful! You got a lot of that opal fire/ice glow out of that piece. I love the choice of textural stone (or is it shell?) for the rest of the necklace too. outstanding! Those are pearls.
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Post by kk on Mar 16, 2015 5:58:09 GMT -5
watching with interest, don't forget us! ok. What Gina is looking for is this: Half way through polish up to 14K diamond. next I need to go over it with toothpick and then 50K paste.
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Post by kk on Mar 15, 2015 17:34:16 GMT -5
Don't have the clasp yet, and still continue to polish.
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Post by kk on Mar 15, 2015 6:56:06 GMT -5
Delicious greens. Nice colours and super shapes. I like green as such, except in Jades. The green jade that I like is way out of my pocket as they are asking for crazy prices. So, gotta do with other material. I Like the mosses Getting exited with Tiger-eye (preferably the variegated kind) And getting nuts for some nice Fire Agate
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Post by kk on Mar 15, 2015 5:30:18 GMT -5
Thank you all for the kind comments.
Yes its Australian black. I seriously have to get me more of that stuff. Its easy to work and unlike all the other opals I did to-date (before this lot), I don't seem to have the slightest problem with it cracking on me, and there are flashes even without paying a lot of attention to.
The only downside on this particular piece are the sand-pockets; so I got more problems with finding something resembling a balance than usual.
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Post by kk on Mar 14, 2015 10:16:10 GMT -5
Don't like the hiding game, but for now FB is off limits for this one. This one bugs me. :Bash: Just a bit over an hour today to get it started, but sand-pockets and uneven surface as well as colours give me trouble here. :Bash: :LOLOL:
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Post by kk on Mar 12, 2015 9:08:45 GMT -5
Correction: Was informed today that the jade is from Cowell, not Tamworth.
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Post by kk on Mar 12, 2015 9:01:41 GMT -5
Aren't crosses, paintings, statues etc. "Idols"? Kurt, it would depend on whom one asks this question of. That very question is no small part of the reason the separatists and Puritans split from the Catholic-based Church of England. To my understanding, in terms of the Congregationalist (Puritan) beliefs and their progeny, (the Protestant Reformation based churches); would say that statues and paintings are fine as lone as they are not worshiped. A cross, statue or painting would be a symbolic remembrance as opposed to an object of direct worship. That's my personal problem with organized belief-systems. I have been born into Roman Catholicism, have had the fortune to experience and learn lots of different forms of belief-systems round the world. While I will never declare myself anything else than a Catholic, I have learned most of my understanding today from so-called Philosophies, rather than organized Religions. Personally, I know that I got a direct line, so I have no need for idols to interact with higher powers. There is a lot of misunderstanding about idols around the world. As example, we commonly claim that Hinduism has thousands, if not millions of gods (even Hindus themselves do ). But have a closer look, and it becomes clear, that animals, plants, rocks etc., are not worshiped as such, but any worship goes towards their creator that made them possible in the first place. In Christianity, we are told that god made us in his image. In many cultures, god created everything in his image and acknowledging that is communion in itself. Those things become idols at the moment where they become intermediaries between the believer and the holy. When it comes to personality cults, then the word god is often thrown around. But again, in most cultures that I got the chance to learn a bit about, there is a clear line that separates "The one" from all the others, and hence all the others could be seen in our Western mind as the equivalent of Saints/teachers of the past(imagined or real), and all the stories attributed to them.
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Post by kk on Mar 12, 2015 3:44:55 GMT -5
There are some goodies in there. But be keenly aware what size the best of that stuff is. We have seen them turn up on FB a few months ago, and there was quite some debate about their natural occurance ( which personally I think they are).
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Post by kk on Mar 11, 2015 10:21:56 GMT -5
Aren't crosses, paintings, statues etc. "Idols"?
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Post by kk on Mar 11, 2015 10:16:36 GMT -5
Wow, you where busy. Looking great. I find Thunderegs bothersome They virtually never seem to come in "Goldilocks" size range. But look mesmerizing as they are.
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Post by kk on Mar 11, 2015 10:13:07 GMT -5
Like the look of the Schiller ones, but this one is fantastic too. Kudos to the size. Sunstone is on my bucket-list. But unfortunately the price of material big enough for me to use in carving is not something I look forward to.
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Post by kk on Mar 11, 2015 9:56:55 GMT -5
With the opal being in its closing-state, its time to start something new. Long delayed, I had the Montana next to me for over a year, so its time to finally risk extending myself above and way beyond what i think I can do. Some of you might remember that one from one of the contests on the forums. The idea is "Dream Journey" and requires a humanoid standing on the inside of a Dragon-wing, with the dragon head accepting the caressing hand. The third object of importance is creating a staff, following the moss running up the piece. Eventually, that staff should be standing free at about 75-80%, something that is challenging on this kind of material. I say, "way beyond what I think I can do", simply because it will involve a face as well as a dragon head. I continue practicing faces, but have successfully shied away from Dragon-heads up to now. I started with staff and wing on the right and wanted to proceed to the humanoid, but then realized that the Dragon-head needs to be in place to proportion and position the hand and arm. So this week, I finally found an image that I can agree with and started the head. That thing will be incredibly difficult to photograph when done. If any light from behind comes through, it shows off the wonderful moss, but has any image carved into basically vanish. Smoke and mirrors, doing the title just.... :icon_sunny: To practice dragon-heads, I took the opportunity and started two more; one in opal and another in Jade. The opal one stays hidden for now, to ensue I do not fall foul of contest rules as I might have with the Mermaid. Australian Tamworth Nephrite 2 inches tall And as is, roughened out shape today In the meantime, I set up a page on FB for contests, trying to bring cabbers, carvers and facetters of any natural material together. This months theme is "Water" and I just finished up my entry today. Quartz Till here for now, will update this post most likely once a week as long as one of the pieces is in carving-stage. Once polishing starts, things would/will get boring as nothing really can be seen. :LOLOL: Thanks for looking, remain with best regards, Kurt
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Post by kk on Mar 9, 2015 9:17:42 GMT -5
Hi there, just a few days ago, John Marshal shared a procedure that seems to work very well:
John D. Marshall March 7 at 9:26am
Here is how I make aluminum dops for cabochons. I got tired of wood. I don't like the sensation of wet soaked wood on my hand and securing stones to it is difficult ( hot wax wet wood etc ). I was still using dop wax when I developed the aluminum dops. Be sure to find straight sections of aluminum tubing. I find it at Ace Hardware. Aluminum is best and can be found in many diameters...of course, using the double sized tape with the "coin trick" means that you can have the same size dop stick but different coins etc...The pictures tell the story. The dops last forever and initial cost isn't that high anyway.
I believe that the larger of the two tubing cutters will handle all the diameters I use so the smaller one isn't really necessary. Also, after cutting I carefully run the ends of the dop over some 100 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper flat on the workbench to remove the slight burr. smile emoticon
Many of the slabs on the workbench are now cabs!
Ps. He affixes coins on the aluminum tube end with superglue. Then the tape goes on top of that.
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Post by kk on Feb 17, 2015 20:19:13 GMT -5
Great show. That's some serious eye-candy.
Later this month, I'm going to set up another page with main-focus on learning and crossover styles between carving, facetting and cabbing of mixed material. Planing to have regular themed contests too. Please send me a Friend request (can't do it on your page) so I can send you an invite when the page is ready. I'm sure your style could easily be a favorite regardless how many carvers participate.
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