Gemstones

Agatized Coral

Agatized Coral Slice

Cobalt Dolomite

Labradorite

Today I am posting a few photographs of some of the different gemstones that I cut.

I have been cutting and polishing gemstones for over 45 years, and collecting rough material,
buying rough, and even mining my own rough, and trading rough materials to cut and polish.

First on today's post is a very unusual piece of Agatized Coral that I have had for quite a few years and finally decided to cut a piece of it (notice the inside of the Coral has turned to Agate)
I cut a slice off of it and then polished the surface to show the wonderful colors and patterns there.

Next photograph is of the slice that I cut off the main piece and polished both sides of (would make a wonderful Pendant stone).


The next photograph is of an exceptionally beautiful piece of Cobalt Dolomite ( the pink being derived from the presence of Cobalt in the Dolomite, thus making it Pink), Dolomite comes in a variety of colors ranging from clear ,white,gray,and the Rare Pink, and even more rare Blue.
This has a surface covered with tiny Pink crystals that just sparkle in the light and is quite showy, another pendant sized freeform stone that could be wire wrapped or prong mounted.

The next photograph is of a very flashy piece of Labradorite that I cut and polished, I cut it in freeform to save as much as possible the wonderful flash of colors in the stone, as it shows Blue,Green,even hints of Gold colors as it is moved, all across the stone.

These are some of the stones I cut when taking a break from creating Gourd Art or other objects of Art and since I not longer make jewelry I use a lot of gemstone material in my Art creations as inlay, but sometimes I just like to cut a stone for the purpose of mounting it into a handmade piece of jewelry such as a ring or pendant or even a bracelet and sometimes I sell the cut stones to others to make jewelry with.

I hope you enjoy looking at these creations and seeing the Natural beauty of Nature and what Creator has blessed us with.

Peruvian Dendretic Opal

Back side of Dendretic Opal

Front Side of Dendretic Opal


Today I thought I would share with you a beautiful Peruvian Dendretic Opal that I cut,
It was too good to just cut and polish one side, so I cut and polished both the front and the back
Making it a two sided piece that can be worn and shown on either side as a pendant so it will

show all of it's beauty and wonderful Dendrites (dendrites look like ferns and bushes and are formed by different minerals seeping in the base material of Opal and forming the wonderful pictures and scenes just as one would see in a landscape out in a desert area or a dry wash.

The base material is Opal but has no Opal colors (Fire) and it comes from Peru. I bought this material in the rough several years ago and decided to cut some more of it this past week between other projects because it was laying around on my work counter for further observation and I decided it was time for the unveiling of it's wonders.

P.S. ..... I cut this stone in a Freeform to save as much as possible of the beautiful scenes.

You can click on the photographs to view larger.

Hawk Friend

My Red Tail Hawk Friend

Here is my latest endeavor at capturing my Friend the Red Tail Hawk, he is so elusive and hard to capture, as he stays at quite a distance anymore because someone or something has frightened him within the past few years and I am unable to get much closer than a thousand yards so I have to rely on my "Long Lens" (70-300MM) to get any decent photograph of him.

Here he is in all his new Spring atire, new chest feathers and all. Isn't he just Handsome!!!.

"Friday Finds"

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My Entry for "Friday Finds"

This is an Opal I cut the other day, an Ethiopian Chocolate Opal, a very rare one also.

I bought the rough piece of Opal quite a few years ago at a gem show and have just now got around to cutting it.

I hope you can see the beautiful colors in it, but it is even more beautiful in person, I did try very hard to capture all the wonderful rare colors by using my 105MM Macro lens on my Nikon camera.

Opal of this caliber is very rare in Ethiopian Chocolate Opal and the brightness is of a 10 on the Opal brightness scale....10 being the best.

The stone finished cut and polished is 3 Carats and is on my Lady Elisabeth's "Wish List" LOL.

A true "Rare Friday Find".

"Blue Feather Dance Rattle"

"Blue Feather Dance Rattle"

Close up inlayed and carved Lapis feather

Close up other side inlayed and carved Lapis feather


Front view with diamond shaped inlayed Lapis

Bottom view of gourd and designs

View of end of handle with Lapis Stone

Close up of Beading

Close up of beading
You may click on each picture to enlarge for a better view

I am posting a few pictures of my latest project, called "Blue Feather Dance Rattle", that I have been working on since I finished the Cedar Flute.

I used a Buffalo (American Bison) rib bone for the handle and a nice Peyote gourd for the rattle ,all designs are first drawn on then wood burned in and next came the fun part....I cut some very nice gem grade Lapis into a rough feather shape, inlaid it into the bone and carved it in place on both sides of the rib bone. I also cut and placed on the very end of the bone handle another nice piece of Lapis, I then proceeded to put leather on the places I wanted to bead, and then beaded those areas and put leather on the part that is held by the hand.

I next attached the gourd to the bone handle with wet rawhide which when dried out will shrink tight making a firm bond. I also cut a diamond shaped of Lapis and inlaid it into the gourd and did the beading on the gourd also.

I also added two blue feathers to the top of the gourd using part of the stem to anchor to by wrapping tightly with blue waxed linen thread.

I hope you enjoy looking at this project...a very unusual "Dance Rattle" but I used my Artist Licence to create this one just as it told me it wanted to be.

Friday Finds

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Here is my entry for "Friday Finds"

Driftwood Horse

Click on the photograph for a Larger view

This is a very unusual Find, I was going down to South Carolina to Myrtle Beach, my truck broke down on the way there several years ago and I had to spend about 12 hours at the repair shop while they ordered in a part and then installed it...meanwhile I had lots of time to kill so I walked around making a path of frustration in the field nearby and just looking at what was on the ground....then it hit me...BAM!!!! a Driftwood Horse sticking up out of the sand, I picked it up and dusted off the sand and admired Natures wonders once again....a true treasure to find something so unusual.

Moon Shots / Experiment

I went out yesterday morning early to take the trash out and looked up, what a moonscape shot, I just could not resist going back in and getting the camera and take a few shots, an experiment in low light photorgaphy , here are the results.

I used a 70-300 MM lens with VR on my Nikon D50

FRIDAY FINDS

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Here is my entry for "Friday Finds"

Antique Cars

Parade of Antique Cars

I just could not resist taking the photographs of the parade of antique cars that came by our home one day while I was out in the yard, had to run in and get my camera after standing there and watching them go by with mouth agape for about a half an hour before I decided I must capture this wonderful parade of cars of the past and the many memories it induced in my mind.

Aromatic Red Cedar Flute

New Hand Crafted Aromatic Red Cedar Flute

Close Up Of Carved Eagle Head (Cedar)

Another shot of the Flute

Today I am posting a couple of photographs of the completion of my latest project that I started after getting out of the hospital and have been working on while I recuperate from my latest heart attack.

I carved the Eagle Head (Bird) out of Aromatic Red Cedar, which took several days of hand carving and then wood burned in all the feathers and details.

I started out with a 1 1/4" square block of Aromatic Red Cedar which was then cut in half and a sound chamber routed out with a 3/4 inch router bit, then the two pieces were tightly glued back together and the 6 holes for fingering drilled and the other holes for the air channel and sounding board drilled and shaped. Then came the time to shape the flute by sanding it into a round shape, except for the place the "Bird" (Eagle Head) sits on , which must remain perfectly flat, and also rounded the area ahead of the "Bird" and tapered the area for the mouth piece and drilled a 1/4 inch hole there to blow into the flute.

Next came the "Tuning" part..which consists of determining the total length of the sound chamber and sizing the fingering holes to get it in tune. This flute is in the general range of Gm key.

I next sanded the entire flute down with descending grades of sandpaper to 600 Grit and then followed with 0000/ steel wool for a wonderfully smooth finish.

I next sealed the entire flute, both inside and outside, with Danish Oil Finish and again steel wool and then gave the whole flute a good coat of Paste Wax.

The "Bird" is held tightly with a tanned Deer Hide strip and also has a small channel cut into the bottom to allow the air blown into the mouth end of the flute to be channeled over the sound board just ahead of the Eagle Head to make the sound.

You can click on the photographs to enlarge them for a much better viewing.

SUPRISE--SUPRISE !!!

Home Sweet Home

Just across the road

Today dawned gray and rainy, just another much needed rain shower as predicted on the news last evening, but this mornings news said we could expect from 2-4 inches of snow...now who believes the weather man any more?..lol

I didn't believe the forecast and was out in my shop getting well along on a new project, when I looked out the window and saw an amazing sight, snow flurries as big as quarters and some almost the size of half dollars, I immediately called Elisabeth on my cell phone and asked her to look out of the window from the house to see it.

Elisabeth went out and took a few photographs and I did also a bit later after I came back into the house, although we both got different shots which is good because I don't even try to compete with her as she is the Pro Photographer here.

I am inserting two photographs in today's Post so you can see our BIG snowfall of about 1/2 inch which then turned back to rain, but is now at this hour turning back to snow again and coming down hard.

Unless I am mistaken..you can click on the Photographs to enlarge for better viewing.