WHEN A NEW DESIGN MATERIAL FAILS

I love working with milky chalcedony because it is an uncommon lapidary material that has a wonderful internal glow when the project is finished.

- Bob Rush

Unfortunately, my choice this time was a slightly different slab of this material which had an internal wavy pattern that appealed to me.

FINDING MATERIAL

I started this project to find a small slab with black plumes in a clear background that I could use to embed in a larger teardrop slab of milky chalcedony. I didn't have a definite plume slab in mind, so I searched through a bunch of slabs with little luck. I did have a bucket of tumbled smaller pieces that were generally chalcedony with black random inclusions. After digging for a while, I picked up a 1.5-inch pebble that looked a little odd, but the backside was just black. I sliced it into three slabs on my trim saw. What a find! The first cut revealed a striking plume. My second cut revealed more plumes. I had in mind a round cab about one inch across and the back of the third slab was perfect for my needs.

BRINGING A CONCEPT TO LIFE