Mama's got her new lapidary blade and she working it!

Back again so soon and EXCITED! I actually got some more use out of the wet tile saw this morning and I am very happy with the results! I left the evidence on the tray so you can all see I did use it.....

First off, I had all sorts of strife getting the arbor size right on this thing, Leo bought me a lovely new saw for my birthday which I then rudely took it back and swapped believing the info on the internet that the Ryobi one had a 5/8" arbor which would nicely fit the most common sized lapidary blade (arbor is that hole in the middle of the blade)...... nope, it did NOT!!! Unfortunately Bunnings only stocks saws that have 7/8" (or 22.2mm) arbors so then I had to find a solution - I did not want to take this saw back as well it was driving me NUTS! Fortunately for me after some hunting about I found a lapidary supply place that had 1" arbor with a bush to suit the 22.2mm in 7" actually made to suit wet tile saws....... and the love story begins!!!

Knowing that I was sorting out the saw situation I started making myself some murrini components over the past few days and here they are all sawed up and ready to use. I finished the top half of a butterfly's wing last night (out of the kiln this morn) and made the leaf cane which is mostly graduated transparent green with opaque pistachio coloured veining yesterday too. The fish scale cane I made last week and I am really keen to try putting them together like Loren Stump does his fish scale cane..... hopefully I won't bugger it up!

I have been giving some thought to how I will be able to deal with the polishing issue and think I might have a plan of action - its not perfect, but hopefully it will work with some patience. I am going to slice up quite a lot of the large cane slices and pop them into my old rock tumbler with loads of little bits of cut up leather (a trick my Dad taught me when we into fossicking and tumbling our stones) starting with a medium grit and moving to fine at which time I will use my dremel with a polishing pad attachment and some cerium to finish off. The only big pain in the arse is the wait for the tumbler, but I reckon because it is glass and not rocks it will not take weeks, maybe just a day or two for each step. The added advantage of this option is that even the edges will come out lovely and smooth and polished too which makes using them even more fun. Here's is my old Lortone rock tumbler (double barrelled!) hunted out of the back of the shed by my darling Leo again - I will have to give it a clean up, but then I will load er up today and I will see how we fare. I thought I had better make the slices on the thicker side rather than the really thin ones seeing as they will be bumping together somewhat!

What am I going to do with these polished slices you might ask? I am thinking that if I preheat them I can apply them to the surface of a bead or pendant, I could drill a small hole in the top and use that to hang off some chain or earrings or even ask a friendly silversmith to bezel them up with a bail for a pendant on a necklace....... it will be interesting to see where this takes me!

Post Loren Stump course Murrini Frenzy begins!

Well, for those in know I was at a level 2 Loren Stump glassworking course down in Adelaide last month quickly followed by being a Technical Assistant for his Level 1 course in Sydney...... what a blast.

For those plebs who have never heard of Loren Stump, he is (to put it plainly) a great big whopping glass legend!!! Loren does absolutely amazing things with glass that everyone had agreed were impossible. Loren's murrini skillz are out of this world, when I say I am praying to the murrini gods.... well that is actually Loren I am talking about. He has even replicated great works of art into tiny glassy slices that are mindblowing. Loren is a top bloke and rather down to earth - almost on the bogan side really, but he is a fabulous teacher who holds nothing back at all!

Last year I did the level one course and came back to a real funk, it seemed that now I had been educated in what to aim for, everything I had made earlier was fairly crappy to my own eyes and I really avoided melting glass in the fear that more crap was going to be produced. Eventually I did get myself out of this funk, but have been determined not to give into the mind games with myself this time and therefore have gone out and melted glass already!

Leo (beaut husband of mine) got me a wet saw for my birthday and this definitely opens up loads of new opportunities as far as my murrini making goes. Being able to work using larger diameter componentry will make life much easier and whilst waiting for my new lapidary blade to arrive I have been making component cane for butterfly (lobes of the wings in graduated colour) and fish (graduated scales).

When I get my blade and do some slicing and dicing I will be back to show some of it off!

In meantime, keep your torches hot!

Nat

ps. new logo for the business!!