Where has the time gone?

I cant believe we are well into 2014 and sadly I haven't achieved much jewellery or gem wise.
I have been getting into photography more learning how to use my newish camera, a Pentax K30, and have started to use a Flickr account I opened ages ago. Flickr by the way REALLY sucks you in! So many talent people out there which has really inspired me.

I spent a week at home visiting my Mum in New Zealand which was fantastic. We went on many bush walks and beaches and just relaxed in general.
This year I have decided to 'Do More Stuff' so have been making an effort to do the things that I have been meaning to do for ages but usually get left by the way side.

Also exciting news is that I entered a jade carving competition! At the moment there are currently 31 people registered from all over the world. There are two categories Jewellery or Sculpture and I have selected the piece I am going to carve and working on the details before I begin. There are people that have been carving longer than I have been alive so dont expect to win (haha) but think it will be a great learning experience and a bit of fun. There is a popular choice component where all the entries are anonymously posted on the site and people can vote..... I will be happy if I just get one vote so cross your fingers for me!

If you are interested to check out my photos here is the link to my Flickr account.

Info on the World Jade Symposium can be found here.

My first commissioned lapidary piece - a pictorial

Last year I was given the opportunity to cut a cabochon to order for Belinda Newick. She was producing some beautiful forms for the up coming celebration of The Jam Factory turning 40 and wanted a piece of nephrite jade to be included.
The exhibition, Designing Craft/Crafting Design has had such a positive response that it will be touring Australia! They have also constructed a separate website for the occasion. I am pretty excited about this as I will actually get to see the exhibition in person when if eventually comes to Victoria (Yay!).

I must admit to having some nerves along with the excitement starting out on this adventure having never cut anything to order before.
I LOVE cutting cabochons as I find it SO relaxing. It is noisy, messy and thoroughly satisfying! You start out with a hunk of rock or stone and finish with something that can be set into jewellery or simply be displayed and admired. Cutting to order was very different than cutting for myself. I noticed that I took more time on each stage and checked the progress a lot more frequently! lol

Belinda need the nephrite to be a specific shape and size so we met to discuss the brief and for me to collect the piece she had selected to be cut. I got to handle one of her silver forms and the shape was ridiculously tactile. It seemed to nestle into the palm of your hand and warmed to the touch beautifully.

I took many photos during the cutting (but still somehow missed a few stages) so here are the phases of cutting a double sided free from cab:

First step is to mark out the outline of your shape onto the slab. This is done with a sharpened 'stick' of aluminium then sprayed with hairspray to fix it in place. Due to the dark green of this piece I instead used a fine tip permanent marker. A diamond saw is then used to trim off any excess.

Next onto the grinding wheels

From here you need to be able to manipulate the stone on the grinding wheel on various angles so to achieve this it must be mounted onto a dop stick. I marked out some general guide lines and proceeded to warm the piece of nephrite to help the wax adhere to it. At this stage it is very chunky and took a very long time to warm up!

To remove the nephrite from the dop stick you simply cool it making the wax brittle and 'snap' it off. Some times it simply falls off in the cold. I repeated the cutting and re doping of each side a few times as I wanted them to be nice and even.

In the background you can see the various grinders of different grades along with the mess you make!

At the clubs rooms the lights are long fluorescents. One of the other members taught me to use the reflection of the lights on the piece you are working on as a guide to see if there are any flat spots/if your curve is even. In this photo you can see where I need to do some more work.

I missed photos of the sanding phase but in the above two photos you can see on the left the sanding wheels. They are wheels that spin clockwise or anti-clockwise and have various grades of wet/dry sandpaper mounted on them.

This is the stage I handed the nephrite over to Belinda - though I admit I miss handling this lovely piece! The shape she chose is so lovely I am sure who ever becomes the lucky owner will constantly be holding it.
She then engraved it giving it its finishing touch.

The above photo is taken from the Jam Factory's website showing it along with Belindas other forms made from; pine, yellow gold, copper and silver. I think they look fantastic together and I am so thankful to have been given the chance to play a small part in this.
Thank you Belinda for the opportunity and also for the permission to post photos! It was a really enjoyable experience :)

If anyone has seen this exhibition or has any questions on cutting/lapidary please fire away. Comments and questions welcome!

Trip down memory lane

I have been going though all my old sketchbooks and came across this:



These scribbles were my ideas for my first ever carving! I am from Greymouth, New Zealand and I grew up looking for 'Greenstone' (Nephrite/Jade/Pounamu) on the beach.
It is incredibly hard to find and pieces are usually small. One year while on a holiday home I decided that I HAD to find a piece for my Aussie boyfriend (soon to be husband in a short 6 months from now!)



To date the piece I found that day is by far the biggest and nicest piece I have ever seen found on the beach. It took me 3 hours to find and I got sunburnt all down my left side - a small price to pay for such an awesome piece!
I cant seem to find any photo of it in its raw state but the shape is drawn at the top of my terrible sketches and it had a fracture line running through it which I had to work around.

At that point I didnt have any diamond burs but had access to the cab room out at Nunawading Lapidary Club.

This was the result which I am still really happy with all these years later.



Sadly I havent done much cutting lately but last year I was lucky enough to shape a piece for Belinda Newick for the 40 year Jam Factory celebrations but that is another story...........