Question for all you guys.. Do you polish these agates with cerium on leather, or with diamond. I would be interested to know your process.
I have a long running ‘debate’ with a friend of mine who finishes everything with diamond sprays from 3000 up to 100000, which I also use on some material like the tiger. I think pure cerium (white cerium), is just as good as 100000 diamond sprays in polishing cloths, but he is convinced his polish on the diamond is always better?
Talking about carvers and polish... I know that Sherris Cottier Shank prefers oxides wherever practicable. For those of you guys not familiar with her work check out Gemscapes. Sherris likes to work with Sunstone also, but she works with a lot of gem material.
Sherris is quite unique as a carver. She works on a fixed arbor and holds the stones in her fingers. She also works both sides of the stone at the same time.
I have seen a lot of carvers work such as Larry Woods and Bruno Moser, the later being the best Australian carver I have seen, and was as good as any of the very best.
The one thing these great carvers have in common is understanding how to use light as a medium.
Sherris is a master at this. She played with light for over 20 years, developing different cuts and angles in the backs of her pieces to enhance light, and to achieve the look she wants through the tops of her carved pieces, as can be seen in her ‘vortex’ cut.
Have a look at her work and think about how each stone was cut in her fingers, fully freeform....
Quite remarkable!
Mike
