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Author Topic: Feb 2013 Butterflies and Montana  (Read 1062 times)

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Asianfire

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Feb 2013 Butterflies and Montana
« on: October 07, 2014, 06:58:03 AM »

This month will be butterfly themed for me. Got several in the works and hope to get 3 or 4 done this month thanks to an extended additional 10 day-holiday over here (Chinese New Year). :twisted: Its goooood to be working in education. :twisted:

The first one is nearly done; Indonesian Coral; and will get a single-piece Fire Agate body. Should be ready within a few days.


The next one is a bit more complicated and just confirms my reluctance of working jade. Drew up everything and cut close, only to find several fractures running through several parts.


So no matter, can deal with that thing coming down the center, but the one coming in, going into the upper part of the right wing? Not so. Ground away the fracture only to have the wing-tip crumbling on me.


Sill, not too much of a problem, just a lot of worry as to what comes next. Just made the whole design about 20% smaller and got the rough shape cut out. While doing so, I encountered something rather strange. That thing is more crystalline than I had ever worked and crumbles rather easily. Whats going on?? The stone looks genuine, it seems to have the right structure and color and certainly does me no favors on the cutting-wheels during cutting, yet crumbles. I know the difference between the fibrous nephrite and crystalline Jadeite, but there should not be that much of a difference in toughness. Is that normal?

OK, still don't have pics of the coral butterfly finished



Will change a few things though; No Fire Agate! I tried it and it simply does not look right. Will make the Fire Agate thinner and put it together with the Jade.



Today was my first holiday, and no-one at home, so I tinkered with it the whole day.
Luckyly, my fears about flaking where unfounded thus far, but as of right now its still 9mm thick and I will have to eventually remove about half of that. Don't want to risk too much and go to the thickness that I originally envisioned (yet).


And thats where I'm at now


Since the picture was taken, I took the sanding all the way to 1500 grid paper and will go back and deepen some cuts and reshape some parts tomorrow. It has a nice pink/purple color depending on the light but both of them are very light. Anyway, personally I would rather call it baby-blue as you will see in the pictures over the next few days.

Last but not least, started also the third butterfly and hope to increase the challenge a bit with it.

OK, now I finally got some pics of the coral

First up, indoor single bulb room light, before polish.


And daylight (overcast, at the door), after polish.


Now, I was so worried about the jade disintegrating on me, and guess what???

The Fire Agate gave up during sanding at the last moment, so now I gotta find another FA body that I could fit.

Edit October 7 2014, My younger daughter has been wearing the Jade Butterfly ever since (24/7 without central body and is more than happy with it. :)

As said before I was targeting 3 butterflies and the first two where practice to get a feel for form and material. The third butterfly is coming along well, but I would like to keep that one under wraps until ready to wear.

To practice a little more, I will attempt to create 3 bodies. I broke one Fire Agate, so a new one is needed, and just in case I break the Jade-sprite for the last butterfly, I'm working on two, and lets see which works best. If both of them work out, the second one fits for the coral one too. So can't have too many.

Here is what I started yesterday:


Kurt, as usual, your work is amazing.

Not at all Paula. You are ever so kind.  hugs23 I just try to realize some of the things that come to mind and having had some practice leaves me between a rock and a hard place for now.  Due to the practice I had, a lot of people seem shy to talk to me, yet I'm still extremely far away from being worth talking to by artists who excel in their mediums. So, talent or not;  its a bit lonely.

Day three on the sprites and it turns out, I got a lot more than I bargained for.

Glad I tried though, So far both hold up well and are fully cut. Now its on to sanding and then back to corrections.  Those two challenge everything I thought I knew. I thought I knew what a light touch means. :)

Not so, apparently! Wearing Jeweler-visor for the first time and seeing the fine mist coming off the stone with the lightest of touches and hence reshaping everything, makes me for the first time really appreciate the skill and work the Cameo-guys put into their pieces.

Also, after grinding for hours on points, nothing really seems to have changed. It's a really frustrating business. The biggest problem I have encountered thus far on those pieces is placing foot in the back and breast. Still have to figure out how to do it better on the stronger build one.

at 8.8 ct, 25 (head to toe just a bit over an inch) x 10 (elbow to elbow) x 3 (thickness at feet)  mm


I think the adjustment to the breast has to come from the top right-hand side downwards.

at 7ct, 26 x 4  (shoulder and hips) x 2 mm ( thickness at feet will come down to approx 1 mm when done)


OK, so lets start at the beginning again: Guatemalan Jadeite

From the start

To the sanding and  polishing stages


Then on to the wings. A big thank you has to go out at this point to Helen, who has send me this fantastic material as an extra last year. I belief it to be Black Plume Agate. I definitely will be looking for more of this. I works great and has an indoor look of glassy jet. Takes contours and holds edges fantabolously.

From the start but some stages are missing, embedded in my camera and not retrievable at the moment.


To the finishing stage


Now, lets set up a mock-up (if you look at the top ridge down on the right upper wing, you can see the freckled edge, which shows the agate content)


Here, I encountered something rather strange. My camera went haywire. Usually I get those white-outs only when using flash and someone wears crystal beads. This time it happened when the sun hit the piece directly.  It seems that jade throws all the light right back at the camera. Both pictures are taken outdoor; the only difference is the sun coming into play.



Now, for a change, I did not want to just glue them together. So I used a core drill and drilled wings and sprite, and in absence of anything better at hand; cut the core-drill to be used as the connector between the pieces.


With addition of a little epoxy and the silver on the left, shaped into a bail, its ready for wearing. Here with my usual victim.



As luck would have it, my daughter was bored and went to a gardening center nearby to look for a friend. She did not find her, but as she returned, she held a pot of plants in her hands. The ideal background to showcase the pendant.  hugs23 to her, she earned her Jadeite Butterfly with that.  ura12



Montana Agate

Stages




Best pics to-date





Thanks for looking, and have a great safe week ahead, Kurt





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