cab

I have made some great progress documenting my work, during this down time.

I completed taking pictures and printing 2 copies of each.

One will be for a photo album I can show people. The second is for a worksheet I have designed, so I can write up the “making” process. This is more for many of the chains I am making - necklaces, bracelets, earrings, but also for the pendants in case someone wants a similar item.

I have been keeping notes in a design book, but on this worksheet I am writing it all down in one place: the gauge of the silver wire or sheet; the size of the mandrel if I have wound coils; tracings of the stones I used for the sketches. I also write down the weight of the finished piece, before I set the stone, if there is one; and of course the  time it takes to make it and lastly, the cost of the stone if there is one!  All of this helps in pricing a finished piece.

For the photo album, I have found a nice black glossy album, that has 2 slots per side of the page. I can use the top slot for the photo of the piece. The bottom slot will hold a card with the Name/Description of the piece. If the item is a chain, I will also list if it can be a necklace, bracelet and/or earrrings. If the piece has a stone, I list the stone type and some minor information about that type of stone.

I also bought a second album, so when I sell a one-off piece I can move the picture, from the main album, over to this one. I can then mark it as  a “private” piece. I have all ready put in this album, all of the pieces I have made for my self and those I have given to Janda The Fair Maiden of Tran and Elisa of Scotland. ;=))

Speaking of My work, here is a piece I finished a few weeks ago and never posted.

This is a quartz cab with tourmaline needle inclusions, I made a stepped bezel to keep the back open thus letting the light in. I also traced the stone and mirrored it in the bale.

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I have been trying to finish a few projects so here is another flurry of pictures

This is my first silver mounted cab. There was a class down at the Palomar club in March, which ran for 4 weeks. We started off with the basics: Make a bezel, pickling, saw/cut the backing, soldering down the bezel to the back, filing to shape, adding a bale, mounting the stone and of course polishing.

I don’t really know what type of agate/jasper this is but it was very hard to cut but despite that, it is now one of my favorites. I have a few extra pieces left, from the same slab so I can’t decide to sell the cabs or maybe make a few more pendants and then sell them on.

.

Because, I made my first pendant in 2 weeks, I had more than enough time to make this one next. The cab is Verisite that I bought at the San Diego show and cabbed.

Oh - and I made the chain tooo! I finished this one at home over the weekend.

Now, my real goal was to mount a cab that finished when I bought it.  It was polished on all sides and had a flat top. I wanted to put the bezel on the top, and have the cab, hang down below it.   I traced the outer diameter of the flat top, made the bezel, cut the plate to just hang a bit over the bezel like a funny “top hat”. Then I put a ring on the top so I could hang it from a chain.

I call this one “Mezzalluna”.  It is on a fetter and link chain that I made as well.

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If you read the comments from my first few posts (or if you have not) , some of the comments have been about wanting to learn to make cabs.

So in this post let me give you my idea’s on how to find an Obi-Wan Don and if you can not find an Obi-Wan at least you can find some place where you can learn.

I live in Riverside County in Southern California. That is just north of San Diego County. Where I live there is not a club, but just south of the county line is Fallbrook and they have a great club. Actually it is the Fallbrook Gem & Mineral Society (FGMS) and they have been around for over 50 years.

We, the e-man and I, joined FGMS over 6 years ago and have been very active in the club. BUT the club does not have a lapidary workshop, though we do have many members who do! More about this conundrum further down.

For most of the time we were members I only collected specimens and had not fallen in love with agates, thus I had no desire to search for anyone who could teach me. It was late 2007 that my agate madness began, and it was soon after that when I found the small flat lap, which I could use at home.

The lap setup I bought was from Inland Crafts The Swap-Top - not only can it do lapidary grinding but this kit also has a saw conversion. I made the Plinth on this setup. But then I found I had agates that where to big to fit on the wheel. Whats a girl to do?

I joined another club that has a complete workshop. This is the Palomar Gem and Mineral Club and their shop is in an old strip mall but it has lots of equipment. The club gives classes during the week, at night and on weekends. They also have open workshop other weeknights as well as most weekends. The workshop stewards are there not only to open the shop and collect the use fee ($5.00 for 4 hours) but to answer questions and to give some instruction. See open workshop is not a class but if you ask “HOW DO I MAKE A CAB?” - they will point you at a piece of equipment and tell you what to do. As you do each step it is your job to ask questions and if so instructed, do it over, continue doing what you are working on cause you are not done, or go to the next step.

Oh! and don’t forget to talk to the other members who are there using the shop. This is what I call the “SHARE AND ENJOY” part. I have seen some amazing things being done and it is another way to learn as everyone is very willing to explain what they are doing. This is partly how I found out the Palomar club also has silver workshops and faceting classes. Me bad! as I was lax in going to website and looking at the classes the club offered, cause initially I was only interested in using the shop.

It was during a open session that someone mentioned that Obi-Wan had moved to near where I live and had joined the FGMS. BTW, Don, though not called Obi-Wan at the Palomar club, was known as being a master cabber and was past president.  I had to find him at the next FGMS meeting, which I did and the rest is well, HISTORY!! (Part One to be exact).

So, in conclusion here is what I suggest:
1) Join a club that has a lapidary workshop and take classes!
2) Just joining the club will also give you access to the equipment on open shop days.
3) If no clubs in your area have a workshop, find another member who has a setup and ask to be taught. Trust me these “old guys” love teaching!
4) Consider getting a small setup for you home so you can make cabs when YOU want.

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My hubbie - known here after as the e-Man, has pointed out that I missed posting a few of my other cabs and some of the polished rocks I have sitting on my desk.

I call this “The Plinth” it is actually one of my first pieces that I polished on my flat lap.  This is a Agate from Mexico.  I made a small cut on one end, saw the pretty colors and that there was druzy quartz inside and I just could not slab it, I just wanted to see the orbs of pink. Thus I started to grind off the outer rind to reveal the inner beauty. I then made a slice on the bottom so it could stand on my desk, and another cut on the other side  - which can be seen in the second picture.

Free form polish to reveal whats in side

Here is the back side.

Second Side

And finally…

Showing the edge

The following are other cabs.

This is the Moss Agate, I mentioned in my prior posts. This has been sent over to Scotland, where Elisa is the proud owner.

This cab is one of the first 4 that I made. Yes, that is a flat spot on the top. The material is Mariposite, which is a mineral that is a chromium-rich variety of mica, which imparts an attractive green color to the generally white dolomitic marble in which it is commonly found. It was named for Mariposa, California, though it can be found in several places in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I collected this material on one of our road trips, and YES, we did pick it up in Mariposa - there is a nice road cut that has loose material so we could just pick it up from the side of the road and not actually hack into the road cut.

A tiny picture jasper.

Jasper - I love these with the orbs!

Crazy Lace Agate

Turatella (Fossil)

A larger Picture Jasper

Sodalite

Crazy Lace Agate

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Wow! and thanks for the comments - people are really reading my blog!.

Since you liked the last pictures, I thought I post just a few more pictures. Next time I will try to talk about my adventures in wire wrap land, as that is part of the path that I have taken to get here and where I want to go. I promise that with time you will see the current work.

And now for some more pictures, A cornacopia of cabs!

Sorry for the one on the left being cut off but these two are Verisite

I don’t know what this is actually called but it is a type of Chalcedony, if Obi-wan Don is correct.

I picked up a rather nice, large slab of Moss (Plume) Agate. I made one, wire wrapped it and sent it a friend (picture to follow in another post. From the remaining I made these two and the next one called the Arrowhead.

These two, again came from the same slab. They are made from banded agate with lots of very clear parts. The shape on the left is what I call a Clam Shell and the shape on the right is what I call Mezzaluna.  You will see these two shapes quite a bit!

This is Silver Lake Onyx. It cuts like butter!
Because the material is a bit softer than agate, it is easy to work with.
I was able to bypass the first (80 grit) wheel, and the second grit wheel (120) where I did some quick shaping  and do most of the work on the 320! And hey, there is that clam shell shape again.

I have not mounted any of these YET. I plan on most of them being in pendants and a few of them being sold but at now I just have them on my table, where I love to look at them.

You will see more of my cab’s in the wire wrap post but not all of my wire wrap pendants have cabs that I made, some were made by Obi-wan Don.

P.S. I don’t know if I can do this here, but if you see a cab you like, drop me a line and if we can agree on a price, I just might sell it!!! ( I don’t have a site yet were I can sell, but that too is for another post

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I have always liked rocks and I am not talking specifically about sparkly stones such as diamond or other such items. I am talking about tigers eye, pyrite cubes, geodes, quartz, malachite.

Then I discovered AGATES.

AND then I discovered AGATE SLABS!!!

I was gathering quite a collection of slab rough when I finally went looking on ebay and bought a small flat lap machine that has a 6″ diameter wheel. I had been playing with it on and off for a year, starting in 2007.  I had polished a few agates but not really made any cab’s.

In early 2008 a friend of ours who we met in our Gem & Mineral club offered to teach me how to make cabs. SO on a Sunday afternoon in September, I went over with a few pieces of rough. Obi-wan Don, as he shall now be called showed me how to cut an oval, circle, tear drop and triangle out of my rough. Then it was off to the 6 station cabbing grinder he has.  Obi-wan walked me through 2 cabs, across the six stations. He then left to go watch a football game (it was a Sunday!).

Three hours later I went back inside with my 4 other finished cabs. Yes there was a flat spot in one, the slope was not even across the cab on another but I had made 6 cabs in 5 hours. Obi-wan said I did very good and the next time would be better.

Here is a picture of one of those cabs.  Obi-wan Don’s wife taught me to do wire wrapping a few weeks later so the second picture is of the final pendant.

I can now make a cab in about an hour… and now that I have all these cab’s the question was “What will I do with them all?”

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