Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Cutting Rocks

When I was a little girl (I know, this statement brings on yawns & rolling eyes!) I used to collect rocks. They've always fascinated me. Fast forward to now. (I know- a really quick trip down memory lane) I'm a little obsessed with metalsmithing. And I'm loving my classes, although sometimes experiments can be costly- LOL. Anyway, I wasn't finding stones that I liked, in shapes & sizes that I wanted to work with. So...this semester I'm taking a cabbing class in addition to the metal fabrication class. There's plenty of new equipment & tools for me to learn how to use and I'm enjoying sourcing out rocks to cut. Last week I learned how to properly use the 12" oil saw. My hands were stinky with a foul smelling oil- but I cut a rock into slices (called slabs). Before class started I got some rocks to cut & cab- here's a pic of one:





This one is called Sonora Sunrise, a newish find from Mexico. (And from what I heard- "all the rage" at Tucson this year) It's Chrysocolla, so it's got lovely blues and Cuprite, so it's got earthy reds. With some black mixed in (Tenorite)

4 comments:

Tammy's Treasure Chest said...

Oh, I'm so jealous! I have a lifelong LOVE of rocks and now I think my granddaughter has inherited it!

Melbourne home builders said...

Wow! I've never seen as beautiful as that rock. Awesome...10 points for you!

Stacie @ azoho.com said...

Thank you- I must say....it's cutting into some beautiful cabs!

Lisa-Maladylis said...

wow, I'm soooo jealous ! I have a whole barn full of slabs and now need to learn the cabbing. I wish we had classes like that around here !