Grinding and Polishing - Mojave Stone and Opals


 This is my JoolTool.  I first saw it demonstrated at "Metal Clay by the Bay" and thought about buying it for a day.  I bought it with the metal clay kit and was delighted with both the time saving and the finished product.  Then several months later I bought the polymer clay package.  I was equally happy with the time saving and the end product.
For those of you who are not familiar with this product, it has a variety of sanding and polishing discs that easily screw on the vertical spike.  The discs have slots evenly spaced and when they turn you can see what you are working on.  Less mistakes and less time spent sanding and polishing.

Last February I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  Since I had been to Australia I wanted to find some black opal from there.  The finished pieces proved too expensive for my budget.  Fortunately a friend and I found a booth with rough unfinished Black Opal.  I decided to buy some (having no idea how to select the better quality).
Australian Black Opal in the rough

I bought 4 pieces and thought that sometime I would buy the lapidary kit for my JoolTool and polish them myself.  That's what I bought myself for my birthday in May!  It took until now to get my courage up and try the lapidary kit.  I started with some broken cabochons of Mojave Stone that my dad and brothers had mined in the Mojave Desert.  After a little practice I ground the one with both ends broken to make a bead.  I still have to drill the hole!  But the piece came out really well.
broken both ends
ground and polished both ends!


I also ground and polished the end of this broken cabochon and plan to make a silver cap for it.  Then it will be a pendant.


Since that went so well, I started on the opals.  I had lots to learn having only watched my dad make cabochons many years ago.  I did not know the matrix for the opal was mud like.  I also did not know who to really shape a piece or what to look for in selecting an area for jewelry.  I decided to take out the mud-like filling and see what was left of the stone.  The first piece was small and I basically ground it to dust.  It was a good learning piece!  The second piece  was flat and once the mud was gone I could shape it into a piece that would work for a pendant.  I like the pattern and the color on it.

Second piece - for a pendant
The third piece was fun to work on as it had caves and crevices that appeared as the mud was removed.  I've decided to keep it natural and enjoy the shape and colors as they are.

Third piece - one view

Third piece - another view
The fourth piece stole my heart!  As I removed the 'mud' this heart began to take shape.  It has lots of color and shapes made with fractures and it has a cave like indentation in the center.  I'm not sure what will become of this piece.  Should I leave it and enjoy it or should I set it and have a pendent?  Ideas?  Comments are welcome!

Fourth Piece- my heart



Labels:
Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning As We Go!

Image
Viking knit is the oldest method of chain making and I've become fascinated by it.  Once I conquered the single knit, I decided to add beads.  I could have googled or asked how it was done but it seemed like something I could just figure out.  And I've learned a lot as I proceeded first with tumbled turquoise beads and then with pearls.  I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.   Iif you want a great tutorial on viking knit technique, Trina Ann at http://blog.trinaann.com/  has written a clear concise easy to understand tutorial.  I highly recommend it.    Tumbled tuquoise beads in viking knit  I used tumbled turquoise beads in the first viking knit chain and I did not really know what I was doing.  But I went right ahead and as it turned out, I liked the end result.  Since the beads were irregular in shape there was a random quality to the finished product. During that process, I beg...
Read more

Polymer Clay Conversation

Image
One of the polymer clay groups on FaceBook is 'Polymer Clay Collective'.  This is a group of artists working in polymer clay who share ideas and support each other.  I'm so glad to be a part.  A new feature of this group is the 'Polymer Clay Collective Conversations' where a different member answers a set  of questions.  I get to be first - the trailblazer! I hope you enjoy learning a little more about me and in two weeks I get to learn more about someone else. • Tell us a bit about where you live. I live in Prescott AZ right next to the national forest.   When I look out my studio windows, I often see large black ravens swooping between the pine trees.   Binoculars are always available for close viewing of our smaller forest birds.   You’ve probably read about the forest fires we have had in our area this summer.   The monsoon rains we are having are so welcome. • What do you do when you're not polymer claying? As of 2010, I...
Read more

I'm Back with New Pieces of Art Jewelry

Image
It’s been a while since my last post and while I missed writing them, I hope you also missed sharing my adventures!  Between a road trip to Berkeley and having painful (very painful) shoulder tendonitis my activities really slowed down.  Now I’M BACK!  Ready to explore new techniques and have fun. When I see a good tutorial about something new that catches my fancy, I buy it and eventually the day comes when I just have to try it.  Staci Louise Smith wrote a tutorial “Gold Rush: The Rustic Crackle Technique” for Craft Art Edu.  I loved the pictures of her necklaces and wanted to see what I could do.  If you like the crackle effect  on my pieces or want to try something new, check out her tutorial on   www.CraftArtEdu.com    They have good classes on many subjects. When I started following tutorials, I expected my pieces to look like the instructors.  That just did not happen and it is not the fault of the tutorial or ...
Read more