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The Corroboree

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what tools to carve and material you carve onto?

very nice wrokmanship there

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Awesome!!! I love the hippo

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Wow and you scrim too!

Awesome! I love the green whale tail and the yellow and white leaf. Are they both jade?

Impressive work, which you have clearly put alot of care and love into :)

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Tools:

- Dremel and micromotor rotary tools.

- Variety of carbide burrs, diamond burrs, sanding drums.

- I also use alot of home made mini knives, chisels, scrapers and gravers to do fine detail and to undercut lines.

- Lots of sandpaper of a number of grits, also have cloth abrasives, diamond polishing pastes etc up to 50000 grit.

Materials are beef bone, dugong bones and tusks, pig tusks, pearl shell, jade and black coral. All dugong and black coral material is found on beaches etc.

Im moving to Jade because of the obvious cites violation of working with dugong and black coral. Plus I love jade, its an incredible material to work with :)

The green tail was my first jade piece. Have plenty more ideas for jade but have been bogged down with commissions in bone. The leaf is pearl shell.

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You're probably going to get flooded with requests but I'll ask any way... any chance of you doing a piece for me?

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Yeah Im happy to do requests.

The harder the better!!

PM me :)

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plus the leaf.

Is it a hobby or livelihood? The pieces look professionally done.

How do you etch in the colors? are they permanently set in?

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great artwork,

and you are very good with it, and still sooo young.

I used to carve lil bit as well, many moons ago, here is a pic:

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rana_black_coral.JPG

Edited by planthelper
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Thanks guys.

Up until this year it was a hobby, now I consider it a part time job. Im looking at making it into more of a full time job though.

Ive done well with commissions/requests this last 2 months making ~$1200 in pieces.

To give you a rough idea I charge $15-20/hr + the cost of materials and wear on tools. If it works out nice I add a little for art fartsy reasons, if Im not happy with it I knock some off. Problem is most people want to negotiate on price so I often loose 10-20% of the price I put up just to get the sale. Funny thing is if I had access to a different demographic of buyers (art collectors for example) Id likely be able to sell for more (think double). Im looking to making pieces to sell in galleries etc and try that route.

At some point Id like to be able to charge $55/hr which I dont think is unreasonable. But as it stands my work is not good enough to charge that yet, nor do I have access to customers that would spend that.....yet.

Hobby or job there is no reason for them to not look professional.

My quote is "make it look handmade, not home made".

Ive still got a way to go before Im where Id like to be though.

The inlays are of silver, black coral or resin from xanthorraea plants.

Some pieces were stained (the whale) with permanganate to bring up some detail.

There is also the one scrimshaw piece that is ink in small needle dots.

Do you have any photos of your work PH? Id love to see them. Love your songs by the way :)

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Really digging some of your latest stuff mate,.
Good luck to it taking off into the next stage, you certainly have the quality and craftsmanship happening. I'd love to get a piece made up when I have some spare cash.

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Its a great little piece :) How did you find working with it? I like the finished product but hate working with it, tiny splinters, soft and prone to cracking. Did you find your piece of coral? I find a lot on the beaches here, worth a fortune but is protected.

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Very impressive work! One of my good mates does a lot of carving also, and I know just how long and how much effort goes into such pieces, so can really appreciate what you're doing!

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Beautiful work,

I wish you the best regarding turning your passion into your living.

That is one of the most fulfilling goals in life.

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I'm still wearing number 2!! I lurv it they will bury me in it!! Much love my old friend xx

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Back at ya mate :) x

Here is a new one finished today.

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Ive also started on a life sized Loph from a lovely opaque grey blue piece of nephrite jade. Its a side project at the moment so it will take awhile. Here is the start, Ive since cut out some of the shape. Ill post the pic and you can follow along as I carve.

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Edited by teonanacatl
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Yo teo my nephs kill ALOT of wild boars if you need some tusks?

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Thanks Jono but I kill lots to, I dont make much from them and they probably keep the biggest for themselves?

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