Category: Iron & Metalwork
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A Silver Ring and a Plant List
I finished this ring yesterday. Melting Ice – forged sterling silver, fine silver bezel, red gold, faceted aquamarine, hand-polished cabochon of Chinese “Imperial Blue” waterline agate. The agate is a new material that has only been on the gem market for about six months, and this is the first stone that I’ve cut from it. …
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Sunrise Moon Pendant
I cut this cabochon from the same Brazilian agate slab as the Two of Hearts pendant. It’s smaller, a bit more colorful, and is a traditional low-dome, flat-backed cab, a bit less than one inch in diameter. Sanded and polished by hand. The subtle peach, yellow, tan, and white swirls, with a tiny round pale…
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Two of Hearts – Agate Amulet
This Two of Hearts Amulet is made from 14-gauge copper and black steel wire, with a double-sided cabochon that I cut from the center of a slab of translucent white Brazilian agate. The heart-shaped design in the stone is completely natural and literally represents the “heart” of a thunderegg (a solid round agate nodule). It’s…
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A Cone Bell Amulet
Pendant or amulet, 2 1/4″ long, with two nesting pointed cones. Smaller cone has been given a dimpled bur texture on the inside. Forged from two triangles of 1/8″ mild steel plate, with black steel wire ring. With only two of them (one very small), they are primarily decorative and hardly qualify as bells, but they…
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Winter Solstice – Iron Torc
My Winter Solstice experiment – a torc made from 14 gauge annealed black steel wire. I like the forged iron torcs better, but they take a lot of time to make and are quite rigid, making them unsuitable for sale on my website since the buyer can’t try it on. The wire torc is springy…
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Jellyfish Bell
I just put four new bells on my website – they have been lying around the shop half-done for months. Finally got them out of the way so I can concentrate on newer projects. Here’s one of them. Jellyfish is forged from a triangle of 1/8″ steel plate, with the corners split, drawn out, rounded,…
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Guatemalan Blue Jade
A few months ago, a friend gave me two pieces of Guatemalan “Olmec Blue” jade for carving. It is a a muted translucent bluish-green, like seawater. Guatemala has produced green jade since ancient times. The source for the dusky bluish stone of Olmec carvings remained a mystery until 1999, when flooding from Hurricane Mitch revealed outcrops of…
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Ironwing Tarot: Free Book Download
December 2009 is the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Ironwing Tarot. Although the full 78-card deck/book set sold out 18 months ago, I still get occasional requests for copies of the deck and/or book. Since I don’t plan to reprint the deck, I’ve decided to make the book available for free download from my website. …
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Tucson All Souls Procession 09
We walked in the Tucson All Souls Procession last night. We took pictures this year – here’s my set, and from any of these you can link to Flickr’s ALL SOULS PROCESSION group and see more photos from other people. http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonfangs/sets/72157622765310126/ A big crowd this year, and more spectators than usual. This event is 20 years…
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Archean Banded Iron Cabochons
I recently bought a vintage lapidary machine on Craigslist. It’s for cutting cabochons, and includes a trim saw, grinding wheels, sanding drum, and buffing wheel. I mostly want it for making beads and cutting preforms for gem carving. Wyoming Archean Banded Iron Double-sided drilled and polished pendant, 31x21x5mm. Matched pair of triangular cabochons, 20x16x4mm. This is…
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