I watched Renita as she worked the stone. She was on the fourth wheel, one of the finishing wheels of a Genie Cabochon machine, and was working on a large and beautiful piece of red plume agate. It was a piece of rough that we had bought from one of our mentors, Dick, and she was making it for our private collection.
Meanwhile I was working on my own pieces, some were for our collection and some were for sale at the Lagoon Rv Park Arts and Crafts Show It was going to be our first show and we were both excited and a little nervous as we need to sell some of our pieces to pay for silver and more stone.
She finished and soon was sawing another slab on the trim saw, while I alternated from slabbing rough on one of the eighteen inch saws to working on the Genies wheels. Between the rock we found in Wyoming and the rock we bought at the rock shows, the saws have been busing reducing the boulders into slabs. On these slabs we draw the cabochon form, the rough form that is as most of our pieces are free forms, and then take them to the saw and then the grinding wheels.
The whole process really goes pretty fast as we can make a small stone into a cabochon in less then twenty minutes and even a large piece in about forty. The wheels are coated with diamond dust and make short work of any stone that touches their surface.
Mark, the shop Foreman, came over and looked at our work and its so good the way he makes gentle guided comments, hints and suggestions. He always guides them as a question that makes you rethink what you are doing. Dick on the other hand, wastes no time in giving you his true feelings, which you are allowed to do when you are eighty five years old! He has been rock hounding for sixty plus years and making cabochons and rock art for at least that long. We sometimes hear him make the dreaded comment. "Junk, why do you work on junk stone?", but today he had seen our wire wrapped pendants and had given us the highest compliment as he simply said, "beautiful".
It make us feel good that our work is respected by two such masters and so we look forward to Saturdays show. If its the right crowd we should sell some pieces, and if we don't we don't. It isn't going to stop us from working more stone but it would be nice to pay some of the costs of the materials. silver has doubled in price from when we started in January and we are now paying thirty five dollars an ounce for square and half round sterling wire.
Next year should be busy as we are going to try for three major shows, we even have to submit our work to a jury for one, but we are confident that we have a unique style as few take the stones from the rough rock to the finished piece. We never dreamed that retirement could keep us so busy as we learn more about working stone and explore carving jade and even making mosaics from polished and translucent rocks. Clear skies.
ps you can see some of our work at our online store :http://www.etsy.com/shop/markandrenita
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