Cooked 40 pounds of coral -great color diversity

[jamesp]

My coral rivers are too full of water so I delved into the smaller heads and cooked them.
They are not the best for color but surprised me none the same. Please stop raining.









Thanks for looking

[Deleted]

Interesting the graphite didn't burn off. Great idea. I'm still envious of your record-keeping.

I can see how getting a good piece for a sphere is difficult.

I like the black/orange one next to 29 & 25 * skip over the cool red one to 28

I dont have photoshop on this machine to circle the one I like. I hope that wasn't too obtuse.

[jamesp]

Those are small heads Scott. Big corals are easy to find. When the rivers get low I will get you some.
The ones with the thin black line were found in wet sand all on a shelf above normal river level. White white sand.
Best would be a 'close to round shape' so you can make continents and keep the skin close to the shape.
The real black red one laying on and right of 29 came from Anclote Islands 3 miles out off New Port Richey Florida.

[bhiatt]

[jamesp]

That one is this super white stuff Brad. This before heat. It gets black in various patterns. Don't ask me why...
From Zephyr Hills Fl., Cambodia Creek
Look to the lower right of same photo you made a pointer on. Thick white rind. Those were chipped off a 25 pounder. Same creek. Super rare.
I am sending some of at to 3 cab cutters as a surprise. You may see it cabbed soon.

Crazy white stuff cooked

[snuffy]

All I got to say is those are some amazing colors!

snuffy

[jamesp]

Got to get back to my river Snuffy. I know what to get now. It ain't over yet

[Bikerrandy]

Those are cool!!

[grayfingers]

Very nice batch! It really is amazing the change you achieve with the cooking!

[jamesp]

Thanks for stopping buy. Anyone good at NOT rain dance?
The Withlacoochee river runs about 1000-3000 cubic feet of water per second on average during 'wet' season.
So about 20 feet deep for it's 150 foot average width. Today at 3500 cfs
For rock hunting I need 100-300 cfs, which is really a long narrow lake with exposed shoal every 1/2 mile to collect coral at. Normal
for summer and winter.

In May, the flow went to super flood stage of 40,000 cubic feet per second. So the river was way out of banks and
creeping up to very close to river houses on 20 foot stilts.
But the velocity is slow because the water has flooded way back into the forest. So the river bottom never washes or
moves gravel bars around. And the coral is usually under water during freeze season. So these 2 factors do not fracture
the coral. And it commonly gets to 20F there.
So the coral is sitting about where it was before it fossilized.

The banks are 20-30 feet and about vertical. So I like using a maintained boat ramp to get down to water level. Put rocks on
boat and load boat on trailer.

[Drummond Island Rocks]

you are like a mad scientist with this coral. I think you have the formula down pat now. this stuff is near the top of my list for best tumble right up there with the popular agates.

Chuck

[jamesp]

I got some coral back from a real heat treater. He does it for the knapping world. He turned my stuff a lot darker but fractured some of the glassier stuff. I will try a hotter oven(or get/build one). The grainier material can take a lot more heat. It is often more absorbent and has more chemicals in it to change wild color. I heat a lot of Texas stuff (mosses and banded) and it turns brownish, not so good. But the coral is hyper, no doubt. Some of that is ground coral I found a couple of weeks ago and learned a new way to find it in hills of soil roads. When the motorgrader chops a saddle out of the tops of hills he hits the coral layer. It is easy to spot due to white than white skin. It is #2,3,4 and the purple ones in that group in the top of the first photo. It is a not describable color group with many specs. It never stops. My mentor spent 50 years playing with corals from just the south region. I just contacted a man that has 2 giant sink holes in his pasture and I noticed rock in the saddle between them from 200 yards away. I found him on the tax map and has grated permission to hunt there.

[carloscinco]

A feast for the eyes, must be extremely gratifying to see the results as you pull them out of the oven!

[jamesp]

I just got this wrapped heated coral in mail today. When wife gets back from do show Sunday she will be throwing rocks at me and chasing Randy down. You did an amazing job on this Randy. Metal work is not even real. Cut polish color coordination is superb. The camera would not focus due to reflection, had to go manual focus. Mirror city, fooling Nikon digital focus is tall task ha!






Let me see if I can find the chunk I sent for this cab. Here it is..

[Bikerrandy]

Glad to see that it arrived safely! I'm teaching another wire wrapping class tomorrow, my best side-gig. Hell yeah

[jamesp]

It is like finding a pretty rock twice Carlos. Many times you never know what's going to happen.
So much color from a large coral that weighs 1000+ pounds. I take samples home and cook them.
Then return to stock up. This one chunk has supplied most of the craziest colors.

A few veteran jewelry makers around Atlanta are doing schools and raking in some doe. My cousin Jenny
in St. Augustine runs The Art Lounge delukasparlor.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-art-lounge.html.

She serves as a venue and advertising hub for jewelry classes. Miss Deluka recently moved to San Antonio, a true nomad.
The classes are lucrative