04.29.08
A couple of new items
Things have been slow lately. So much happening in my life, and yet at the same time seemingly so little. I was promoting the heck out of my shop and blog in February and beginning of March. But other than views and visits, no sales came of it. And then a few things happened in my personal life that stressed me out, and the outcome of all of it, I was burnt out. But I’m finally getting back into the swing of things, stuff doesn’t seem quite some hopeless or helpless anymore, and I’m creating again.
So here are a couple of pictures of my newest bracelets… The pink and brown bracelet uses the same Right Angle Weave technique as the Swarovski crystal bracelet I made in February (that just recently sold *yay*).
This tennis bracelet, I used a base of green Delicas and Swarovski Crystals, to give a different look than your typical gold or silver tennis bracelet. I like the look of it, but the pattern and instructions I used need some help…. This may end up being an absolute one of a kind…(this will be listed on Etsy soon)
04.03.08
Boy, do I have a bunch of red rocks
I’ve been slacking a bit, been doing other stuff. But I finally checked on the tumblers. Lots of progress. As I think I wrote last time, my smaller tumbler didn’t quite have enough material to run a full load on the next stage. So the past week plus more material was tumbling at stage 2, so that it could be combined with the previous material for a full load. That was completed today, and now the rocks are happily rolling in stage 3 grit (fine, or pre-polish). So a couple more weeks, and there will be more happy shiny rocks. Of course that means I need to get cracking on the last batch and making them into jewelry *hangs her head in shame for not having done any yet*.
The larger tumbler was cleaned out and restarted with some of the old and some new material. And as I was looking at the containers holding the rocks, one thought came to mind “I have a bunch of red rock, for not really liking red.”
These are done with stage 1… see all those red rocks….
These went back into stage 1 grit… see all those red rocks?
Last time I started the large tumbler, I started a bit of an experiment. Previously, I had kept some of the old slurry, to “jump start” the new stuff. Then I decided , to start fresh with every batch or so. So that’s what I did last time… I had quite a few more rocks that were ready to move on when I opened up the tumbler today. So that’s my plan for now. So I added more rocks to the tumbler, and restarted it. And I’m almost out of rocks! I had bought roughly 25 lbs at Christmas, and another 15 lbs or so just after that. And I’m down to a handful of onyx, crazy lace, and green tree agate. Oh, and some carnelian that could probably go into the large tumbler with everything else initially… before being sorted out for the finer stages. Also, I’m nearly out of the coarse grit, too. So until I make more money, when this stuff runs out…that might be it for a bit. So buy stuff! hehe.
03.26.08
Here in my world…
Things are a bit slow here. I’m thinking about all sorts of new stuff for jewelry, but having a bit of a motivational problem. I’m also working a bit more this week, so there’s just not enough time to do everything that I want to do. Hang in there, I’ll get back into the swing of things.
In the meantime, my tumblers are still working away. One finished up with stage 2, but there was too much material loss for the material to be moved on to stage 3. So I started up another batch with stage 2, and when its done I’ll combine them. There are lots of cool colors coming up… will post them, and they finish up.
03.19.08
Nothing fancy
Checked the tumblers today, they keep rolling. When I changed out the grit and added more rocks last week, I felt that they weren’t rounding as fast as they could be. So I’m playing with my recipe. Before, I would use some amount of the slurry from the previous week, and then just had 1/2 or so of the normal amount of grit. This week, I basically started fresh, so we’ll see how the rocks progress. The other tumbler is still in stage 2 of polishing, so there’s really nothing done.
03.18.08
A bit behind schedule
So officially part 7 of the tumbler series was the end of a complete cycle of the tumblers, start to finish. But I’m constantly tumbling more rocks. And I’ll continue to post pictures of the neat ones as they progress. I should have checked the tumblers on Friday or Saturday, but again, life got in the way, so I have yet to check them. Its on my list of things to do this afternoon, as this morning disappeared faster than I imagined.
And I’m trying to get my creative juices going again, so that I can make some new jewelry out of the pieces that came out of the polish phase last time. Life keeps getting in the way, and distracting my brain from the creative process. But soon…. new jewelry soon……
03.10.08
Tumblers, part 7
I know I know… late. *hangs head in shame* I did check the tumblers on Friday, and took pictures… but other things happened… and I didn’t post them here… but it’s well worth the wait, in my opinion.
First the boring stuff….The large tumbler just had the standard check. A few pieces were done, most everything went back in. Some of them are pretty close but just not quite there. A chip or a crack, just waiting for the chip to get ground down, or the crack to fully break and the edges to be re-rounded. So we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.
Now on to the fun stuff. The small tumbler has been running the polish stage for the past week. When I checked them, they were happily polished, so I rinsed them, and then retumbled them with some Borax soap for a few hours to burnish them. Then it was time to see what goodies I had. This can be such a long process sometimes you put a rock into the tumbler, and its 2 months before you see the final product. And things change, so sometimes I don’t remember what the rock looked like before it went into the tumbler. Others you remember vividly because they might have been such a trouble maker. The last several batches of rocks that I’ve done were difficult, and I wasn’t all that happy with the results. But these I was extremely happy… so here are a few of my favorites. The first one had such great colors, but after putting it through a couple of rounds of polishes it never came out all nice and shiny… finally its polished *wooohooo*
This is a piece of tree agate, that just wowed me…. I don’t remember putting it into the tumbler but I loved the way it turned out.
This is a piece of jasper (red… not sure beyond that, it came in a mix of rocks for tumbling)… and even though I’m not a fan of red… its kind of a dark brown-ey red and its kind of cool
And here is the full batch…. they are sitting on an 8 in paper dinner plate to give some idea of their sizes. Most of the larger ones will become pendants, the rest we’ll have to see… if I can come up with some pairs maybe earrings, or other items.
I started a new batch of rocks in the small tumbler… mostly sodalite, with a bit of amazonite and agate. Currently in stage 2, for a week or so to smooth them out.
Check in the coming weeks for the finished items in my Etsy shop. And I’ll continue to post regular tumbler updates here… as they are running 24/7.
03.09.08
I know the update is late…
I do have some lovely polished beauties that came out of the tumbler on friday. But real life stepped in for a few days and I haven’t gotten a chance to post them on here…but, you can get a quick sneak peek at them on flickr. And hopefully tonight, or tomorrow I’ll explain.
03.04.08
Just a quick update….
03.01.08
How many addictions can one person have?
Ok.. so mine are fairly calm… Although I might run a few people off the road trying to get to a bead store, or a rock shop… but hey I’m not driving drunk.
I’ve been composing a bracelet in my head for a few days. On some sort of whim I bought root beer, smoked topaz, and powder almond beads. For those who know me, I’m not a huge fan of brown…unless its mud splashed all over my truck, because I just drove through a huge mud puddle. So I’m working up these browns, and I have a design I like, and then I added to it… and now I can’t figure out how to add a clasp. Or what kind of clasp to add…. so I have this beautiful band… unable to be worn… with threads hanging out and I NEED to finish it. But how? So it’ll be another day while I work it out in my head.
In other news… my other addiction… feeding this blog. After I finish one post, I’m ready to post another… even when I have nothing to post about. Given that February was the first full month I was really promoting my blog and my Etsy shop, I was looking at the numbers…. The readership is steadily growing. I had 509 views in January, I was hoping to meet that in February. It was getting close, I was kind of worried, watching the numbers… can I really meet my goal… then bam…. 509 was passed… Hmmm, the way this is going I wonder if I can have 100 more views. Yep, had 100, maybe 200? Ok, not quite 200… topped out at 688, just 21 shy. Not bad. So, thank you everyone for reading, and surpassing my goals.
Don’t forget, next friday, I should have happily polished rocks for new jewelry, so check back.
02.29.08
Tumbler, part 6
I’ve been thinking about this update since yesterday. It feels like some sort of milestone, although in reality, that will be next week. The weather has been nice and I’ve been itching to get out and see how my rocks are doing.
So… how are they? Great! First off, I checked the small tumbler, last week I started the rocks on the fine grit, or prepolish. Today, they’ll be started on the polish stage. Will be? Why haven’t I started them yet, because first they have to go through a washing stage. I washed off the rocks and the plastic pellets, and washed out the tumbler. The rocks and the pellets went back into the tumbler, with a bit of Borax to wash them up. They’ll tumble for a few hours… anywhere from 5-12 hours (I usually aim for 5-6). This afternoon I’ll rinse off the soap, and put in AO polish (Aluminum Oxide). There isn’t any visual change in the rocks today, as the last two stages are working on the surface of the rocks at a very fine level. You’d have to use a microscope to see most of the changes.
On to the 15 lb tumbler…. Many of the rocks that I’ve put into the coarse grit the last 2-3 weeks have been very rough. There are pits and holes, which take a much longer time to even out, than to wear down a square corner. This means that many of the rocks are not done yet. I pulled out the ones which have been nicely rounded and smoothed out. And the rest went back in for a few more weeks, perhaps. I do have a few photos from the stage 1 batch. As usual, the first photo is the rocks that are done with the stage, and the second is the rocks that are going back in.
The friend of any rock enthusiast is the Flat Rate Box from the USPS. For under $10 you can send as much as the box will hold. On the right forums, or bulletin boards, people sell their rock odds and ends for a few bucks plus shipping, or just for shipping… I purchased one, and quite a few of the rocks in the stage 1 picks have been from the box. It came from a woman who, as near as I can tell, cut open a rock, maybe made a cab out of one half, and tossed the ends into the box. A few of these ends, I looked at them, thought their color was good, but wasn’t sure what would happen when I tumbled them. I found one of these ends today, and was totally impressed by the results.
Its not quite ready for the next stage, as the backside is still kind of rough. But I had to take a picture…. the first is how I saw it when I pulled it out… the second picture is backlit to really show its uniqueness.
With any luck, the polish stage will be done next friday, maybe the following monday. And I’ll have the end result of the past 7 weeks. Of course, its not the true end, as then I can make all the treasures into jewelry, and I have several more pounds of rocks that are done with stage 1 and are ready for stage 2.
As always, check out my Etsy shop to see what I’ve done with some of the previous batches…and check back next week to see what’s new.
