A bit of a disaster..

It should have been more obvious to me while grinding down the flat edges of the Obsidian that it was not nearly good enough. As can be seen at the joints.

I knew the top edges were a bit chipped, but thought that by the time I took it down a bit that those would disappear. Maybe they would have if I had ground her down more.. It’s just that the dome is pretty low as it is, so will have to think about that next time.

Also will be sure to do a much better job on the inner part of the frame flat edges. No chips allowed next time !

Oh well……. First try, next one will be better !

One thing about buying the expensive Orb type Ocean Jasper is that it is hard to find at an affordable price without pitting or vugs. The Ocean Wave Jasper seems to come nice and solid.. Great cabbing material.

One thing I did when shopping for this was knowing I wanted to be able and get as many of the different colored bands that are offered on the slab also within a cabbing area. The dimensions between the colored bands on these will allow me to get three nice colors on a perfect sized cabochon.

If you can not live without this one, you can see it here in store.

Of course if you would like to have one cut for a custom piece of jewelry your designing, just contact me !

Thanks for stopping in and reading !

What makes the group gemstone cabochon sets a little more interesting, is the way they are cut from the original mineral slab. Somewhat similar to making a quality pair of earrings. Except instead of using back to back slabs for matching grains on each earring, these sets are cut from the same area off an area from the slab.. Done patiently, a nice contour of the grains will flow through the entire group of gemstones within the settings group.

Lot of fun to do.. They are among the most rewarding when finished.. Just something about them that I really enjoy.. I am thinking of giving a set a whirl myself.. I am still trying to get a little better at my soldering before I tackle one of my own sets!

Any way, just wanted to do a little blog entry. Below are a few examples.. Many more in store. To more easily find just these sets. Use the search box and key word “set”. Happy to do any kind of special requests for similar sets from a variety of interesting and unusual minerals.. Feel free to contact me with a request or questions.

The very first example for me was black Tourmaline in quartz.

Then as a result of choosing a rutile Quartz for this cabochon contest this Gold Titainium Rutile in Quartz is only my second experience with rutile minerals. Here is a pic of the piece I sliced off the rough and the finished cab I got from it. Very hard to work with. With this Titainium the rutile ran not only up and down, but also from front to back. Difficult to orientate and think ahead about the final cab shape and utilize the rutile in the very best way possible.

This was a lot of fun and in the end very rewarding. Very pleased with how this Gold Titainium turned out. I am actually very motivated to do more rutile minerals. Although what I realize now that I am shopping for more is that quality rutile minerals of any kind are very expensive. The above black Tourmaline in Quartz as an example is next to impossible to find with any good concentration of rutile. Same with the Gold Titainium. Just can’t find nice material without sacrificing my first born.

I have just recently started to try my hand at silver soldering. Now I catch myself putting some stones aside instead of selling them thinking that sooner or later my soldering and overall designs will be better. So although I did sell all the black Tourmaline cabs from what little rough I had, I am keeping this Gold Titainium one for a future piece.

Actually as long as your here reading this blog entry, if you have or know of someone offering “reasonable” prices on material like this I would sure appreciate knowing about it.  Also more than willing to barter. If you have some that you would like cabbed, would be happy to do it for you in exchange for some of the same!

Thanks for stopping by and reading this entry.

“Undercutting” occurs when softer grains in the rock grind down faster than the harder grains and you end up with a pock-marked effect – some people call it an “orange peel effect. Look at the way the peel on an orange has hollows in it. Picture the hollows as spots where softer grains ground down faster than the surrounding harder grains. Undercutting happens when you have a lapidary material that consists of more than two minerals where there is a significant difference in hardness or the rate that the material will be removed varies significantly because of the differences in hardness within the mineral. It is the structural characteristics that make certain minerals susceptible to “undercutting” and an “orange peel” surface effect.

The effect is more pronounced when using loose grits because the grits can move about, with both individual grains of grit able to move into attitudes where they have “high spots” that grind into the soft grains of the material, and the grains can pile up into little clumps that also sit higher than the surrounding grains – doing their cutting deeper into the soft grains of the stone being worked. Grinding wheels can have similar difficulties because they tend to wear down unevenly – leaving some high spots and/or grains that will undercut the softer materials in a stone. Using sandpaper reduces the effect significantly because all the grains are glued onto the backing in a relatively level fashion – not much chance for grains of grit to end up sticking up higher, or for clumps of them to form and grind deeper into the stone. But as sandpaper wears you can end up with loose grits on it that will cause undercutting, so it is probably best to change the paper at the first signs of trouble – and not use old, worn sheets at all for any material that is prone to undercutting.

The best way to avoid undercutting in materials prone to this is to use sandpaper instead of loose grits or grindstones. And it may still take you a while to come up with the best combination of sanding grits and polish to get the best results: Not all sandpaper is created equal.

Hard felt polishing surfaces are especially recommended for opal, agate and other materials.

Remember too that no degree of polishing will correct a stone which undercut during sanding.

What about possible solutions?

A preform cutting and grinding guide assembly can be used in conjunction with Graves and Diamond Pacific cabochon machines. The Graves grinding or cutting guide assembly can be integral or attached to a cabbing machine.

The reason I mention this particular tool, is because of of “cams”, undercutting is eliminated because the cab is forced to shape to the contour of the cam. The softer mineral compositions in the stone can not undercut the harder compositions, and the harder compositions also have to conform to the shape of the cams. These cams can be home made into any shape to match desired cabochon preforms from any semi-precious mineral that you expect undercutting issues with. Not to mention of course any other semi-precious material as well.

Here is the limitations though.. It is strictly for preforming. It does not solve dealing with surface undercutting.

Preformer Attachment:

Made by the Graves Company. Take the guess work out of shaping and sizing cabochons and faceted stones. Simply assemble the proper cam, turn the handwheel and the preformer will guide the grinding of the stone to the precise size and shape of the cam. Easily adapts to most grinding and faceting machines. For special sizes or shapes, machined metal or nylon cams can be made in your own workshop.

Here is one of a couple of actual semi-cabbing machines that will deal completely with undercutting for the entire cabochon.

A Colbaugh Semi Cabbing unit. It provides me complete semi-cab forming opportunities. It too incorporates the use of cams ( shown below in first pic ) that allow me to overcome potential undercutting of any semi-precious cabochons.

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Another similar unit is the Addexton Semi Cabbing unit. Similar operating procedures as the Colbaugh unit.

I brought these two units up only to offer possible solutions to dealing with semi-precious minerals where undercutting is an issue. Not meant to promote by any means.

One of the many minerals I have ran across where undercutting was unavoidable, as an example was this Azurite/Malachite with Quartz. It matters not what ya try to do, the Azurite/Malachite undercuts the Quartz. For myself it has been these Quartz and or Gem Silica mixed minerals that I have had most all my undercutting problems with.

You can see a finished cab here cut from the slab clearly showing the Quartz and or Gem Silica. The semi-cabbing machine deals well with the combination of the softer Azurite/Malachite prone to undercutting the much harder Quartz veins, leaving a nice smooth surface.

I have searched high and low online and have yet come across a technique that will aid and or overcome undercutting when working similar materials freehand on a cabbing machine.

One mineral I did run into with undercutting suggestions was for the different types of Jade.

The fibrous texture of jade and variation of hardness are the reasons for its reputation as a problem. Apparently some Jade can be sanded dry and works up beautifully. Other material in its final sanding begins to undercut. When this happens, it is suggested to stop immediately and try a new approach. First, a final sanding on a new piece of 600 cloth. Many times this will correct the difficulty and after a few moments the cabochon will be smooth, free of under-cut or peel, and appear almost polished.

Feel free to comment on minerals that have proven difficult for you to work, and undercut on you.

Also…… Please leave tips and tricks comments that you suggest to overcome undercutting while cabbing freehand.

This particular Sanora Sunrise was new to me. Because of having much success lately with different Chrysocolla’s, I knew that I wanted to give this a whirl. My only first concern was because the seller had so much of it for sale, that there may be a chance it was blast mined. When people blast minerals from deposits, the end result is usually badly fractured material.

With this in mind thought it best to start with a smaller piece to see how it turned out. There were many choices. Some consisted mostly of Azurite, others mostly Cuprite, and then I still am not sure what the black mineral is. There were also many with a combination of the three. That was my choice for the first piece.

There are some metallic veins as well. A little hard to see in these pictures, but very interesting looking on the finished cabs.

I cut some preforms with just the Azurite, some with just the Cuprite, and others had a combination of all three minerals. I had no problems with undercutting.

After sharing how much I enjoyed cabbing this Sanora Sunrise Chrysocolla on the forum, other members became interested and have since bought some and seem to be excited about it as well.

Here are a few more examples. As usual, if you enjoy the mineral as much as I am, feel free to contact me for details on having me cut and shape cabochons for you from this mineral.

Thanks for checking out my blog and reading this post. If you enjoy this type of lapidary / gemstone blog, be sure to subscribe this blogs feed !

Initially I was very disappointed because for the life of me, I could not get a polished finish.

With this chatoyant type Malachite, you have to slice the piece of rough a certain direction to fully take advantage of the chatoyant effect. Even more so with a Feather type chatoyant Malachite because if sliced improperly, the majority of feathering can be lost.

After much discussion on our forum, this ended up sitting on the bench for about four months. Part of the problem was the amount of copper within this. Finally, I sent some off to one of our forum members (Seth) who posted his success with completing a beautiful cab from what I sent him. My interest was sparked again and dove in to give it a try once more!

I thought might share the process from beginning to end just for fun. Visitors have commented how they enjoy seeing the process from the original piece of rough right up through the finished cabochon. I enjoy showing it too!

This first image is the rough as I received it. Before I even cut into it I was sure this was going to be something special.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a way to cut this so as to get the best feathering effect within the finished cabochon. Because of that I had to make a mold. Poured plaster of paris in it and then positioned the Malachite rough on it’s side so that once the plaster dried I could then cut this in the direction I wanted too. Otherwise there would have been no way to either hold it by hand or even begin to think about clamping this fragile mineral down in the slab saw.

The dark areas are copper. It was not long before that became a real problem for me in regards to polishing. As I shared on forum, for the life of me, I could not get a polish. the copper continued to smear as I tried to polish with tin oxide polish on a leather type polishing pad.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first attempt prior to sending some off to Seth from the forum.

Ok, so on to my recent successes !

First off, the oxide polishes were not the way to go. Seth mentioned his success came from the use of diamond abrasives. I believe he used some diamond paste as well. Since I was not set up with diamond, I have since made a few special wheels with a very soft leather that I can now use diamond pastes on. They are a small 4″ diameter, and simply placed them on a spare polishing unit.

Then…… the real success for me came when I set up a unit with a cotton buffing wheel. Mirkaba (Bob) from the forum had mentioned that he had some great successes with Zam.

Zam gemstone polish is used to polish soft materials, such as sapphire and gold (the softest of all metals).

This is when the shine really started to pop. Since this success with using Zam, I have began working again with this and other types of Malachite.

Here are a few pics showing my cabbing and polishing successes of this absolutely beautiful Chatoyant Feather type Malachite.

These, like most all my cabochons are bezel setting ready. These pictures were taken prior to adding the beveling for a bezel setting of which I have since added.

If you would like to see more details on these particular gemstones, you can check them out by going to this link.

As always your welcome to contact me about pricing details for special cut and shaped gemstone requests.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading about this Malachite.

The black Tourmaline really did not cluster or run any more or different through out the piece of rough.

As you can see from this image.

So I just sliced a couple of small slabs off for my first attempt at a cab. Thought might just post a blog post for anyone who might stumble upon it. Hopefully maybe like the finished cab as much as I do!

Really beautiful material…..

Another somewhat similar mineral is this Rutiliated Quartz. I have yet to slice a piece from this. I am sure will post an image of a finished cab on the forum once I do.

As you can see it too has very similar rutiliated lines running through it as the Tourmaline except these are gold in color. This will make some beautiful cabs as well.

As usual, should either of these appeal to you like the Tourmaline does to me, feel free to contact me for details on how to get a cabochon cut from either of them.

Been playing a little with druzy materials. Ever since we started talking about it on our forum.

Some of the members showed some pretty cool druzy gemstone cabochons. I instantly began to find sources for different types of druzy minerals. Hard to find at a good price when searching the term “druzy”. The best opportunities seem to show themselves when I search for various pieces of rough with either a druzy exterior or geode interior.

From what I have read, the gemstone mineral Stichtite comes from Tasmania. The articles I read all talk about Stichtite, but not the Imperial Stichtite that I am showing here. So can not say for sure it the Imperial comes from the same area. Most likely though.

Then for additional druzy top, I cut some black druzy from a piece of Ruby in Zoisite. Although the piece I have is for the most part Zoisite. It is generally referred to as Ruby-Zoisite, or Anyolite. It is a natural combination of ruby and zoisite crystals in a single specimen. This too is from Tasmania. That made the combination of the two in a single cabochon design that much more unique and interesting.

Well, this is the set I ended up making. I really like the color combination of the pink Stichtite and black druzy from the Zoisite.

Thanks for stopping by my lapidary blog, and hope you like the cab set!

The other day a friend of mine gave me another piece of rough of this same mineral. Since I was still unsure, I requested an ID for it on our gemstone forum. It is nice to finally know that it is Dolomite.

Here is a picture of the piece of rough as it was given to me. Prior to slabbing.

I will bypass showing the slabs I cut from this and go directly to showing some preforms. Although I would like to mention that in order to get nicely matched pairs, it is necessary to use two slabs cut back to back from this same piece of rough. That is the only way to really be able to design quality matched pairs. It enables a lapidary to match the grains properly.

Then another picture as I have started to shape and on into the beginning sanding stages.

Finally, the finished matching earring cabochon pairs. Each with a neat matching pendant gemstone to go with.

These matched earring pairs are very slim, at two millimeters. The original preforms started out at about three millimeters. The pendant stones finished at four millimeters thick.

As always, if you would like to have a different design cut and shaped from this Dolomite mineral for a custom jewelry designed piece you have in mind, feel free to contact me for a special request.

Hope you enjoyed this entry!

I like to share with anyone interested how these minerals look when first starting to cut cabochons.

Here is the first material I was talking about in slabs.

Here is what a first group of larger cabs looks like from it. I say larger, because the following pic is from the same gemstone mineral. The cabochons are smaller, so the color variation is limited.

Then just a couple of days ago, I was visiting a member of our local gem and mineral club. He traded me a slab of some beautiful green Serpentine from the Chewelah Washington region. Here is a picture of that Serpentine gemstone mineral again, in slab form.

Not having worked with any serpentine except for the above, I expected to get the same satin finish instead of a nice glossy polish. After sharing about this on our forum, other members suggested the need for diamond abrasives to bring out the shine on the first material above.

It was nice to see a great shine on this second Serpentine from the Chewelah area. Still when you compare the two. The one with the satin finish and the nice green material with a great looking gloss finish will both look excellent in any piece of gemstone jewelry. These particular cabs are cut, shaped and beveled to fit best in bezel settings.

The location for the nice green material is only accessible through the Colville Rock and Mineral Club. I am looking forward to going on a trip with them soon.

If you have subscribed to my site then you have probably been following along as I add new blog entries. More to the point of this blog post is another recent blog entry about how excited I am about the learning of metal clay as my choice towards beginning to make a special line of jewelry. We are talking a bit about it on the forum too. We are fortunate to have a certified metal clay artist sharing here expertise with myself and other members there as well.

Any way, lets get to the point of this post regarding Jasper Minerals that are available to jewelry designers.

The list is certainly long, and there is no such thing as a poor looking Jasper cabochon. When it comes to designing gemstone jewelry, a favorite among Jaspers, are the Picture types. When I start to day dream or sketch out jewelry pieces, I imagine many of them with a Jasper of some type set in them. Usually a really interesting and unique picture jasper! Here are a very few recent Picture type Jasper favorites of mine.

Remembering that we have to start with a chunk of Picture Jasper rough, and slab it up for preform cabochons before we can get a great looking picture cabochon. One thing for sure is when I cut into any Picture Jaspers, it is just one big surprise waiting to happen. I never know what the piece of jasper rough holds until it is slabbed up.

Another reason that the Picture Jasper makes for interesting and unusual jewelry is the ability to make stunning matched pairs ideal for earrings. Here is one pair of Picture Jaspers and a few Owyhee Picture matched pairs. You can see what I mean! Another interesting part to being able to even think about making quality matching cabs is the part about how it takes two back to back slabs from the same piece of rough to be able to accomplish identical pairs.

These few pictures hardly begin to cover just how much interesting and unique variety there can be when considering Picture Jaspers for our gemstone jewelry designs.

Once I get to setting some of these beauties in some nice bezel / metal clay settings, you can bet that I will be posting some blog entries all about them!

While visiting another lapidary up in Bonners Ferry Idaho, he reluctantly parted with a very small piece of this fabulous material. It was enough to make just a few cabs. I was left with one small slab of it once I cabbed those. I was sure it would be the last of this mineral I would ever see.

Then upon a second trip to visit him, he was kind enough to part with a nice large piece.

As I am posting this blog entry, it is in the saw being cut into slabs. The picture below is of the one small slab that I had left over from before. The piece that I thought for sure was going to be all I would ever see of it again.

Here are a couple of cabs examples I cut from the first piece.

I do not have a finished piece of jewelry to show just yet.
I have signed up for a beginners Silver Metal Clay class that starts on the 31st of this month. I am very sure that this will be my mineral choice for the cabochon I use in the first metal clay piece I make.

I am really very excited about the metal clay, but that is for upcoming blog entries.

I am going to be cabbing more of this up and it will be available in my store inventory very soon. Otherwise if you are a designer of custom gemstone jewelry and would like to design a special piece around this mineral, feel free to contact me for special requests. Prices are very reasonable.

Hope you enjoyed looking at this Spider Jasper!

It was as a result of entering that I finished one of my favorite cabs. I turn out several cabs a week, but since I began cabbing there have only been a handful of favorite cabs.

This is one of the few I really like and just felt like posting a blog about it and sharing it with anyone who might stumble upon this entry.

It is a Graveyard Plume Agate. I hope you enjoy seeing it.

Here is an example of a beautiful specimen of “Ocean Jasper” rough.

I really love the way a finished cabochon looks. Here is a rarer red ocean jasper matched pair. Ideal for designing custom earring jewelry.

For a lapidary it is fairly easy to work with. Takes an excellent polish and looks really great.

“Ocean Jasper” is a rather rare and very beautiful orbicular jasper variety mined at a single location on the coast of Madagascar that is only exposed at low tide! The above ocean jasper piece has a layer of rich green jasper at one end, with layers of solid white eyes, solid orange-pink eyes, and concentrically ringed white, green and orange-pink “bull’s eyes” as shown in the close-up photo above.

Other specimens have dots in beautiful green color and pink and brown patterns (all natural colors). Another specimen can have green bull’s eyes within sphericals and white to orange-pink layers (all natural colors), and can have several vugs with shiny quartz crystals inside.

Another example of an individual freeform cabochon of the same rarer red ocean jasper. Check out the yellow! It really looks awesome!

It is necessary for the lapidary to begin with a solid piece of gemstone mineral in rough form. There is no other way because we have to have two matching slabs from the same piece of rough sliced back to back. Once laid out, we can decide on any number of areas from both slabs limited only by the sizes of the matched pairs we are cutting and shaping for the designer of the jewelry pieces.

This is where it makes all the difference in the world in regards to having a relationship with a lapidary like myself. Not only has the jewelry designer decided upon the mineral type, but once the designer has had an opportunity to view the slabs, they are able to really work with me in a way that results detailed options that actually allow the jewelry designer to design the gemstone cabochons. The designer of the jewelry piece has the options of actually working with the colors and grains within the slab and incorporate them into the piece of jewelry.

Once the slabs are laid out, I will cut out the desired shapes from each piece so that both match to the desired specs of the designer. Here is an example of a matched gemstone pair from the slabs above.

This same technique can be used in any number of different custom jewelry designs. From bracelets, cuff links, necklace sections, and earring pairs. The technique is limited only by the creativity of the jewelry designer and the ability of the lapidary to bring it all together.

I do have a nice selection of pre-cut matched gemstone pairs available. Of course I encourage jewelry designers to consider requesting information about minerals available and to discuss design possibilities.

Lapis Lazuli Information

* Water may remove the protective coating that is on lapis and therefore should not be soaked in water any period of time. Lapis jewelry is best removed while swimming. Lapis is best if cleaned with a soft dry clothe. If water is necessary then dry the stone immediately after application.
* Lapis lazuli gemstone cabochon represents celebration for the 7th and 9th year of marriage.
* The main sources for Lapis Lazuli are Afghanistan, Egypt, Canada, Chile, the US, and South America.
* Lapis lazuli is a rock that is composed of a mixture of a few different mineral types that include lazurite, huaynite, sodalite, noselite, calcite and pyrite.
* Lapis was also used in acnient Egypt during many religious ceremonies, and most often as an inscription stone for various passages from the Book of the Dead.

Lapis Poem

Lapis, known as the philosopher’s stone, is a legendary mineral used by alchemists to turn base metals to gold. Robert Kelly’s 50-year pursuit of its poetic equivalent words that transform the common things of life into art yields the 127 new texts collected. In these richly varied poems and prose poems some occasioned by reading Dickinson and Yeats, visiting churches and art museums, traveling through Austria, France, Italy, and Ireland, and reliving the wounds of childhood and adolescence Kelly describes personal experience and, by touching it with memory and imagination, makes it stranger than life itself. He is the diarist as dreamer, and the dreamer as alchemist.

Lapis Lazuli in the Bible

The name Lapis Lazuli also is known from the Persian word lazhward meaning blue, in allusion to its color. In ancient times, lapis lazuli was also well known as sapphirus, which is the name that we use today for this blue corundum variety of sapphire. Therefore the sapphire mentioned in the Bible is most likely lapis lazuli.

Lapis Lazuli on Wikipedia

Lapis lazuli (sometimes abbreviated to lapis) is a semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense blue color.

Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for 6,500 years, and trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania.