Composite Cabs (domed intarsia)

[theimage1]

Taogem ask me to put his link up to a short slide presentation on making the following type of cabs ...





Notice: the slide presentation shows making the long, thin cab without a back, and I now back all cabs. Notice picture 2 and the backing on the longer stone. I use black Australian jade for about 80% of my work, but I also use a beautiful gray material called porcelainite or sometimes certain colored mookaite for framing and backing.

Presentation:  http://gallery.mac.com/theimage1/

Look at "makecab slide show".  I started with this technique about 3 years ago but could not find anyone else doing it. So I just sort of developed my own method and it seems to work pretty well for me.

[Taogem]

Thanks for posting this theimage1.

It is a really great tutorial.

It may seem odd, but I have never really seen the process of making an intarsia before.

My interest in buying a flat lap is sparked again.

I tried one for cabbing, but did like it for that purpose. I can see myself using one for making intarsias though.

I pinned this one to stay towards the top of the board with a few others.

Good stuff and beautiful intarsias. 

[Blarneystone]

What a great tutorial! I've got to try this now... Those cabs are stunning.

Dan

[Lavenderfish]

Wow, your tutorial is beautiful! It's done so professionally too. Everything laid out so clearly that you make it simple for someone to follow right along thru your process. Strangely enuf, I do some intarsia that's somewhat similar.

I started playing around a few years ago with Glenn Archer's Aussie black neph too when a friend started selling it on ebay. And I didn't see anyone else doing this technique either LOL so went to town framing a lot of pieces too. Then one day I spied your parcel of cabs on Glenn's website and was drooling over them bigtime! Was also when I decided maybe I better think of other ways to use it that weren't so close to what someone else was doing 

these are a couple of my intarsia that are similar and a couple of other pieces that are a little different & more recent. Black nephrite is a joy to work with and really punches up the colors of other materials you use with it. Try it, you'll like it!

[theimage1]

Love the work Lavenderfish, it's supper nice. I especially like the use of the jade in the beads you do. Saw one other in another forum topic, stunning! Black jade caps with small fitted multi-colored cabs. It reminded me a bit of the work of Charles Laloma (one of my heros from long ago.)

Below are a couple of other frame materials I like to use. 1st is just plain mookaite whenever I can find mainly solid colored material. (nipomo marcasite center)


The 2nd is a new find for me 2 yrs ago at Quartzsite. It's called porcelainite, and is a cap rock over some coal veins in Montana. Apparently it was a clay that was naturally fired by underground coal fires. IT takes a great shine but it is a bit brittle. (center stone mookaite)


I continue to search for a good pure white border material but thus far have had limited success. Most are too soft (marbles, allunite) or to many patterns (milky quartz, most white agate). Some areas in polka dot agate is very promising but not enough clear areas for much material.

[Taogem]

Really amazing... Both of you.

I am going to have to find a flat lap now. I don't think it has to be anything to technical.

Just something that will allow me to hold the material by hand.

Maybe even something like this?

[theimage1]

If you look closely at the flat lap in my tutorial slides you might recognize it for what it was ... it the lap table form an Ultra Tech faceting machine. I took the faceting mast off of it and stored it away in plastic. After 30 years with the Ultra Tech (a great machine) I treated myself to a new one when I retired (A Facette Gem Master II machine). Thus I use the old ultra tech flat lap portion for my cab work now.

I buy ultra cheap-o 100 grit flat laps (about 1/16 " thick) and use them mounted on an old normal thickness, worn out, flat lap. Since I use them to flatten the bottom of the stone before I do the final backing gluing, they end up with a fair amount of embedded epoxy in them. Thus they tend to only last for about 6 months or so before I replace them. IN the last few weeks I run a razor blade against them wile turning to scrap of as much epoxy as possible, but as you might expect it also removes a good deal of diamond in the process.

I picked up 3 or 4 "seconds" while in Tucson this year for about $25 each.

[Lavenderfish]

I love these two intarsia & the Nipomo one rocks! Porcelainite is something I've never seen or heard of but I like the color of it. Almost looks like there's a tinge of blue in it too?

I know what you mean about difficulty finding white material. I've tried magnesite and is great as long as whatever you put with it is a softy too. Have you ever considered using Turkish white opal for a white material? There's a fellow on ebay (Hasan, seller name is "lapidarydealers") who sells it. I've made a couple of beads with that and it's nice, harder material to work with. He also has white chalcedony that might be another good alternative.

Charles Loloma was one incredible artist. Would love to have been a fly on the wall in his studio, oh yeah!

[theimage1]

Yes I have tried the Turkish white opal, but when it gets thin it gets translucent and does not always look white. I also bought some material from Astro Gallery that was supposed to be "white agate", but it turned out to be milky quartz. I have a material called "pristine" that I paid an arm and leg for (not certain what it is, but it's not shell as someone told me that's what "pristine" is), and have not cut it yet (big saw too dirty right now, might stain it.)

I will have to check into the white calcedony, I have not seen it. The  porcelainite has no blue, but it does have pale darker or lighter gray lines in some pieces. Very hard and takes a mirror polish, but it chips while saw  cutting very easily.

[Lavenderfish]

I said earlier that I used magnesite when in fact what I have is called "ivoryite" and I got it from Rob at color-wright.com. I've always suspected that ivoryite and pristine may be the same thing (such would love to know for sure) and you certainly won't have to give up any limbs for it LOL. Anyway, here's a link to it so you can see for yourself:

http://www.greatrough.com/rough_ivoryite.shtml

[Taogem]

Would coral make nice frames? The solid blacks, reds, and oranges?

[Lavenderfish]

It probably would if you could afford pieces that were big enough. I think you can get it at Indian Jeweler Supply but think it's sold by the gram.

[theimage1]

Most of the coral I have seen is too small or it is not straight enough over the lengths I use. When coral gets large enough for longer pieces it gets thicker, and it tends to be porous on the inside. The really good useable portions are the outer rind material. It would work well if you find the right pieces, and as mentioned befoe at a reasonable price.

You can get e nice solid brick red color from a number of jaspers, and chrysoprase makes to good green material that can be pretty clean (again a bit pricey though) ... I have found the cheaper opaque material to work better than the beautiful translucent green. Frames tend to disappear a bit when they go translucent. I tried to use some synthetic amethyst and citrine and it was a waste of material. They both disappear against the backing material unless it is white.

I did have some success with a white backing using an exotic material I fond  locally. It cuts likes butter, takes a good polish (but on a backing who cares!) and works up easily. It comes in nice 4"x4" squares about 3/8 " thick in a nice box with 10 to the box. The price is right. It's tumbled marble they use for kitchen back splashes. (try Lowes or Home Depot - easy to self collect!) The middle is quite white (occasional banding). It works great for thin white lines that are bound between harder materials or for backing.

Brazilian Parahna Agate (white marble back)

Indonesian Agate (white marble back)

Serpentine w/pyrite (Peru) (marble lines)

The last was my first attempt at putting in white lines, so it's "learner cab" at best.

Now for a couple of "wild ones", not overly successful but fun.

Serpentine w/pyrite (mookaite borders)

[Lavenderfish]

oooo, and yet more lovely intarsia! I really like the effect of the white behind those agates, really brightens them up even more. I really LIKE your "learner cab" and the color combo of those materials. Boy, if you have a faceting machine to do that on (I don't), you could really go to town adding that into some of your pieces. it's really tough to do thin lines like that just eyeballing them and using a good pair of dividers.

I've seen that Peruvian serpentine in rough form but had no idea it was that pretty polished!

[Taogem]

I've seen that Peruvian serpentine in rough form but had no idea it was that pretty polished!

Thats the Serpentine with the Pyrite? I have never seen this mineral combination before.

Really nice.

Beautiful intarsias