teonanacatl

Was trying to do some commission pieces for a lady who has bought some of my stuff, she only buys stuff from NZ jade (pounamu). She wanted some stuff with crossovers in so after 15 hours of drilling holes and roughing out stone I had one fall to pieces in my hands and realised that the others wouldnt be strong enough for my intended designs. The jade is lovely, just chatoyant and very "chippy" which makes it difficult. So instead I went along with what the stone wanted and made these pieces. Will make some more tomorrow as they were a fair bit of fun and gives me a lower $80-$150 market. The dark green stone is very hard and if I can get a suitable piece should take an awesome polish. Anway they are more simple than normal and much more organic and natural- I like them, I hope you do to!

Ok have 20 more 15g packs ready to go, cut the flowers in half this time so I could fit more in the drier $10 for 15g, pm me if interested.

More flowers harvested and the drier is chock full, should be have another 200g dried in a few days.

First lot of candles on their way. More here for those interested

Handmade from pure beeswax wildcrafted from feral hives in beautiful Cape York Peninsula. Different colours, great smell. 50mm diameter: ~100mm $20 ~150mm $25 ~200mm $30 + Postage

Making tools is Ghostly's craft by the looks of it! Beautiful work!

Ive actually been looking at making my own burrs. At the world jade symposium there was a talk by a fellow in Europe that does cameo pieces. They use a metal burr with diamond paste and they make all their burrs on a lathe each week. Only this way could one achieve the details they do! Im the same with learning- I learnt all I needed in 1.5years for my 4 year degree. But polishing is one of those things that I wish I could have seen done in person a few times. I spent my time trying to achieve a perfect water wet shine but when I saw pieces in the flesh I found many left them matte, or did what I considered terrible orange peel jobs, ie they werent finished. If your wanting to do many types of stone Id imagine this would be a bigger issue. Going to a club/event allows you to find good finishes and talk to those who themselves do them. The internet was full of opinions on how to polish jade but mostly I think time is what worked. Most seemed like witchcraft to me Thanks for the torch info!

Diamond and silicon carbide both out rank Aluminium oxide in hardness so I doubt its too hard. Polishing opals which are soft is different to polishing hardstone. If I could start from scratch with my tools I would, for example Ive got a double arbor grinder. Id happily fork out the $ to buy a 6 or 8 wheeled setup with a good trim saw, also Id love a good slabbing saw- mine is shit. But Im working with the $ Ive got. Having all the wheels you need ready to go saves time. Likewise for polishing. There is a never ending list to the tools Id have/find a use for! Your tools sound interesting, have you got plans for the torch? Ive been meaning buy one but Im remote so getting gas is a pain except LPG. Ive just been using my stove and a cheap butane torch. My best advice if you get into stones is join a lapidary club, things I could have learnt from people in 10mins took me 10 hours. Another way to look at spending $ on it is a uni degree will cost you $20-30k and 3 years, if I invested that in carving/jewellery Id be well on my way! But the no interest loans on uni courses helps Keen to see some of your work, got a link??

Tried ZAM (aluminium oxide and cerium oxide) but it orange peels the softer jade and doesnt polish well, or at least I cannot get it to do anything. Tried it on the ice jadeite today and it wouldnt even scratch it. In the past for curiosity sake used ZAM on a polished piece and it reduced it to orange peel. Only tried diamond paste otherwise so cant really help otherwise sorry. More important then the polishing is the sanding and prep! With good prep and a good stone polishing is easy. Im limited by me gear too, in terms of what can afford so some things I do are a bit about face just cause thats all Ive got.

Todays carving- Guatemalan ice jadeite, this one is for sale too. Group shots- really brings out their individual characteristics. Nice transmitted colours. This is my last piece of Burmese jadeite ~6cm across. Have a nice mobius idea for it though Id initially planned to try and carve a more traditional Chinese relief landscape into it with green as leaves etc. Who knows, will be a while before I get to it What do you see?

Thanks Ghostly! I use diamond and silicon carbide tools to grind the jade away. I have some cheaper diamond burrs that I use for rough work but they dont last long. Everything quality with diamonds on is exxy! Basically I cut it on a diamond saw close to shape, shape with a hard 6" diamond wheel 180 grit and a soft 280 grit 6" wheel. Then its to the bench to work with a hand tool with diamond burrs, once most of the carving its done its back to the soft wheel for 600grit smoothing where ever I can get it. I paint it with a red ink between each step and sand till all the ink is gone. Then its diamond sandpaper or silicon carbide sticks to get in where the 6" soft wheel cannot reach. Anything with a polish needs sanding to 1200 then dry sanding with 600grit silicon carbide then its hand polishing with diamond paste in 3000, 8000, 20000, 50000 and maybe 100000 grit till the desired polish is reached. Again between each step red ink is applied and sanding/polishing is done to remove all the red. For a good polish you can double the time it takes, for a matte finish like above I only go to 1200 grit then oil. The polish possible depends on the quality of the jade, as an example the Guatemalan jadeite has quite large crystals and isnt very "tight" which means I would have struggled badly to get a GOOD polish. The Burmese jadeite (light blue mobius) however is tight and fine and would have taken an amazing polish. I started to polish it up but it looked better matte, I eventually settled on a semi polish though I still think the matte looked better (That took me 1 whole day of fucking around hahaha). The green NZ jade mobius is a nephrite so its fibrous and whilst not a particularly tight stone I just smashed it till it took a polish- I think 6-8 hours of polishing.

Mobius from "celestial blue" Guatemalan Jadeite. More of a grey blue then a true blue but in some light it shows up a light blue. https://www.facebook.com/LarridinyaCarvings

Flick me a message if you're keen!

Bit of a theme for some new carvings at the moment- mobius strips.

Yup

Oh yeah Im out of flowers for the moment, gotta collect and dry some more this week. Will post back when some more are ready.

Hahaha Katu the swamp is about 20m from high tide mark. I must admit the other day when I was writing a reply to this topic I spied a 2.5m croc just on dusk making his way onto the beach out the front of the swamp, I did think I should charge more haha. Checked the swamp at night and no tracks into it so whilst there are crocs in there sometimes, there are none at the moment. Had a 2m one there try and get me a few years back. Moved him and he never came back.

Geebus I havent smoked it so I cannot comment on the effects. It makes a lovely tasting tea though

Just want to add that I live in the middle of nowhere so postage is really slow from here and I dont go to town much so please be patient with me Here is a picture of the swamp they are growing in. Been munching on the seed pods too and they are yummy. Can provide seed if people are interested in growing them. Ill get some more pics of the flowers when I borrow my friends camera again.

Nah this is the australian native, the flowers are violet-blue in colour. Yup about 10 brews in 15g, maybe more Fresh flowers make a much tastier tea but obviously thats not possible so these are super fresh. Im basically harvesting and drying on demand.

As of March 2008 all Lophophora sp are specifically stated in the QLD drug legislation as being illegal. This means that the growing of Lophophora sp is considered an offence just like growing cannabis. http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN...008/08AC004.pdf I therefore urge you to not incriminate yourself or others in regards to this issue. Also as the drug law in QLD is worded such that plants that contain illegal substances are therefore illegal and as Torsten will attest this has been enforced I will not allow discussion on potency of any mescaline bearing cacti, nor on methods to increase potency, or for that matter any questions on injestion of such substances. There is one exception and that is the linking to or discussion of scientific literature on the subject. We are treading a fine line and as all this information exists on this website and others where people can easily search for it I see discussion of it as a mute point. Unfortunatly ACT has laws specifically prohibiting the cultivation or possession of Lophophora willamsii, meaning diffusa is ok to grow. http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/sl/2005-.../pdf/2005-2.pdf People from ACT should really look at that as there is quite a list of illegal plants. SA has laws which specifically prohibits the cultivation of any plant containing mescaline including any plant of the genus Lophophora. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp...uery=^mescaline

Durian is different to Jackfruit. Limberlost nursery in Cairns sells Durian along with Kava and other goodies.

4 bottles left.

Bump, still got some laying around

Yeah on first hearing about it I though fuck thats not smart, but after looking at it I dont think its any different to whats out there. The only problem I really see is people eating it and getting a delayed effect, though thats no different to smashing shots. Snorting it will not likely be dangerous as the quantity you'd need to snort would be limiting. The maker said he made it because he like hiking but likes to have a drink at the end and alcohol is heavy to carry. Well alcohol is lighter/L then water and you still have to mix this with water. Fair enough if you're getting water from a stream or tap its lighter but not if you're carrying it, you'd then also need more water to make sure you dont dehydrate. This isnt like someone made crystallised alcohol that stays that way at room temp. Palcohol is ethanol absorbed into cyclodextrins. This encapsulates the ethanol and allows it to be treated as a powder- kinda like molecular bottles. Apparently the cyclodextrins can absorb up to 60% of their weight in alcohol. Its been sold in Germany and Netherlands for a few years now.