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[irockhound]

My sister came down to visit and wanted to learn to cut a stone.  Now she has never cut stones before but she was a natural.  I showed her how to cut by having her watch the proper angles and how to hold the stone using a piece of Queensland material and then set her loose on a Botswana.  I had to show her when she made small mistakes, how to fix them and then had her continue cutting the stones.  The last couple stones in the pics I just put the stones on the stick and left her alone with them and these were the large Picasso, the coral and the 2 Rutilated Quartz.  I was amazed that the stones didn't have any flat spots and the polish was great and bevel was mostly perfect (one stone the bevel raised on one side), but for her first time and 7 stones in 2 days!        .  I would like to credit the teacher but I think she was just talent waiting to happen, even for a yucky sister that made me eat grass from our front lawn when I was little!  I did get even and she showed me one of her stones and I hid a candy in my hand and told her it needs to be redone and threw the candy on the floor - her jaw dropped.  I held up the stone right away but it was priceless.
Botswana was 1st stone followed by small Picasso 2, 1 and then 3 and rutilated 1, 2 and pet coral last.

Hopefully she'll get hooked and then join us.

[Sandsave]

She'll get hooked if this is her first go. Nice

[Asianfire]

Wonderful creations. The Botswana is simply stunning.

[Jhon P]

Well done sis!  Now have her do some obsidian, good practice.
How is she doing with the silver work? Is she getting better soldering ?

[hummingbirdstones]

Yep, she's a natural!  Kudos to her and to you!   

[Jhon P]

I was looking at the stones again. Most people have a hard time with soft stones. she did a great job on the marble. Beginners have a lot of flat spots and uneven girdle or they just grind it to nothing. I am impressed  give her some time and you will be the student.

[irockhound]

Yeah, I hadn't cut any Picasso before so I had her do a quick shape on 220 and then 280 to get close and used the 600 to do most of the surface shaping since it cut slow enough to give her a chance.  I had her recut them several times as I kept pointing out the "facets".  She started by doing to many quick touches with the wheel and I showed her how if you get the surface contact by just letting up on pressure and keeping the stone moving she could eliminate the facets.  Still blown away she did the last couple stones while I was running errands and start to finish with no input.  Jhon, on the silver work she wanted to learn the cabs this time so no room for silver training.  She is going to take a silver class near her that she hopes will be good.  If not it is back to the silver bench next time. She appreciates that I am patient with her.  She is going to be amazing.  At 62 she's now doing quite well.  One issue that took a while was for her to see that when looking at the front of the wheel and holding the stone to it that she wasn't getting near the center of the stone because the radius of the wheels goes away from the stone so quick.  I had to readjust her hands a bit and get her to rotate the stone and not by moving her hands.

[Windenzee]

It shows that you are a very good teacher.

[ToTheSummit]

Wow!  She did some fantastic work for beginner stones!  Shes definitely a natural, and it speaks volumes of the teacher also.  Kudos to both of you.