Sunny

Note to white people: Somali aunties give you sambusas not samosas

I love you, Minnesota.
#iceout #iceoutmn #fuckice

Copper chainmail pendants and chains that have just come out of the tumbler. They are very bright and shiny. Two copper stars made from jump rings, about 3/4 inch in size. One double spiral chain that looks like rope. One box chain. One sweet pea chain. One chain that alternates between large and small rings

Copper sure shines up pretty. Running it thru the tumbler with steel shot removes burrs and work hardens things a bit as well as shining things up. These are the chains and stars I made last weekend. Making chain is a good fidget while watching TV or drinking beer with pals

#silversmithing practice

Oh wow that glow is amazing!

Hard same.

Brown, green and gray slab

Cream, rust and aqua colored slab

Gray, Brown, red and gold agate slab

Brown agate slab

Can't wait to cut some cabs from these! 🧵 2/2

Four rock slabs. Some are agate. One is gray and brown, the others are cream, gold, orange and red

Three rock slabs, one is red jasper, the other two are agate.

Two more slabs, one is gray and white, the other is black, orange and red

Another slab of black, red, orange and white

Went to the gem and mineral show this weekend at the Crystal Community Center and scored some awesome slabs... An older gentleman was retiring and had $1/2/3 bins. Got all of these for $26 total 🧵 1/2

#lapidary #rockhounding

Thank you!

A finger wearing a ring woven from copper wire with a little sterling flower

Made a copper ring last night, first time trying kumihimo with wire. Used a silver flower to hide the join and got a little messy with the solder. I wish there was a good copper colored solder! I think this would be a good spinner on a fidget ring. May make a few in sterling. #silversmithing

A hand holds two copper chains. One is a bubble chain and the other is a box chain

Results of this week's meeting fidgets... Keeping my hands busy helps me stay focused during meetings so this week I made rings in the morning before work and wove them into chain during meetings when I wasn't busy taking notes

Joy isn’t loud. Sometimes it looks like finishing a book, canceling a meeting, or wearing your favorite hoodie.

A toddler with blonde hair reaches her arms toward the camera. She has a slice of something orange in her mouth, maybe an orange bell pepper or an orange slice and she is grinning. She is wearing pink pants and a white and pink shirt. On the arm of her chair is a light pink blanket with satin trim. She is sitting in a high chair at a table. On the table is a sesame Street placement featuring Bert with a hot dog. On top of the placement is her plate, and it looks like the orange slice in her mouth is the last bite of her meal.

Today's #joy - finding this old photo on the sidewalk. It looks like someone was having a silly good time

A silver pendant with a large green aventurine cabochon stone. There are two sterling flowers at the top and one at the bottom

This morning's #silversmithing practice - still needs some cleanup. The aventurine is one I purchased from a local rock shop and sliced and put a shoulder on.

🤩

Tbh I'm not sure! When I picked it up I thought it was banded iron formation but the stripes inside aren't as even as I normally see with that. The red part is jasper I think.

I treated myself to a CabKing for Christmas, but prior to that I was using a Hi-Tech slant lap. Both work well, the CabKing is a bit of an investment but really makes the process smoother, less time changing out grits, etc

Woah! That is SO COOL

How awesome that your work is in space!

My mom was driving once and a cow hit her car during a cattle drive! Fortunately no damage to cow or car!

Hope you're feeling up soon. When I have days like that I try to think of 3 good things - the sun is out, the shower felt good, I get to meet a friend later- more often than not my brain keeps adding to the list. The world might be shit, but there is joy to be found and I hope you find it today! ❤️

And of course now that I've taken a close-up of it I see a few scratches to take care of 🤣

A palm sized chunk of banded iron formation, black, gray and red striped

The same stone cut into slabs

One of the slabs cut into an oval, but the bottom edge has broken off

The same stone shaped into a cabochon

Love this one, even though I had to make it smaller than I hoped because of a fracture during cutting the preform. I love the process - found it on the beach on Friday, slabbed it yesterday, shaped it today. Sometime this week I'll set it into a pendant or bracelet.

#rockhounding #lapidary

6 freshly made cabochons, still glued to the nails I used to hold onto them while shaping. 4 green aventurine, one yellow quartz and one banded iron formation

One hour at the cabking and I've got 6 stones to work with this week. The green aventurine and the yellow were just slices from already tumbled stones, so I only needed to put a shoulder on them. The other one I shaped.

#lapidary #rockhounding

Was it Nat Geo? One of my 4 is a Nat Geo and it died shortly before its first birthday. I emailed them expecting no response but they sent me a brand new one!

Four green aventurine stones cut from 2. One pair is egg shaped and the other two are oval

The little aventurines I bought at the little rock shop down the block from me sliced nicely #rockhounding

A hand holding a slice of Botswana agate. It is purplish gray and white. There are a few white spots and white and gray wavy bands radiating from the bottom

This one reminds me of space. Botswana agate

#rockhounding

A black bowl of stones that have been sliced in preparation for shaping. There is a rainbow of color. Stones include jasper, agate, aventurine, banded iron formation, carnelian, quartz, epidote and feldspar

Cutting done, time to choose some for shaping. Some I'll just put shoulders on and leave free form, some I'll shape up a bit. #lapidary #rockhounding

🤣

A transparent plastic bowl filled with shiny tumbled rocks. The rocks are all different types and colors. There are a few pinks, oranges and reds, some lavender and yellow and green

Some stones out of my box of tumbled stones that I might try to shape up today for jewelry. I need some inspiration for #silversmithing

#rockhounding

Two slices of black stone with red and gray patterned steaks

A large palm sized black stone with red and gray stripes

Took a couple slices off this morning, the rest will have to wait. It was slow going and my little 6" HiTech was getting a bit warm even with plenty of water after slicing several smaller stones and this bigger one a couple of times

#rockhounding