Well its been awhile since I’ve picked up a rock to give it a polish or even a cut. Last weekend I finally decided it was time to get something done. That and my friend kept berating me about not working any rock. Ha! It finally worked, all that guilt.
So anyway, I worked a crazy lace agate, reworked a botswana agate, and the chrysocolla, malachite druzy that begs to be seen. I knew that working the druzy would make me want to set it or wrap it in silver.
It was fun and boy do I need to practice. It did make me want to practice though. So I’ll be cutting up some more soon.
Here are a few pics and the finished pendant.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful 3 day weekend! 😉
Super Bowl Sunday, and I get to cab til the game starts. Thats a wonderful day!.
I cabbed a small piece of Chrysocolla drusy that as left from a piece of stone I won on the Taogem forum. Â It had some amazing blue green or teal colored druse and dark green malachite druse. Â Its from Nuevo Mundo Imports. I highly recommend them if you want the best chrysocolla and malachite drusy. The crystals are so clear and shiny. Awesome stuff. Its pricey but you get what you pay for. I also cabbed another quartz drusy cab.
I also cabbed a Queensland agate. The Queensland agate has some very nice patterning and layers, plus a little drusy in the middle. Love it!
Back in the swing of cabbing anyway.  I’ve been away from my cabbing equipment for awhile and it sure is good to be back at it.  I was so excited that I couldn’t decide what I wanted to polish first.  It was even a bit hard to concentrate.  I found that I wanted to polish all the lil slabs I had cut.  Which is way too many. So I started a few and only finished four.  As soon as I get a chance I will finish the others.  I ended up with a drusy quartz cab, a laguna agate, a queensland agate cab, and a chrysocolla cab.
I had read on a forum awhile back that one of the members there would mix a few different polishes and get a glass like shine on his cabs. So I tried it out. Â I mixed some red rouge, green polishing rouge, and cerium oxide equal parts. I got a really good polish but I think it needs to be mixed with something other than water. Â I didn’t like the consistency.
God is truly wonderful. It always amazes me when I cut a rock open and inside there’s this amazing pattern that you would never have thought could be in there.  I can sit in awe just checking out a small slab of rock.  I suppose this is my kind of meditation.  All the layers and colors. Awesome!!
The pink Queensland agate just formed itself. All I had to do was take off the ugly brown stuff from the outside and  it was already a heart.  Not a perfect heart, but then who has a perfect heart?
The other cabs were just as much fun to make, the drusy has been on my mind for awhile, since drusy jewelry is all the rage now. Â The little crystals are so pretty and catch the light like stars.
Don’t you just love cloudy days, where you just wanna stay home and just veg? I do! But instead of just vegging out, I cut up a few slabs and got some cabbing in. I’ve had a couple of slabs that I’ve been wanting to cab but I had been putting it off. One was pet wood and it has a really cool picture in the stone. I had been worried that it would crack or mess up, and I couldn’t bear the thought of messing it up. But it kept calling me, so I finally just went for it. I’m glad I did too. Funny or odd thing is that the Mookite or Mookaite also has a face in it. Although its a little different. Anytime you get a cabochon from an artist its unique and this just goes to show how unique they can get.
I’m also adding pictures of the second jade carving I finally finished. It seems to have taken forever to finish this one. I really enjoy carving jade, but it seems like I get a bit obsessed and have no time for wrapping. I found the stone at Jade cove and wanted to leave the shape pretty much the same as when I found it. But I wanted to carve some sort of design in the middle of it so that it could be worn. After carving it, I added a small faceted sapphire in the center.
Well so far so good and another day to go. Hope you have a great weekend!
Didn’t get too much done this weekend. I cut some more Morgan Hill poppy jasper and an unknown rock with some pretty colors. It too was found in Morgan Hill. I do like the poppy cab. The pattern in the red reminds me of flowers, it gives the area a depth and in the yellow part the poppies look like ghost poppy.. Ok, so maybe it just seems this way to me. 🙂 I also put a seashell pendant together for a friend. Her son found it and it already had a small hole it, so its now a lil keepsake to wear.
Hope you had a really nice weekend. Thanks for stopping by…
I’m so grateful for the extra day off! I even got to cab a little bit. I cabbed a few of the cuts from yesterday. The psilomelane is messy and stains your hands but, love those orbs. The coquina jasper is fun to work with. The patterning in the stone makes you see all kinds of different things. As for the chrysocolla druzy, well just as before, its so pretty. If you like sparkle and shine that is!
So I cut the Chrysocolla side of the rock from the prior post. It was a little tough, being that I didn’t want to cut it wrong or lose any of the druzy. I then cabbed it and was really happy with the outcome. I also cabbed a piece Morrisonite that takes a shine like glass with very little effort. Love this stuff. Here’s a few clickable pics.
Today was a continuation of the wild patterned cabs that I had started yesterday. I didn’t finish all the rough so that means I will have more to finish up at a later date. Darn 🙂 Ok it was a great time. The Fordite is just way too much fun. The more you grind the cab the pattern changes, I suppose if you keep grinding you could eventually mess things up or wind up without any. lol But once you get a nice pattern and shape its on to polish. The malachite is pretty soft and stains my fingers with black so looks like I’m ready for Halloween. The flowering tube onyx cabs are just a couple of small pieces that had broken off when I was cutting the stone, but they ended up a couple of pretty nice cabs. I haven’t cabbed alot of this material but it always seems to take a good shine. I hate wasting good rock.
Well I hope your weekend was as nice as mine was and thanks for coming by.
Today was a great day for cabbing. Not too hot and no interruptions. I had a few cuts of dino bone and a couple of others. So I just had to use them up. My saw blade is busted so I have to use up what’s already cut up. I go thru these stages where I really like a certain rock for awhile and then go on to another. But while I’m obsessed its all about that rock. lol Right now its dino bone. Boulder opal is always at the top of my list tho. There’s always time for a boulder opal.
I also finished up a wrap of the Berrendo agate from last weekend. My goal was to showcase the cab since the color is so intense. I also wanted to keep the middle of the cab unobstructed all the way thru where its transparent.
Here’s the pics…
Three day weekends rock, literally. I got some cabbing done and even a little silver work. I need more time, all the time. lol
I had a small slab of Velvet Obsidian, and it was calling my name. The rock has beautiful colors. Its hard to get the pictures just right and capture the pinks and purples. I hope some came thru in the pics I’m about to post. There is also a small cab of flowering tube onyx. I have a very small amount of this rock and its pretty hard to find so I use it sparingly. They all came out with a great shine. I hope you like!
Raqyz's Rocks 