trimmed the rogue saplings and overhanging Bur Oak branches in the hedgerow with my 'chainsaw on a stick' so I think I deserved to spend a couple of hours in the shop creating some new things. I do have a few special orders waiting and now I'm energized, ready to tackle the week. 
The set up: Sunday night. 9:00pm. Bored. Too early for bed. Finished my book and refuse to turn on the tv. I excuse myself and head out to the pile of rock slabs in the shop where a cat joins me, watching from the windowsill. I find a little bit of Prehnite about the size of your little fingernail and I start to polish.
project, I set this stone in a simple bezel, added a long loop for a bail. Change my mind and saw it off and use a tiny slice of tubing for a bail.
I am always surprised when a piece is in progress at how rough and messy it is, metal covered with glassy flux, bits of melted metal, sharp metal edges, a completely nasty piece. But in no time it's polished and hung from a snake chain, now around my neck. I marvel. I'm satisfied that I've fabricated a piece from beginning to end for my own pleasure.
Just to prove that it really was a heavy mist, light rain sort of Sunday and absolutely perfect for rock-cutting, here is the obligatory picture of Ink the Cat covered in light droplets. I say is was a perfect day for rock-cutting because it was too nasty to do anything outside yet it was a day you still wanted to accomplish something. Hence - rock-cutting.
Lisa 'Li'l Fish Studios' http://lilfishstudios.blogspot.com/ sent me a rock the size of your knee in a box of goodies earlier this month and the thing was too big to fit in my trimsaw. My friend Jan brought her 12" saw over and we set that noisy monster up in my newly finished side of Ed's garage shop. Here it is jammed into the feeder box with another piece of that common red stuff - glacial till - that acts as a jam to hold everything in place. I could have and should have glued it to a piece of 2x4 and pushed it through the saw using that method but I was wanting to get cutting and gluing requires drying time. And who has the time to wait for glue to dry . . . so I used my fingers. Little Miss Impatient.
This stone had an agate look on the outside and I'm not sure exactly what we ended up with. I do know that it was hard as all get-out, took forever to slice and it did start to get prettier once I made a few slices into it. You can see that the 'steak fat look' turned to white and orange inclusions with some nice little dendrites. I'm anxious to polish a few bits to see what we've got here.
Just for laughs, here is a lovely shot of me in my Hefty Trash Bag. I'm too cheap to purchase a real rubberized lapidary apron so I have to go this route to keep from soaking my clothes through and through. Yes, a realy Hefty Trash Bag with a drawstring hem.
In the next week as I polish these little guys into something sweet, I'll post the pics for you all to see how fun it is to discover beauty inside of the Rock with No Name. Maybe we'll call it Bowesite . . .
I finally made it to etsy's front page today! I'm validated! The little Tourmalinated Quartz necklace was part of a treasury and it sold immediately - yay. Add 7 hearts and I'm tickled!
A friend found these two red boxes as he was cleaning his barn. No idea where they came from but clearly one came from 'MIKE JONES'. They both have silver painted interiors, one with a tray
and the other with slots along the inside for (I'm assuming) files and narrow tools. And the bonus? A pair of old welding goggles! O. M. G. Seriously. Lucky.
Not only did I get these two great boxes, I also got this incredible red wood well bucket. I'm just over the top. I'm so pleased with myself that I'm trembling like it's Christmas morning. You couldn't stand to be around me in this moment. NK.
