Post a Picture - Something You Created!

After letting my faceting machine gather dust for way too long thinking it was broken (really it just needed some oil) I finally got back to my 2nd marble project!

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That's really pretty, Yellek.

More marble faceting fun over the long weekend:

This was a large marble that I cut into the Simple Portuguese cut, 145 facets:
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And this was a normal marble (no before pic) cut into the Frosted Star pattern, 91 facets. Though I decided not to leave the facets frosted since there was so much swirl inside it wouldn't have been noticeable:
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Didn't manage to finish it ahead of today's game against Sweden.

Unfortunate loss, and ended Hope Solo's record-breaking shutout streak at 796 minutes.

Yellek wrote:

gems

These are awesome. Kind of makes me want to do this as well.

Have you set them into anything? I feel like these are 1,000 times more exciting than a diamond or pearl. Honestly, besides the "diamonds are awesome" popular belief, I don't really get it.

What would someone think if you gave them a marble stone in a ring?

dimmerswitch wrote:

hope

Really nice job on this one.

PandaEskimo wrote:
Yellek wrote:

gems

These are awesome. Kind of makes me want to do this as well.

Have you set them into anything? I feel like these are 1,000 times more exciting than a diamond or pearl. Honestly, besides the "diamonds are awesome" popular belief, I don't really get it.

I've set one marble so far into a pendant, but I don't have a pic of it. It's the same setting as my first project below:
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PandaEskimo wrote:

What would someone think if you gave them a marble stone in a ring?

Definitely depends on the person. I plan to make some of the smaller marbles I have into rings. I think what's appealing about these is that they're unusual, and hand-made so each one is one of a kind.

Diamonds are overrated, barring their industrial applications.

Sure "Blood Diamond" was a movie, and hence "entertainment", enough of it is true to make me thouroughly disgusted with the "industry".

Even without the methods of obtaining them, diamonds don't have many interesting properties and aside from "oh it's rare so it's special elitism" they seem pretty boring. Sure, they sparkle a bit and you could pair them with lots of stuff because they are a neutral color, but they seem pretty plain to me. Wouldn't you rather have a nice color or colors?

That stuff sort of makes me want to cut things...like stones :).

The dark blue one you cut is really pretty...and my favorite color, and sapphire is my birth stone....maybe we should talk

Alright, this isn't a picture, nor is it my story, but it is me reading it.

I think this is going to become a thing I do, hopefully 2-3 times a week. And while Project Gutenberg's great, if you have any other short stories or the like you'd like to hear read (and that I don't have to pay for, ideally), lemme know.

PandaEskimo wrote:

Even without the methods of obtaining them, diamonds don't have many interesting properties and aside from "oh it's artificially rare so it's special elitism" they seem pretty boring. Sure, they sparkle a bit and you could pair them with lots of stuff because they are a neutral color, but they seem pretty plain to me. Wouldn't you rather have a nice color or colors?

That stuff sort of makes me want to cut things...like stones :).

FTFY. The supply is artificially deflated so as to inflate the cost. And there are most definitely other, better gemstones out there.

Prederick wrote:

Alright, this isn't a picture, nor is it my story, but it is me reading it.

I think this is going to become a thing I do, hopefully 2-3 times a week. And while Project Gutenberg's great, if you have any other short stories or the like you'd like to hear read (and that I don't have to pay for, ideally), lemme know.

That is really cool, Pred. I'd listen to more of those.

Nicely done, Pred.

So, being unemployed has given me plenty of time to work on personal projects, an I got some work done on this guy thats been banging around in my subconscious for a while.
IMAGE(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn175/Rob_Anybody_82/general%20art%20dump/sketch_7-13-2011.jpg)
He still needs some work, but I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along.
If anyone is curious, I'm using a Motion Computing Le1600 running Gimp 2.0.

Danke gents. Like I said, i'm going to try and make this a thing. Next up is a snatch of "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen", which i'd like to get through, and hopefully tomorrow will be another humorous short.

Can I also note how utterly terrified I am to be doing these? I'm a reticent person by nature, so doing this is a bit out of character.

Is that anyone in particular, Rob? I see some Caleb there.

3g DP.

KingGorilla wrote:

Is that anyone in particular, Rob? I see some Caleb there.

Not really. Just kind of a dream I had about a guy hanging out half in darkness with an over sized claw hand glinting from the shadows. It got pretty dark from there, but the image stuck in my head.

Prederick wrote:

Can I also note how utterly terrified I am to be doing these? I'm a reticent person by nature, so doing this is a bit out of character.

Listening to the two again, you can tell that you've paced yourself more on the Münchausen piece.
I think that helps, as did your efforts on enunciation, and I think you still might be able to slow down more and not lose the rhythym of the pieces.

I think you're on to something really special here, so keep going. The more pieces you do, the better you're going to get, and you're already good.

Prederick wrote:

Danke gents. Like I said, i'm going to try and make this a thing. Next up is a snatch of "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen", which i'd like to get through, and hopefully tomorrow will be another humorous short.

Can I also note how utterly terrified I am to be doing these? I'm a reticent person by nature, so doing this is a bit out of character.

I have never heard you talk before. I have heard GWJ tales. Those tales do not do your voice justice. Jesus. Got some Morgan Freeman quality going on there.

Edit: And some James Earl Jones too. I realize those are some heavyweights I'm counting you among.

I made a baby blanket for friends who just had their first child:

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Detail:
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That's really cute. Good work!

She made knit caps for our boys. She does do wonderful work.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

That's really cute. Good work!

What he said.

The animals are really cool.

Holla wrote:

The dark blue one you cut is really pretty...and my favorite color, and sapphire is my birth stone....maybe we should talk ;)

Absolutely! Pretty much everything I make is for sale.

Here are some geometric earrings I made this week using sterling wire, twisted, shaped and fused into solid pieces. And they make a fun jingly noise when I wear them.

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Just finished this custom order: 14k Gold Filled Byzantine Loop Necklace & Earrings

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You do wonderful work, Yellek.

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First run at a pamphlet for work. Its gone a bit past this, but this is when I photographed it.

I made a dice tray!

It's 6 3/8" to a side outside and 5" inside (optionally, 5.5"), and 1.75" high outside and 1.25" inside.

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Looked for one at my FLGS this afternoon, but they only sell dice towers. Screw that. So this evening I saw this old Ikea shadow box frame we've had, unused for years, and kindly asked my wife if I could "use" it. Not for a picture. I thought maybe I could make a dice tray out of some common household ingredients.

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After taking it apart, I flipped it over and dropped the backing back in. Then I got this old mousepad I don't use, traced the outside of the inner box onto it (that held the glass in place) and cut out and trimmed a "felt" bottom.

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That went on top of the backing. I could use a glue gun now to glue the mousepad to the backing and the backing to the frame, and have a 5.5" square tray. The dice make a satisfying muted thud against the frame in that case.

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But in a "use every part of the buffalo" sort of way, I put the metal tabs back in the frame and bent them down, then wedged the inner box back in to hold the bottom down. No glue required and it makes the bottom look cleaner, but the inside is reduced to 5" on a side, and the dice are louder against the walls. (I also coloured the unpainted edge of the inner box with a Sharpie, real professional like.)

Not sure which way I'll go with in the end. In either case, the bottom is nice and even and keeps the dice quiet and lying flat, while the sides leave the dice visible. Light, rounded dice, like the Memoir '44 dice in the photos, very occasionally land on an edge if they land between a wall and another die, but generally it works pretty well.

Finally, I found some felt sticky feet and stuck those on the frame to make it table-friendly.

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Not bad if I do say so myself, for something I didn't have to leave the house to make.