Its been two months so there is a lot to catch up with.
Started with a thick slab (over half an inch) so had lots of space to dig through.
While the slab says: copper type, the section I used does not include any copper sheets.
Some stages
Finally done cutting
The calcite mock-up and the tourmaline rough cut
And finished
It comes in at 58 x 42 mm including the mounted (pin connecting hand with tourmaline) tourmaline
Finally, the best picture thus far
Nest up was the same but in pietersite.
As some of you know, I came to lapidary works via Fire Agate, Pietersite and Spectrolite. I messed around for years, with relatively expensive stuff and destructed most of it in the name of learning to work it.
Pietersite takes its attractiveness (in contrast from the other Tiger eye members) from the immense possibility of chatoyancy whichever way you turn it, because of all the twisted fibers, often having blue, red and yellow colors in the same piece. But sometimes, you get pieces with immense long fibers. Those are as desirable as they are avoided. In this piece, all the fibers run top to bottom all the way, and that’s the reason why it is possible to get a blanket coverage of chatoyancy. A cab in that condition can easily run to 150$ and more for a standard 30 x20mm cab. Carving gives the possibility of getting chatoyancy from most angles despite of the straight fibers.
Now the reason as to why it is hated too: fibers are often loose in Pietersite and you could run into pockets of dirt. In normal cases with short fibers, it is a hassle dealing with the occasional loose fiber, but in pieces like this one, ripping a fiber means; you loose the fiber, top to bottom. On top of that you might loose whole sheets, single fibers seldom breaks loose, its usually in bigger quantities.
Knowing the trouble I got myself into; I kept this project quiet and only found the finish-line because I really did not want to consign it to the waste-bucket. During 3 weeks of constantly re-adjusting, I came really close to giving up several times. At one time, shoulder, breast and half the tummy broke away up to 1.5mm deep, and the whole body had to be readjusted. Lost material along both arms and hands became virtually impossible. In the end I had to lean her head far back because I did not have enough material left.
So, here we go, a very abstract version of “Aqua”
In order to really see the chatoyance, that thing needs to move. So lets try if this works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zlNAHei4TMshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zlNAHei4TMs#t=9sAfter the basics where done, I got frustrated with trying to put something in her (non-existent) hand. Played around with a lot of different ideas, but all of them would eiter have been to elaborate or covering too much of the Pietersite. So in the end I just went with an oversize raindrop.
And finally the combo,
And best shot for the day
Indonesian Pawancawa from Daniel, have been on that piece during the busy time at school last month and finished last week but did not manage to get final pic I was happy with.
Stage 1
Stage two
finish cutting
finally ready to wear.
Here is a close-up of the copper-sheets contained throughout the lower half of the piece:
Warren send me recently some material and got started a few days ago.
Cut one of his materials into 3 pieces
Until this morning I thought that I might have to discard the piece and start anew. Then this afternoon, finally I see some light at the middle of the tunnel. lol15
But now, somehow this thing looks too dang cute for an eagle.
So what to do? dunno28
Thank you for all the helpful advise, will revise the piece today a bit before leaving it alone till tomorrow to do some more. I always found that doing things; little at a time, creates a better outcome. Unusual turns and twist, but for the better.
Flatten the head, reset the eye a bit deepen the connection to the beak and try to extend the head by lowering the whole left side. f that gets in the way of the two feathers; so be it, the main subject is the bird and the feathers can be re-done.
No eagle yet either, but little by little, I should get there.
Here is the original rough and first revision yesterday in top row, plus lower row with latest revision today.
And one more time bigger to see the transformation from the parrot. lol15
Now, I think, I still need to dig deeper into the head on top of the beak to make it appear stronger.
Its a though job as I can't add the feathers before the shape overall is acceptable and yet need to leave enough space to add the feathers. Without feathers, this thing will never look as bad as it should.
The biggest time invested is on additional material for each. While simple in itself, it takes a lot of time to get those extras figured out.
Here is the eye for the eagle. Not yet the right size and I still need to figure out how to insert it under the brow. If I'm lucky, I might get the effect of the eye following the viewer.
Its a Polkadot and will have to get it down to about 2mm (12th. of an inch)
In the meantime, cut it to size and removed the white background to make it more appealing. Fits like a glove right now and is hard to take out even without any epoxy.
I think this suits it much better than the white background.
Next up are the two main feathers, and then the polish before deciding on a cab to mount it to and the angle at which it should sit on.
OK, the time has come to finally put all the pieces together.
Unfortunately, the epoxy caused the back of the eye to revert back to a whitish tint. But on the plus side the eye rest at just the right angle to follow your movement (90+ degrees vertically and 140+ horizontally), so I'm extremely happy to have gotten that effect.
Here a pic in the shadows outdoors
And in full sunlight
And last but not least:
Fire agate from Christopher.
Thanks to Christopher, I had the opportunity to work this fantastic piece of Fire Agate (Mexican).
Have not been able yet to get a propper picture to showcase the massive fire, but the carving is slowly coming together.
The face was as usual the worst part. 5 hours on the wheels, and I end up with a cousin of Yoda instead of an intended old mans face. :) :)
The face is about 4 x 4 mm without the beard. The beard is about 1.5 x 2.5 mm. All that trouble for something no-one will ever see. :) :)
Still its nice to know that it is there.
Here is one more shot from this morning to show the overall look of the cab. All the reflections are sky, not the actual color. Will experiment over the next few days to get the colors to show after finishing it off. All the pics thus far are before polish.
I think I got everything to make this a proper post now.
OK, here we go.
The original stone as pictured by Christopher
After some work on the fire
At that point I was asking for some ideas to add a carving and Daniel mentioned the old man. Originally, I thought of a Snail-man. Basically, someone carrying his own house around.
barefoot, drawstring pants and shirtless upper body plus a snail-shell as hat was no problem to create. But that face...... dunno28 Yikes.......
First row shows different angles after carving, second row during sanding and lower row after polish
It has color from every angle,
but the color itself changes dramatically with light-source
And finally the best picture today
Will still try to add another pic tomorrow when I figure out how to get a clear clean shot of it canceling out any glare to give a better idea just how fantastic the color range is.
OK thats more than enough for now. If you are still reading this, you deserve a reward,......
