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TaoGem offers inexpensive gemstone cabochon supplies for designing custom jewelry. Interesting Unique and unusual loose cut gemstones. Beveled and polished gemstone supplies for the artistic designer who truly is searching for something special that will support his or her own creative perspective. Standard run of the mill cabochons are readily available on the internet. Our Gemstones offer many art, crafts, and gemstone jewelry design possibilities. Custom lapidary orders are available upon request for most gemstone material.
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Some time ago I received my first piece of Chatoyant Feather Malachite. I had seen pictures of finished cabochons of it before and was very excited to finally get to cab some.
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.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading about this Malachite.
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on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Designing Gemstone Cabochons.
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From time to time I finish a Gemstone cabochon that is especially appealing to me. You can click on the image to be directed to the store category for more info on this rare red Imperial Jasper.
Here is another recent favorite. Sanora Sunrise Chrysocolla. I have cabbed quite bit of this. Here is a neat necklace set.
Recently Added Gemstone Mineral
Here is some beautiful Willow Creek Jasper from Mexico. Feel free to contact contact me for for cabbing details and pricing.
will post to my own post,,,,, I got a saw last night, will pick it up fridaynight. Got it from Rodney, an 18" used but he said works well, we will see. now I too can be a cut up..hee hee
After a month of waiting on oil the old saw is going again. Just cut the first slab of Dryhead......There are some small drsies showing up George! So far I have coprolite, bloodstone, plume and dryhead. I will post a group photo later............B...
No, it's Morrisonite. The picture has a little orange in it which gives it that look. It was a piece that fell off one the slabs I was cutting. Here's one of them. [url=http://www.rarerocksandgems.com/webfolders/RocksFossilsMeteo/morrisonite/collec...
After a month of waiting on oil the old saw is going again. Just cut the first slab of Dryhead......There are some small drsies showing up George! So far I have coprolite, bloodstone, plume and dryhead. I will post a group photo later............B...
I knew I had some somewhere. Here are some more examples of good Carrasite. Similar to Morrisonite but differant in some ways too. I sold these a few years back on my web site. It's been really hard to get any good Carrasite lately but I'm trying.
Like you, I like these simpler settings for my composites too. Especially when there's a busy pattern like in this Imperial. It's actually kind of maroon & root beer brown with a hint of green in some of the streaks. Some light pinks in the...
Beautiful piece with the needed simple setting! I have a few pieces of green spider web imperial and mabe one of a marron but have not seen the brown before. It's really nice.
I must have missed this post. I have been pretty busy cutting opals and other stuff. That is a really nice pendant. It shows it is really about the stone.
Quartzsite 2009
Shows 2009
Quartzsite, in western Arizona, just 20 miles east of the Colorado River on I-10, Quartzsite has been a rockhound’s paradise since the 1960s. These days, it is also a mecca to well over a million visitors each year, most of whom converge on this small town in a wave of RVs during the [...]
For two weeks every winter, the world meets in Tucson as it becomes a bustling, international marketplace of buyers and sellers at the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase.
The “Gem Show” is much more than a single event at one location. Rather, there are thousands of participants and attendees at nearly 50 sites around town. [...]
I recently bought what was described as a Munjina Jasper. After some discussion on our forum, it was thought that in fact it was not Munjina Jasper, but Noreena Jasper.
I did a Google search and they sure do look a lot alike. Come to find out that another member, ImageOne (Ron), cleared up the confusion. [...]
After some trials and errors, and lots of help from other forum members, I was finally able to complete my first bezel gemstone pendant.
There were some difficulties going through the first soldering.
Any way, worth a blog post!
If your here, show me some love and tell me how you like it. I am always interested in [...]
In a thread started by Alana over at CST. “I believe these are some hard times for our business right now” we seem to have discovered common sales experiences in regards to a greater percentage of International sales recently as compared to National. Possibly a connection to the present Global Recession.
I can speak from personal [...]
A follow up from last weeks entry about Morrisonite Jasper. We have talked a bit about this Morrisonite as well as some outstanding Willow Creek Jasper on our community forum as well.
After purchasing from Rare Rock and Gem’s site the other day, would like to share yet more of this great looking mineral. Have not [...]
Many of you have been doing business with me for almost two years now. You have come to know that I did not start my gemstone business because of dependence on the income. I am sort of in between doing this as a hobby and online business.
Lots going on in the world these days. These [...]
We had a new member join up to our forum who sells Morrisonite, Willow Creek, Bruneau, and other rarer Jasper type minerals. His site is called Rare Rocks and Gems.I received a package today from Philip. My mouth hit the floor when I opened it. From time to time will receive exceptional mineral rough / [...]
TaoGem Gemstones
It can be a real struggle for a gemstone jewelry designer to design that unique piece of gemstone jewelry. Most designers do not have a working relationship with a specific lapidary shop. This means that the designer is limited to picking out gemstones to work with at random off the internet or perhaps [...]
I was thinking today about the different people, places and things that came into my life when I first became interested in learning about gemstone cabochons.
Searching for every imaginable educational and how to type sources of information that would help me get started. I had absolutely no knowledge at all, with the exception of having [...]
I do enjoy working with the mineral Chrysocolla.
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 [...]
Everything I do in regards to sanding all the way up to the polish has always been done with silicon carbide type abrasive belts.
In the final couple of sanding stages, I will take it from a 600 grit that is for the most part new, to a rather worn 600 grit. Just to give it [...]
Here are several types of settings for gemstone cabochons that will be set after firing the metal clay.
Fine silver bezel wire. Wrap a strip of fine silver bezel wire around the base of a cabochon. Test fit and adjust the bezel over your cabochon on a flat surface. There shouldn’t be any gaps but the [...]
When I first decided to try to sell on the internet there was one thing that still stands out from all the suggestions that were offered through a number of online internet sales forums. It was strongly suggested to specialize and revolve the business around a specific niche.
For myself it became readily obvious just how [...]
Some time ago I received my first piece of Chatoyant Feather Malachite. I had seen pictures of finished cabochons of it before and was very excited to finally get to cab some.
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 [...]
