Any magic to getting the polish on the Shattuckite?  That's always been a problem for me due to the different hardnesses. 

Man, you really hit the jackpot on those.  So many interesting patterns.  Few things more fun than cutting into something unknown and ending up with a pleasant surprise like these!

I also have a lot of 'chips' laying around.  Is there any trick to embedding this stuff into epoxy without ending up with lots of bubbles visable?

I like the stamping.  I'm always afraid of screwing up a nice piece if the stamp slips a little bit when I hit it with the hammer.  Guess I just need to practice more...maybe on copper. 

I generally don't stabilize malachite.  It is very soft, so you have to keep that in mind.  Generally you can skip multiple sanding steps and go directly to a very fine grit.  Use lots of water as the dust is high in copper that you don't want to be breathing, and also the stone can form black 'burn' marks if it gets too hot while sanding/polishing.  Final polish I use tin oxide on leather, but sometimes touch up a bit with Zam on a muslin buff with my rotary tool.  Again don't let the thing get hot. 

Okay...I guess it's not too late!!

This is from some of what I think they call midnight lace obsidian.  I bought a bunch of rough on eBay a few months back and sliced it up with my slab saw.  I forgot to get a photo of the original slab, but I have several photos along the way.  In the 'conglomeration' photo there is also a image showing the back of the piece.  I did not kill myself on the finish on the back and as you know polishing flat surfaces is not the easiest, but I do want to set the stone with an open back so the future owner can truely appreciate the translucent and really amazing beauty of the stone. 

Was really happy about the way the final piece turned out I hope you are too....vote for me!! 

It's also important to make sure the later stages of sanding/polishing pads have some 'give' to them (a soft pad underneath, or an expandable rubber drum helps).  You need to be able to distribute the sanding/polishing action over a larger surface area of the stone. 

Not sure if it would help with exactly the problems you have, but I generally use a small amount of paste solder (comes in a syringe) to hold small pieces in place.  The paste solder on its own is not sufficient, but I also use it to stick little pieces of chip solder exactly where I want them.  the paste solder is great when you are arranging many small pieces on a surface and get tired of them all 'jumping' away. 

>Are up for giving it a try?<

Hmm I was really hoping you'd have some easy way of doing it, but it sounds like a lot of what I thought of when looking at it. 

Although it would not look quite the same (would not have quite the 'webbing' effect) I'd think you could make a bunch of small rings with round wire and attach them all with solder to the main piece. The main piece would be precut on the outside flush with the bezel of the stone.  Then make the thing stronger and recreate a bit of the webbing effect with a small silver ball soldered in between each of the rings. 

How did you do it?  For all the 'holes' around the edge...did you cut a piece of flat sheet with all the gaps and then use small rings of round wire? 

Here's the Argentium setting.  The inside surface was patinaed.  Sorry about the lack of focus for the photo!

>Fine work and polish on cabs,in first picture the 2 pendants on right
 look like aurora/rainbow obsidian from glass buttes-Oregon<

Yup.  I picked up a bunch of this stuff for low $ on eBay.  Hard to make it look really good as a cab though. 

> I really like the tiny geode ear rings <

One of the two pairs sold over the weekend.  A bit of a pain making settings for these. 

Planning a trip to southern CA in early May.  I have scientific conference in Palm Springs to attend.  Thinking about going before and after for a few days exploring in the area, particularly towards the Needles area.  The BLM site lists a bunch of spots and of course the rockhounding books list more site (probably all picked over though!).   Hoping to find some agates and jaspers. 

Anyone spy Princess Leia's ring!?!     I know it should be in gold, but that would have been a bit beyond my price range. 

Haven't posted much in a while.  Her are some of the pieces I finished in the past few months.  Got them all out to price for a small show tomorrow.  Sorry some of the photos may be redundant.