Lapidaryforum.net
Rock Art => Carvings and Sculptures => Topic started by: irockhound on June 26, 2016, 12:29:29 PM
-
I thought I would post this here since it doesn't quite fit other areas. I had some old soapstone that I had bought (and tested for Asbestos) and some old Ivory that I purchased in the 70's and made a small earring box. I made an Iris in scrimshaw on the Ivory and then set it into the Soapstone. I then took aluminum rod and made the feet for the base. I like the look and it is sort of cute, albeit small.
-
Your earring box is lovely! I have always wanted to try scrimshaw, but haven't found the time to attempt it. It's still one of the things I want to learn how to do. Excellent job! :icon_sunny:
-
Very nice! You've got talents.
-
Cool I bet you can do that with oynx I think it is about a 4 or 5 moh hardness. You seen the rainbow oynx that I have made spheres out of?
-
Is the Rainbow Onyx the Onyx from your recent Spheres post or is it a different Onyx? I looked back at that post and just saw Onyx and ran a search on the forum for Rainbow Onyx and didn't find anything. Of course seeing more of your spheres is always invited.
-
ok, Now tell us how it was done? almost looks like it was done on a mill
-
I used a mill for the interior since I didn't want seams on the exterior of the box. I felt the 90 degree joints would look terrible and 45 degree would be difficult with the soapstone wanting to flake at the corner edges during cutting. It was much easier to do plunge cuts in the corners. I roughed out the block with std diamond saw and milled the interior, steel file for cutting radii and then finished with 220 thru 1000 grits sandpaper. The slot for the ivory was also machined for a perfect fit of the ivory. Ivory was std scrimshaw techniques and epoxied into the soapstone with 330. I put a coat of clear spray lacquer on the outside of the soapstone (masking the ivory) to help protect the soft stone.
My sister who used to be an archeologist I remember telling me of how they used to heat the soapstone in fire to harden the surface and I seem to remember they also oiled it first. Or maybe that was pipestone?
I started a couple other boxes: A hardwood oval box with layered wood and machined out the majority of the center and I am then using a dremel to clean the inside surfaces. and the 2nd is a wood box that I dremel'd and chiseled the hinge surfaces and then got a depth attachment for a dremel to use it like a router to cut the hole in the lid for the Stone Canyon inlay stone. These are all just experiments as I try to find what looks good and I haven't found that yet. I am putting in a couple images of the box with stone in lid and no seam oval (at this point all wood box). The box2 pic is what I hate about 90 degree seams. I am so much more comfortable in stone work.
-
nice work love the scimshaw