Post by herchenx on Feb 4, 2012 4:37:22 GMT -5
OK, so first off, I made my first rock "jewelry"
My day #9 cab got a final polish and then I added a slide to the stone via epoxy to the back of the stone:
I actually never intended to create jewelry - well at least not until I had mastered cabbing - but this little stone is really pretty and I'd love to give it to Nancy.
While I was buying the hardware for the necklace earlier, I thought that I might as well try an idea that I had for Valentine's day - but that I thought there would be NO CHANCE of yet - I am so new to all this.
Well today at work, the dop wax heater, dop wax and plastic templates I ordered over the weekend arrived.
I stopped by Lowe's on the way home and picked up some aluminum siding nails and some tile nippers (nibblers?)
I came home and had a nice evening with the family and some friends, then helped get all the munchkins in bed and headed to the garage around 10.
I spent a couple hours sorting out some tumbling that I have been working on too - you can read about that in the tumbling thread if you want - and then around midnight I turned my attention to my valentine idea.
I had some black stone with red veins in it that I thought was very nice. It was also in the bag of saw scrap that I have pulled the last 2 cabs from.
I laid the template on it, and traced a heart with the aluminum nail:
I know. I am out of my mind. But I did get the rough shape pretty easily:
One cool thing was that I wanted to try the nibbler, and it worked GREAT - I mean it let me get right along the edge of the heart and worked really well:
I also heated up some wax and dopped the back of the heart pretty easily:
Thanks to Clyde for the pointers on using dop wax. I didn't manage to burn myself and the dop held like a champ while I worked the stone.
SO I knew I would have trouble with this heart....
The center of the heart, where the indentation is on the top - I have NO idea how to work this. I thought if I was careful that perhaps I could gingerly use the diamond wheel and the expando to carefully work to the intersection. But my concerns were validated when every time I did this the other "bump" got nicked up from even the least amount of contact with the edge of the belt.
I thought about digging around for the dremel that has been in storage since we moved a year ago, but since I am planning on getting the vibe going tomorrow, I thought I'd just avoid risking any further problems with the heart and just get it shaped as well as I could and let the vibe do the rest.
In spite of not being finished, I am excited to see how this comes out in the vibe:
If it all comes together and isn't a total travesty, I may add the slide for the necklace and give it to Nancy for Valentine's day. If it isn't perfect, I'll have my son give it to her and she will love it.
Thanks for reading!
My day #9 cab got a final polish and then I added a slide to the stone via epoxy to the back of the stone:
I actually never intended to create jewelry - well at least not until I had mastered cabbing - but this little stone is really pretty and I'd love to give it to Nancy.
While I was buying the hardware for the necklace earlier, I thought that I might as well try an idea that I had for Valentine's day - but that I thought there would be NO CHANCE of yet - I am so new to all this.
Well today at work, the dop wax heater, dop wax and plastic templates I ordered over the weekend arrived.
I stopped by Lowe's on the way home and picked up some aluminum siding nails and some tile nippers (nibblers?)
I came home and had a nice evening with the family and some friends, then helped get all the munchkins in bed and headed to the garage around 10.
I spent a couple hours sorting out some tumbling that I have been working on too - you can read about that in the tumbling thread if you want - and then around midnight I turned my attention to my valentine idea.
I had some black stone with red veins in it that I thought was very nice. It was also in the bag of saw scrap that I have pulled the last 2 cabs from.
I laid the template on it, and traced a heart with the aluminum nail:
I know. I am out of my mind. But I did get the rough shape pretty easily:
One cool thing was that I wanted to try the nibbler, and it worked GREAT - I mean it let me get right along the edge of the heart and worked really well:
I also heated up some wax and dopped the back of the heart pretty easily:
Thanks to Clyde for the pointers on using dop wax. I didn't manage to burn myself and the dop held like a champ while I worked the stone.
SO I knew I would have trouble with this heart....
The center of the heart, where the indentation is on the top - I have NO idea how to work this. I thought if I was careful that perhaps I could gingerly use the diamond wheel and the expando to carefully work to the intersection. But my concerns were validated when every time I did this the other "bump" got nicked up from even the least amount of contact with the edge of the belt.
I thought about digging around for the dremel that has been in storage since we moved a year ago, but since I am planning on getting the vibe going tomorrow, I thought I'd just avoid risking any further problems with the heart and just get it shaped as well as I could and let the vibe do the rest.
In spite of not being finished, I am excited to see how this comes out in the vibe:
If it all comes together and isn't a total travesty, I may add the slide for the necklace and give it to Nancy for Valentine's day. If it isn't perfect, I'll have my son give it to her and she will love it.
Thanks for reading!