After weeks of persuasion Jeff and I went to the Central Florida Mineral and Gem Society last week. A quick tour of their facility gave us enough "feel good vibe" that we decided to join on the spot! The facility is a good size warehouse type place full of great big saws, polishing stations, faceting stations and about 6 silver soldering stations, something for everyone! On a big whiteboard you can sign up for classes and keep up with their schedules. This club is about to sponsor their 40th Annual Gem and Mineral Show, amazing!
Since Jeff was going to be cutting stones for the first time I gathered up some supplies to solder earrings for my Sunday at the Market. We got to the "clubhouse" a bit after 9 (early for us on a non working Saturday) and got straight to work. Jeff's selection of slab stone was beautiful Picture Jasper and I got myself setup at one of the soldering stations.
I kept sneaking a peek at Jeff's progress and taking pictures:
The first cut into slab...oh........
Truth be told I got bored after about 15 minutes of soldering, heck I could be doing this at home...there was a box full of Jasper screaming at me from across the room to be cut. So I packed up my bits and off I went. (This is about the time the camera batteries died and I discovered the backups were dead too!!!)
I grabbed a slab of the same Jasper and went to work but it was the second piece that I love the most. I discovered under the slab saw was a box of scrap where folks throw their cut "leftovers"...this was my treasure chest! We left after 4 hours with quite a collection of stones to be set:
This is Jeff's final collection!
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This beauty was found in the scrap box...it just needed a bit of love...and a trip or two to the wheels!
Needless to say, we'll be going back next weekend!
It looks like the weather that is headed this way will prevent me from participating in the Market tomorrow...I now have my work cut out for me...pun intended!
Have a great night...I'll be dreaming of rocks!
6 comments:
Both of your stones are awesome! I love the little rose colored clamshell you rescued from oblivion, Barb. Can't wait to see what you're going to do with these little treasures.
Did Jeff get hooked on this?
Love the pink one!
Karey
Your cabs look great.I sent you some cutting material from Missouri.
Thank you for the plug about my cabs
Mike
Mike you are a DOLL!
We are very excited about this new venture. Never fear, we're far from relying on our own stock!
Your work is grand!
Thanks a lot!
Barb & Jeff!
That is so cool. Do they know any similar type of facility in Nevada?
I am unwilling to fork over the $1000 for the arbor and saw combo to the guy in Mojave, and I too have lbs and lbs of unfinished gemstone in my garage that is asking to be worked with.
Hey there Eric;
Look up a gem and mineral club...that's how we found this place! We've gone head first, tomorrow we head to Tampa to buy some rocks and rough for more cutting fun!!!
Stay well!
Look here:
http://sngms.com/
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