Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Aug 2, 2022 11:00:28 GMT -5
Thank you everyone for another very successful contest - 12 beautiful entries definitely exceeded my expectations for such a specialized theme.
The contest is officially closed and the voting poll will be posted shortly.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Aug 1, 2022 9:55:40 GMT -5
Diane's Etsy shop is: ArtisanRockhoundstardiamond's is in his signature - stardiamonddesignsTony catmandewe sell mostly on Facebook and his Idaho Rocks website - if he has an Etsy it's news to me. The TLO store might reopen from time to time if nothing else than to sell off the cabs I'm accumulating from participating in the cab contest I don't see myself producing cabochons for the purpose of selling in the store again any time soon. The RTH Store is alive ... it's on oxygen at this point but alive. I try to add fresh new content as time and my creatively-challenged, rightside-brain allows. Someday my knight in shining armor is going to ride into the forum on her unicorn and announce that she can draw characters and illustrations, and create clever captions AND wants to partner with me to take the RTH Store to the next level. Until then I muddle on
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 31, 2022 9:02:53 GMT -5
Welcome from Napa!
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 31, 2022 1:44:26 GMT -5
Hi James, welcome to the forum!
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 27, 2022 12:38:09 GMT -5
Hopefully in the future my entries will get better, but I have to say it’s been fun and quite challenging making these little guys. Maybe by the time Halloween rolls around someone will be wearing them 😃 Very nice! What is the stone? Welcome to the forum!
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 26, 2022 18:44:08 GMT -5
Thanks guys. I’m trying to get something together, should be able to pull something out last minute. Currently dealing with a heat wave here and my cabbing space is set up in a converted trailer with no AC. So trying to cab in this heat is like trying cut a cab in the oven. That's when you turn your fountains WAY up and let it spray! haha
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 26, 2022 16:13:02 GMT -5
When’s last day to submit? 31st? Yep bring it! haha
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 24, 2022 18:43:21 GMT -5
Yeah, weird ... and beautiful ... almost certainly malachite but brecciated with gem silica/agate. I would love to see a bit of the agate isolated with some back lighting to see if it's as gemmy as it looks.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 24, 2022 13:03:40 GMT -5
Just in case anyone is interested I made a little video of the part of the process. The video shows just just short clips of me using the 600 grit wheel polishing the girdle, the face, the back, and the backside edge girdle getting rid of a couple of chippy areas.
I do everything by my fingers with no dop stick. Variscite is not a super hard stone so it made the difficulty level a bit lower than if it were an agate or jasper but I have done those the same way.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 24, 2022 12:32:58 GMT -5
Not required of course, the matching pendant - but do we get to see the front , or is it only for your sweetie to see ? Thanks! I haven't made the pendant yet but I will show off the finished set when I'm done. I'm waiting on an order of wire from Rio.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 24, 2022 12:07:31 GMT -5
OK here is my entry. It was kind of rushed but I've been slammed with work and I also I waited too long to make something for my sweetie for her birthday. With the end of the contest in sight it was get it done this morning or never. This is from a little slab of variscite that I paid too much for on Facebook - I absolutely will not admit to having had a bit of wine before bidding way too much on it ... way more than I would have in my prime cabbing days Anyway, the set came out very nice and if I can drill the earring stones without destroying them it will all be OK. While I was already wet I decided to finish the matching cabochon for her set. It's taller than I wanted - about 50mm - because I decided to start grinding a cab out of the remainder of the slab thinking (hoping) it would break but it didn't. They never break when you want them to. As a side note, I'm embarrassed about my horrible blurry photos. I absolutely HATE HATE HATE this Samsung S20U phone that I got suckered into through promises of the greatest camera ever... The last good photos I was able to take were on my old S7 that was prematurely broken by Samsung updates. This is part of the reasons that I closed my cabochon shop on Etsy. I absolutely cannot tolerate trying to take good photos with this pos camera.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 22, 2022 19:34:06 GMT -5
Happy Birthday Lee! RockoonzYou share the day with my lovely wife who is currently waiting for me as we head out the door for a nice dinner
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 22, 2022 19:31:51 GMT -5
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 21, 2022 20:13:01 GMT -5
snuffy - another near miss birthday ... someone's been sleep on the job today (or working a long day, one of the two). Hope you had a great day and got to play with shiny objects at some point.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 21, 2022 20:11:08 GMT -5
Garage Rocker Almost missed it Hope you and your crew are all healthy and happy and that you had a great day.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 21, 2022 10:11:42 GMT -5
My name is Chris. I was born and raised in Petoskey, Michigan (guess what I have a lot of in the basement). I went to college at MTU in Houghton, Michigan (another great place for rocks). I had a roommate who was into rocks and lapidary and I learned a lot from him. I moved to the Kansas City area in 1980 and didn't have too much time to do anything with rocks until I retired. Bought some equipment last year and have been sawing and polishing away since then. I had thought that there wasn't too much of interest, pertaining to rocks, in the Kansas City area but much to my surprise I have found a lot of interesting, banded chert, jasper, petrified wood, and even the occasional agate on the creeks on our property and on my neighbor's land. I saw someone say that they had learned a lot from the Michigan Rocks guy on YouTube and I agree. Welcome from Napa Chris!
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 20, 2022 21:26:41 GMT -5
It's weird, my wife didn't seem overly enthused when I mentioned making an offer on the entire collection. I don't get it. They said they would help load! Maybe at $0.050 a pound I would buy it all haha I like Karen and Chris but I've seen a lot of listings and been to a lot of their live online sales and I'm guessing that not very many $10/lb rocks slipped under the radar... just sayin.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 20, 2022 13:38:10 GMT -5
markb nursetumbler Any time Kelly! I think it’s the B part. When tagging someone most of us just put@ and whatever their screen name shows up as even though their tagging name can be different. So people see Mark so they do @ mark and it tags 1mark instead. TommyCan you remedy the above problem? Sorry, I have no controls over changing usernames etc. and once an account is made the username is permanent. My advice would be to change your "display name" (different from your username) to MarkB because it would help folks know how to tag you correctly. Tagging markb (username) and markb (display name) would both work. Tagging @markb (username) and @MarkB (display name) would both work.
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 20, 2022 13:25:41 GMT -5
|
|
Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 19, 2022 13:07:42 GMT -5
*bump* these are super cool and tumbled ROTARY if you can believe it.
|
|