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teonanacatl

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Posts posted by teonanacatl

  1. Posted

    You can grow black soldier fly from food scraps to feed the fish. They are probably the easiest to produce and harvest. Likewise one could use worms. Some fish will eat algae/weed also. In general though because you are removing food from the system you will have to add something. Fish food isnt too exxy but its more expensive then normal fertiliser.

    One problem encountered in commercial barra aquaculture is if the small fish get use to eating bugs etc they wont touch pellets. So Id say your best idea is to stick with one type of food.

    • Like 3

  2. Posted

    I believe in animal rights- that is that I have the same rights as other animals. I eat anything and everything- here its eat or be eaten.

    I live reasonably self sustainably and Ill tell you if you're hungry you will eat anything! Also you'd be crazy to watch you whole garden destroyed by bugs when its all the food you have- Ive yet to see an organic solution to the pest numbers I get here in the wet.

    That said Im certainly not a pure carnivore, I eat a balanced diet of fruit, veges, staple carbs, fish and seafood. I hunt or raise all my other meat. Killing an animal is easy with a gun, point the thing at its head, turn off your emotions for a second, and pull the trigger. Its a bit more confronting for people to kill them with a knife but its the same in principle. You just need to do what has to be done. I dont think that makes me a bad person. I think death is as natural as life and I think there are a lot of lessons to be learnt in death, to see the blood of an animal drain out and its life disappear from its eyes is truly an incredible and moving experience. I also believe people these days are not exposed to a lot of death.

    Factory farming is producing the quantities of meat that we need, just as monoculture crops produce all the fruit and veg we need. Killing an animal aside I see no difference between the two. People can get angry about modern agriculture but the truth is it has gotten us where we are today, look at the positives, we are incredibly good at producing meat and crops with limited time, inputs and space- where to from here, who knows?. I also think its fantastic that people are now comfortable enough in their lives to care how their food was raised.

    Everyone that is participating in society is contributing whether you buy organic, are a vegan or not. If you follow those lines of thought the only really ethical choice is to drop out completely or die.

    The problem with people these days is they dont have enough real problems to worry about.

    • Like 5

  5. Posted

    You best bet is to eat a healthy balanced diet. Most people who switch to being vegetarian do a hopeless job- you can still be a vegetarian and unhealthy. My gf is a dietician and a lot of patients she sees with malnutrition are vegetarians- contrairywise most of the obese patients and diseased patients she sees are not.

    My advice, eat things that make your body feel good, if you tend to avoid or dislike certain foods chances are you have a bit of a reaction to them and your body has noticed it. Personal dietary requirements are as varied as the people in this world.

    Last thing, earlier in the thread someone said avoid nitrates/nitrites in meat. Unfortunately its never as simple as believing what other people say, here are the facts, analysis of nitrate and nitrite levels in food and beverages in Australia- the good stuff starts at appendix 3.

    http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/additives/nitrate/documents/Survey%20of%20nitrates%20and%20nitrites%20Attach%201.pdf

    For those to slack to read it here is some data:

    Nitrate levels- range in mg/kg

    Ham 20-90

    Bacon 22-90

    Beetroot (canned) 1643-2328

    Salami 16-335

    Lettuce 520-2898

    Potato cooked 63-191

    Pumpkin cooked 10-452

    Spinach cooked 671-3663

    The funny thing with people trying to be healthy is often there is 1-2 obvious reasons for their obesity/ unhealthy but most people refuse to change them. Like a person trying to loose weight by going on a diet when they dont exercise, or trying to eat healthy when they gorge on chocolate everyday. Its quite common for people to sacrifice healthy food in their diet so they can squeeze in their chocolate. Smoking is another one, it aint really going to matter what you eat if you're a moderate to heavy smoker.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    Minimum tools for bone, ivory and pearl shell (try bone first):

    - Hack saw

    - Dremel or Ozito (with flex shaft makes it easier)

    - Sanding drums for dremel with variety of grit bands

    - Cheap diamond burr kit from ebay

    - Needle file kit

    - Sandpaper (180, 240, 400, 600, 1200)

    - Gas mask, safety glasses and if you want ear phones.

    Ask your butcher for some shin bones (I think they sell them as soup bones?) and get him to cut the knobbly ends off. Take them home and boil them till the meat falls off or bury them. For jade, antlers, tusk and pearl shell have a look at ebay. Jade is a little more tricky to buy quality stuff, start with bone first.

    For a more advanced tool then a dremel look at foredom micromotors or flex shafts.

  9. Posted

    Necklace is actually a braided waxed polyester. Unless I did something weird and didnt realise it :scratchhead:

    Ive used cotton and leather for necklaces but neither has the durability of quality polyester. The polyester also allows me to do a variety of different braids and lashings. Leather is available you just have to ask :)

    I also do ones with silver chain necklaces.

    I do produce $100-200 pieces to sell to tourists in the area, they are made to price and whilst still quality pieces they are generally small and I do produce more then one of them.

    Ill put some more photos up soon.

    Thanks for the interest guys and gals! I would love to help and encourage those wanting to give it a try as well so if people are keen I can do how to/ carve along threads.

  10. Posted

    Fractures are common in most jade. Quality jade can sell for up to $360US/gram and even more for perfect green cabochons etc- it is the most expensive gem after diamonds.

    So the quality of jade used in carvings is often lower and this means the presence of fractures. Some fractures are visible and some are not. Sometimes cracks form- this can be the artists fault for allowing bits to get to hot etc, or sometimes they just happen. A piece of jade without fractures or cracks would be called flawless, often pieces that are sold as flawless have healed cracks anyway. Perfection for me would have more to do with the form of the piece and if my lines were straight and my curves perfect. One could pull that off on a flawed stone and the cracks or imperfections can add character to a piece.

    The same occurs with mammoth ivory and other ivories and the people who carve them into netsuke are happy enough stabilising cracks with glue, though I doubt they would sell a piece that had cracked in half and been glued back together for example.

    So no I dont think this has anything to do with handmade vs homemade.

    As for the Chinese criteria- I like to think someone would look at that piece and value the unique design as well as the perfect finish I was hoping for. Its not technically complex in one regard but it encompasses several things that are difficult to do- namely perfect curves, parallel lines and the flow.

    The piece you're talking about actually cracked (in different spots to before) and the two inner circles fell out. I am disappointed but you win some you loose some. I was pushing the stone to its limit and I failed, the piece wouldnt have been so appealing to me if it was easy to make anyway. I've been staring at it since it cracked and I might glue it and finish it but keep it for myself- I wouldnt sell it unless the person was aware of what had happened and that didnt bother them. Even then the price would be much reduced. At the time it had cracked I had put about 30hours into it and used a fair amount of tools in the process. I would still have potentially another 30 hours to go of refining and polishing. Honestly I would have been looking for around $1500-$2000 for that piece when finished. That is a reasonably token amount for a jade piece of that size and if one considers its artistic qualities- ie flow, form and the unique design then potentially the piece is worth more.

    I had intended to do a set of similar shapes and approach a gallery with them. I plan on starting another large circular crossover piece of a different design shortly.

  12. Posted · Edited by teonanacatl

    Sweet offer! If anyone is driving from Sydney to Cairns (or even better Cape York) I'll take them! Incog come on a fishing trip and bring them up for me :P Im getting a few from Cairns soon hopefully, they can go freerange with my pigs!

    Out of curiosity (incase I can afford to freight them up here) what do they weigh and how tall do they stand at the moment?

    Edited to say: Yeah I agree with Incog, PH that is sweet as!

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    Thanks EG :) Ive added a shite load of meta tags to all the images and pages. Realistically even the best jade and bone carvers dont get a lot of traffic to their pages so Im not expecting too much traffic. Its mainly just about having a portfolio online and getting the publicity for it through galleries, shops and facebook I guess.

  17. Posted

    Thanks guys! Self taught and always looking to try new things- engraving stylised pattens on bone and relief carving next! Also wood carving and traditional metal engraving maybe someday :P

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    Sally they should cycle through the images only showing those with the correct categories. So For sale should have four pictures etc. Is it not working for you? What browser are you using?

  24. Posted

    Update, used my new bench grinder to shape the outside circle. Since then Ive been cleaning up the crossovers inside and out.

    The epoxy I used to stabilise the cracks worked great!

    The red pen is just to mark where to remove more material, it also shows where the high and low spots are when carving as well as any lines or file marks :)

    Lots more to go though Im feeling confident I can pull it off!

    • Like 1
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