We Are Being Invaded!!!

As I’m searching through my buckets of slabs, I have two mindsets. One is to bring back memories of when or where I bought or slabbed the pieces; and the other is to study the slab colors or patterns to see if they trigger anything special for my next project. I’ve had this slab of Montana agate for quite a while, and it has kept migrating to the top layers of the pile. There is nothing noteworthy, or eye-catching, about it other than the unique parallel black lines on a milky background.

With recent news articles talking about the possibility of UFOs, it made me take a deeper look at this piece. Quickly I visualized carving some spaceships from the back of the material. The milky background would lend itself well to carving from the back. With this material, the clearer and lighter, the better the images will show through.

I selected the best area and shape that I could utilize from the material and made a cab accordingly. It is 48mm wide at the bottom and 39mm high. I marked the front with a felt tip pen to locate the best locations for the carved images.

Because I have never carved a spaceship, I did a test piece to see what tools I needed as well as what shape was possible. The tools consisted of a 4mm diamond ball bur, a 5mm inverted cone, and a 10mm knife-edged bur. I also made two wood burs with a ball shape on the end to sand and polish the top hole in the image. After carving the round hole, and polishing it, I found that it didn’t show as I had expected. Therefore, I left the hole with the grind pattern in it.

I started by using the ball bur to make the “canopy” of the spaceship. Next, I used the knife-edge bur to make a narrow horizontal cut across the center of the hole(slightly deeper than the hole and about twice as wide as the hole). Finally, I used the inverted cone bur to shape the bottom of the spaceship.

Initially, I made all three images the same depth in the back of the cab. Yet, due to the cloudiness of the left-hand side of the cab, the images on that side didn’t show through as well as the right image did. I had to carve them much deeper than the right side for them to show well. I left the carved images with a 400-grit surface because it enhanced the look of the images. I found the carving to be rather easy and not too critical in detail. I was pleased with the result.

3) I did a test piece to see what tools that I would need.

5) Initially I made all three images the same depth.

2) I marked the locations for the spaceship images on the cab.

6) I had to make the left two images much deeper to make them show through.

4) I found that the only tools that I needed were three diamond burs.

1) I liked the unique parallel black lines

Bob Rush has worked in lapidary since 1958 and metal work and jewelry since 1972. He teaches at clubs and Modesto Junior College. Contact him at rocksbob@sbcglobal.net.