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[Asianfire]

The owl will get her eyes (same material as the mouse) before the month is out. That should draw the focus away from the frame-problem.

In the meantime I started my ugly duckling. I thought at the time that it would be done in one day, but 6 days in and I'm barely half-way there.

The bits between the feathers need serious wheel-time to clean them up and I promised myself that I would not go for quick fixes anymore.

This is what it started, a misshapen cab that fell apart on me

At 400 grid

Since then nothing seems to have happened despite of sanding for all those days. So I polished it up to really see where it needs to be worked over again. But first a shot of the interior.


And thats where we are now


Now, I need to clean up those feathers and then I need to find a way to make it wearable. Aaron mentioned a branch that the bird is standing on. That lead me to thinking it over a bit, I played with the idea of a branch, but that would make a rather large piece even larger without really keeping a balance. So I'm still playing with different ideas. Right now I'm thinking of getting an oval hoop for it to stand in, as the bird looks over its shoulder and is sideways anyways, that hoop could be in a tight fit.

Edit: October 2014. The Montana Bird is still awaiting finishing. One of those days, I will get round to it. 

Still have not finished up with either of the two birds. Instead, I started something new since cutting the chunk of Hickotyite from Sara.

The orbitals are ideal for creating some eyes; or at least that what I'm thinking.

Started with butchering a slab of Hickoryite plus a regular mostly green Tiger-Eye mixed with some yellow a hint of blue and a a few sections containing Hematite (?) as the front and another piece for the back (very irregular thickness from a fraction of a millimeter to about 5 mm). I just want to avoid an open sight like the one with the mouse last time, and so will close it off completely. Will keep the irregular surface in the back.



I run into some problems nearly immediately because I wanted something resembling a reptilian appearance and the Tiger-Eye cancels out virtually every cut with its chattoyance. So I needed to cut everything much deeper than usual hoping for the best.

As can be seen in the picture, the eye is to be inserted from the back with a intended perfect fit at the bottom and a loose fit on the upper lid.

The next worry was that the Rhyolite is not going to polish. I also had the hard choice which side of the slab to use, so I fitted both sides and choose in the end by dice as I could not make up my mind. LOL


So, now I added scales and only sanded the cuts instead of trying to polish to get a stronger appearance.


Now the only thing left for the next few days is to fit and affix the back, cut scales overlapping the connection-points sand it up and make it wearable. By then I hope to have a proper camera back.

Ok, so now its done and ready to go:

From front, nothing really has changed:



In order to see the attraction of this material, one needs to see it moving. So here is a one minute 10 video. Soundtrack unfortunately is "Village Life": The neighbors are singing local Karaoke the whole day and the dog had to chime in too. LOL


To get the video, you need to klick the picture below. I think that might bring you directly to Photobucket.





So here is a final composite pic


Last weekend while searching for ideas for the Disdero Agate,  I saw a picture of a white Betta fish on FB and was intrigued on the spot.

Saved the picture as it seemed like a good practice round for something in a smaller seize and lots of texture to deal with. Yet in the end the design turns out to be one of the easiest I can remember having done (only 4 hrs on the wheels plus sanding on the road as usual) in a while. Its much easier than it looks like, I only used a cutting-wheel and two different burrs for the whole thing.

For the last few projects I used mostly stones that came to me as gifts and as extras to try out, but this time I wanted to use something of a known better quality. So by chance, the material for the fish is yet again PolkaDot. LOL
Here is the rough and preform


After sanding the preform to 1200 (paper), I sat down for a second time to go into undercutting for folds and texture (about 30 min)


Another day of sanding on the road (whenever I remembered) and another few minutes of deepening the texture and folds. Basic polish followed by leather. Took the last picture after the leather to give a better idea about the overall texture, without cleaning up.


Now, still need to give it the 50k diamond treatment and cleaning up. Final pictures will be up by the time you get up Sat. morning.

A walk around the final fish


Color-play between sun and shadow


And best shot this morning


Thanks for looking, any suggestions for improvements in the future are as always welcome. Kurt

[Asianfire]

Beta/Betta fish is something everyone can try. Simply because you got a small easy body, two front-fins and then you can go as elaborate or simple as you feel comfortable with. A quick look at Google will confirm that you cant go wrong really with this type of fish.

In contrast; my next project (started at the same time than the fish) is a major pain in the rear and I expect to be at it at least another week or two.


Barley got one leg and the chest right in one week (if you dont look at the pointy rear). That thing simply has not yet bend itself to my way of thinking. So,...... will have to continue to horse around for a while.....
Had planed to try a horse basically since I started this journey. Was not anywhere close to it until now.

Growing up on a regular diet of "Cowboys and Indian" books, comics and movies naturally brings Montana into ones life fairly early. So Montana and horses come in a single package, so it was inevitable that I should try my first horse in/on a Montana Agate.

The material looked good, but the plumes/dendrites (?)  are spread just a little to far apart to get them on the two legs. Could have done so, but then the dimensions would have been off. So the middle dendrite is in a little awkward position. LOL


While I wanted to preserve as much material as possible, anything above the head became horrible looking, so I removed all of it.

Here is a look against the computer screen. Looking left is the front and looking right is the flat back.


There is a number of possibilities to improve it further, but I only took Aarons suggestion for the time being and added an eye.  Other things, like muscle-tones and fixtures to mount/hang, might still follow at a later date.

Here we are now at 2000 paper, before getting at it tomorrow with 50k DP.


As all pictures where taken indoors at night with normal room-light, they are a bit dark but give a pretty good representation of the color that I can actually see.

Till here for now, will add the (hopefully) final pics after the polish.
OK, now everything is streamlined. The mouth is a little better but still too pointy.
I'm quite happy though, as at some angles the mouth looks just fine.
Took a nice finish.



Now its time to do the first polish on the Disdero project, to find out what still needs to be done. Will post some pics later.

For this project, I have to shout out a big thank you to Todd, who not only send me the material, but also challenged me to finally go to a seize that I know I have to master eventually. So far I have been talking about, yet always shied away from it.

Here is my first try on the Disdero: Rough, first cuts.



Ever since knowing that I got the opportunity to work with Disdero, I was thinking about Native American images/symbols. Hence the horse and now the wolf to be followed by a few other things before the year is out.

At first I was worried about the seize, but then I found two images that seemed to work for me. Removed all the crystallized crusts (the crust itself is very soft, but if one can just polish down to the last layer, there is a very thin layer of glimmering material that could give an opal competition, saw it too late; so nothing left on this piece). in order to get a piece of pure material and then started this one out as a tribal tattoo. That looked horrible, so I searched for some pictures online and just followed the stone as far as I could.



The color is something to behold. Change the light-conditions and the color of the piece changes tremendously too.


So here we are now today: It still turns out that I'm able to utilize the whole lenght of the piece, so it still is 35mm in length. Thats about 10mm longer than originally expected. Polished it all the way to find out where all the problems are


Now the hard part begins, no more power-tools, only sanding-paper from here.
I'm afraid, if I would use burrs I would mess it up, so while Sandpaper is very slow, I should be able to keep all the definitions. 


This morning I finished the cab for the Inca contest and finally the Wolf. Its still a bit gritty in the crevasses and the dendrites are not helping that either, but I think its OK.
I removed all the spots around the face only to realize that the differences in depht are to small to be seen on a fully polished cab, so yesterday I put the scratches back in. LOL

Here is a collague of pictures as I simply cant make up my mind which one to use of the ones I managed today.




I imagine this to be set by giving the moon a halo in silver or gold. That would put the moon into perspective and a bail to wear. Just 2mm of metal from neck to throad should do the trick, leaving the rest open to light from every direction.

Now back to spidy, and slowly getting serious about the Inca (still have no idea what to do)  hide35

Started a new project two days ago as there will be enough time the next 4 days to polish the wolf while I'm on the road working.

This is a Phsilomelaine that I had originally wanted to try my hand on in "inverted carving" and miserably failed (at the crystal covered back). Now I'm going to try a spider, not very small at a bit over an inch.
Here is day one:


Today, I spend most of the afternoon just do do the heavy lifting (removing all the excess main material.


Polishing up on the road is an absolute NO NO as my fingers will be constantly black. So from tomorrow its back to the wolf until coming Sunday. By then the legs and the body should be formed and after that, I will try to lift the body from the base.
The spider is getting slowly tedious.

5 hours on the wheels this week, yet nothing can be seen.


Still digging and not ready to go to actual details. Head is getting too big, so needs to be adjusted too. LOL


The spider will take a while. It takes an incredibly long time to fee the legs from the body (as of an hour ago, I got 6 freestanding legs) as the burrs constantly gum up and the more I dip, the slower everything goes. Keeping it dry on the other hand heats it up too quickly (this material does not crack, it crumbles, so there would be no recovery at this point onward). And once everything on the wheels is done, then the hard part is only getting started; polishing it up inside-out. Can't do that on the road as it is to dirty a work, so that means it will take even longer.

Here is a collage of pics from two days ago (four legs free-standing)


Still pondering if I should feed her and how to fit her onto a chain.

 Finally reached a milestone in the project. All 8 legs are now freestanding.

Nothing much changed when you look at the pictures, except maybe that I finally started to feed her. LOL


3 weeks down, with two dangerous ones to come. Its so easy to make a mistake when you seem to get close.  dunno28

Legs need reshaping, floor cleaning, and food needs to be defined and then finally opening up the middle to pass a cord through.



So another week down and basically everything on the outside is done. Decided against giving the legs stronger segments as I'm afraid I would break it. Did a little and even that creates a vibration that does not feel too good.  The only thing remaining is to fully polish up all the inside areas. Will have to go shopping tomorrow to find some bristles to reach under the legs and body. Or, I suppose I will not risk it at all and just polish everything up with paper. 3000grid paper should do the trick and as now its not that messy any more, it can be done on the road.


Temporary strung up to wear (cord around the abdomen). Once completely done, the leather-cord will go right through under the body.



Now its also finally time to get started with the Inca.
Rough on top row; bottom carving-surface after skinning.

[Asianfire]

Here is my Inca which I shall call "Save and Sound"

One or two days to go with sanding and polish, then it will be ready for final show.

It's not an original idea. I found a picture of a painting with an angel laying on steps in a medieval setting holding a single rose on Google.

I liked that painting at first sight and had to try to give it a twist more to my liking.
The Inca Agate that I wanted to use at first somehow did not look right, so I turned to the end-cut. The skin is ideal for my intentional meaning of "Save" as it represents the battered wings protecting the pure center.



Today, I went finally at the head and decided not to give it an actual face. Have currently some mixed feelings about something, so no face fits perfectly the prevailing mood of mine.

Here is how it looks right now (wet) before sanding.


"Fallen" came to mind as I thought I could not do the head, but luckily it worked reasonably well without a face. Already thought I would have to put one heand over the head instead of under.

Final seize now comes in at 105 carats (down from 152ct after skinning), so I missed my target by one gram. 50 x 33 millimeter with a maximum depth of 14mm

Walk-around

Showing off the depth

See through

Showing off the finish

And my favorite pics of the day


Thats it for now, will try one more thing with Inca and then its off and back to the Disdero, second installment.

Back on the second half of the Disdero, but first its time to re-visit the sword.

As mentioned before, I need to revisit the sword challenge


And as before, I continue to break things.  saved12

 
Took it slow today as I seem to have the worst flu in at least 5 or six years. Managed to save one of them by turning it into something like a knife. And the second Chrysocola is coming along reasonably well too.


Now its time to apply the measurements to ensue it will fit. Had to wait for the length until now as the top needs to be done first. Once sanded down and measurements are applied, I will be able to put in some spikes along the blade to make it look a bit more fierce.
So now its basically done and ready to be set.



Was able to save the broken one, but it does not seem to want to hold edges very well and the finish while nice and glossy, does not want to hold it even after a simple touch with clean hands. On close inspection, it has a golden shimmer, but I was not lucky enough to have that glimmer cover the whole surface.


Should be fine if integrated in an overall design where it does not come in contact with skin

Unfortunately I miscalculated the depth of the inclusions, so will have to deal with that and hope nothing falls away in inopportune places. 

Day one, getting the feel of it.


As usual, got stuck on the face.

At least I managed to do the ear today and some basic shaping, but that's about it. I do want to avoid that inclusion in front, but it looks like she will get a yellow nose. Her hair will need to be redone around the neck in order to make it plausible to reappear on the other side. Other than that I suppose I need to wait till its sanded and then deepening the cuts.

Top row is from this morning, bottom row now


“Who am I” an invitation to explore yourself.

As Todd told me that he would like to send me some Disdero for carving, the first thing that came to mind was something related to Native American traditions, long before I actually saw the material.

So the first was one of the symbols, by which every European child remembers America; the wolf. That done, I wanted something to do with my personal interests; traditional belief-systems and or superstitions (I have always been fascinated by how and why people do the things they do). While rarely practicing, I do have a particular fondness of learning about metaphysics. So the Medicine wheel is something that I certainly look forward to carve somewhere in the future. This time round though, I took out my favorite animal of the four, the bear. I love the myths surrounding the bear for its dualities. According to the NA zodiac, I’m a salmon and think that I got a lot in common with the way it is described, yet I’m late in the month, so I feel perfectly at home with the bear too. LOL

  Bear Spirit Symbols: Introspection, Solitude, Motherhood, Hibernation, Dream Time, Healing, Communication with Spirit, Thoughtfulness, Natural Strength, Intuition, and Territorial……… are descriptions, that I feel comfortable with, as I’m somewhat of a loner in general and would rather spend time alone than at a party.

But, take me out of the house and you will see all the negatives and positives of the exact opposite from my Western and Chinese Zodiac-signs, that are very outgoing and showing off at any cost. LOL

Long story short, I set out to carve the image of a squaw and a bear having the title “Mother Bear” on my mind. Early on, I realized that the placing was not ideal as I would have to include a yellow crust in a number of places. Both cheeks of the bear still contain some of the crust, but blends in quite well. Encountered bigger problems on the face dough and by removing virtually all the remnants of the crust, turned this piece towards to the rather unintended and surprising, yet perfectly fitting, eventual meaning (giving my original intentions a complete sex-change).

So in the end, we got now a male person holding his totem.

Finished walk-around


See through


Some more details of the two heads


And unfortunately the best pics I could manage today:


Still have to find a way to get pictures to really do the stone justice.

I think I found the perfect marriage for the Disdero. A Polkadot that Helen sent me recently. It has the perfect colors and thickness to make this an outstanding pair.



Sunk the Disdero into it a bit, but my ability for that is rather limited right now, so its a crude composition for improvement in the future either by me or (much better gifted for that kind of precision work) Todd, if he should choose this one.

Here are some shots with different backgrounds ready to wear


And the best shot to-date:

OK the time has come to conclude this tread.
A year is long enough and must be quite boring for most of you by now.

Will ask Aaron to change it to a regular tread and start a new sticky one after Christmas.

Finally got back on the wheels and finished up the Disdero Wolf.
Here is the mock up and cut-out


And here, ready to wear



With that, I would like to thank everyone here for all the support received, and especially everyone at Admin for keeping the site up in this rather eventful year.

I also wish everyone a peaceful Holiday season, a Prosperous, Happy and most of all a Healthy New Year. Kurt

[Enchantra]

The wolf at the end and the koi fish you don't have displayed here are still my two most favorite pieces that you have done!    You've carved a lot of pieces the past few years.  I'm glad to see that this year you have taken the leap and entered the World Jade Carving Competition. 

[Phishisgroovin]

simply amazing.

That spider is absolutely cool!!!

[hummingbirdstones]

Kurt, thanks for posting your carvings.  I had fun looking through them again.  I'd forgotten about some of them and seeing them again was a pleasure.  It's amazing how far you have come and the visions you can see in the stone.  The wolf is one of my favorites, too, but that lizard eye just captured my attention when you were doing it.  I think it's still my all time favorite.   

[MrsWTownsend]

This is so cool!  I love seeing your work, as well as the progress of it.  I am constantly asking myself, "How the heck did he do that????"

Your creativity is inspiring!

[Asianfire]

Thank you everyone. Yes 2011 was a productive year....

Yes, I have come a far way, and in no small measure its your fault. 
If it had not been for all the support, I received along the way, I would have fallen by the wayside, like so many others. So its with a heavy heart, to basically say good-bye to the forum that started and supported it all. Just don't really like going there anymore since about a year. 

Will transfer the others when I get time over the next few weeks.

[Itsandbits]

After seeing all your work again Kurt I realize how productive you've actually been; seeing them composed one at a time over a period of weeks one doesn't realize it. Thanks for a look back

[wampidy]

All memorable pieces Kurt but good to see them again. If I would have stuck with it I could probably be half that good now.

Frank gave me a big ol rock that is just begging me to start grinding on it. No inspiration yet but something will come out of it eventually. It is big enough for me to make two or three hundred pieces the size of yours or one piece I can hardly carry. So many rocks, so little time.
Jim

[Asianfire]

Thank you guys.

Jim, lets call it even. Just look at your fairy and your more recent baby dragon with fairy. You had been miles ahead, only regular practice (or for that matter absence there-off in your case) allowed me to catch up to you.

I still got fun, and contests will be a continued motivation to try to get better. The Jade Symposium this year will result in nothing more than an "also run" placing, but there is always a next time.... :) :)

So, on we go, having fun as long as we can........

[wampidy]

You are too modest Kurt. I work with big pieces. I could no more shrink my carvings down to the size of yours than I could fly to the moon. But maybe in our own size we could be equal. I am okay with that but as long as I am sitting on the side lines I am not getting any better and you are.

I am being lazy and just working the easy stuff. Well, until today. Beautiful day so I spent a bunch of it sitting in it and working on my first fire agates. Not sure if I have the patience for it which is one thing you are way ahead of me on.
Jim

[Asianfire]

While I usually attribute my horrible faces to size, it's really only an excuse to get away with it. :)

Once we have chosen a certain scale, overall size does not really matter as every size has its own challenges that we should be able to overcome with practice. Hence we usually stick with certain sizes. 

  Looking forward to your Fire Agates.  Where did you get them from? If you are on FB, drop in to my albums, I got one project on-going with lots of pictures from the get-go of a Fire Agate. Once finished will also upload on the forum, but that is a good month away.

[hummingbirdstones]

Kurt,

What's your facebook page?  I'd like to see your fire agate project.  Thanks!

[wampidy]

When I was in Quartzsite I had plans to go fire agate hounding with Tony but my back was giving me fits so I did not go. When he got back he gave me a bag of them (probably 30 of all sizes). I had done a little grinding on the wheels before just to clean some of them up a bit but had not gone looking for the fire which is what I did today. I worked three with a big diamond burr down to the point of seeing possible fire then tomorrow I will use a small burr to work them down a little more. I only have a little bit of fire showing now because I was afraid I would go too far with the big burr. I took a couple of pics of my setup before my camera battery died so I will post them in a separate thread when I have a little more to show.
Jim