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! 😉
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.
Even if I haven’t been able to work on any rocks lately, It doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking for any. I have to keep adding to the collection right? Don’t ask my husband that question.. Anyway.. I went to a local flea market and what do you know? There was a booth with a few large rocks on a corner. The woman said she had quite a few and would be happy to make a deal for them all since her husband didn’t want to keep lugging them around. I was pretty excited when she quoted me a pretty low price and even let me use her hand truck to get them to my truck. lol Here are some pics, you can click on them to read more or see them larger.
The sun decided to make an appearance mid morning and made for a great day to cut some stone. This is something I love to do. I was planning on cutting the malachite end of the druzy but found some Morgan Hill poppy jasper, script stone, agate and some green stone that I’m thinking is a petrified bog. It has some awesome greens in it, and takes a great shine. I kept finding stuff I’ve been wanting to cut or polish, so rocks just kept jumping into my hands. Ok so I finally got the saw out and cut it up here are some pics of what I ended up with.
Now to cab it all.
Happy Valentines day! I hope you get to spend time with someone you love, doing something you love to do.
Love these three day weekends.. Wish they were all three dayers. The weather was pretty nice so we got to get out and do a lil rockhounding. Found some nice colored pet wood and just checked out the scenery. I also got to finish a few wraps. Fun weekend so far and another day to go.
Its been so hectic. Getting ready for a small Christmas show and then Christmas itself. The boutique turned out ok and it was really fun. I hadn’t set up for one in quite awhile and it turned out pretty good. I wrapped so many pieces that I burned out for a little while it seems. I didn’t even want to look at a piece of wire. So I cabbed a little, very little, went out and found a few pretty rocks. Mostly red jasper and pet wood. Until a few days ago a friend sent a few awesome cabs and wanted one wrapped. I was back into wire. I couldn’t stop! I’m just grateful it was the weekend since I got no sleep. lol I hope he likes his pendant half as much as I like the cab and slabs he sent me. I even got a lil cabbing in today. Looks like I’m slowly getting back in the swing.
Another long weekend coming up.. yay!
Hope this one was great for you.
Today was a great day for cutting up some rock. The weather was great and everything just fell into place. I had a bit of Fordite, Dino bone, flowering tube onyx and Crazy Lace Agate that were just asking for a little attention. I had never cabbed Fordite and found it to be really easy. The fun was trying to maximize the patterns in the rough. Some are just wild. But oh so much fun..
I hope your Saturday was as fun as mine!
Thanks for stopping by..
This is a piece that I made for the contest on the Taogem forum. I made a few pieces and decided on this one. I will post pictures of all the pieces at the end. It was hard to decide which piece to enter. The pieces that had the most votes from family and friends were the Velvet obsidian and the Berrendo agate. The Mexican fire opal kept being chosen as the one everyone wanted tho. Confusing me even more. So I went with the original piece I had in mind to enter. Besides I had taken more photos of the that one while I was making it.
Here are pictures of most of the process.
It had been awhile since I put a piece together with solder instead of wire. It was fun tho and I just might make a few more.
I got to cab for a short while today. I was wanting to polish up some of the Berrendo agate slices from a few weeks ago and I couldn’t find them. I had put them away. So away that even I couldn’t find them. Finally after going thru all my other lil slabettes and I have a few, It dawned on me just where I had stashed the Berrendos. Well by that time I only got to cab a couple of things. The Berrendo of course and a slice of a thunder egg I picked up last summer in NM. I am also going to add pictures of the Dino bone wrap I finished last weekend.
I was given some really nice dino bone on the Taogem forum from the Taogem himself. Its a really nice agatized slab and it has some amazing cell structure. I had also bought some Berrendo agate nodules and love the bright red colors. This morning I took advantage of the cool morning and cut some the stones.
There’s a new contest on the Taogem forum and I will be cabbing a bit so I can find just the right stone to put in the piece. Its been a lil while since I made a piece by just silversmithing. Lately I have only been setting a stone now and then. This will be interesting. Here are the pictures of the slabs and cabs.
Raqyz's Rocks 