Aussie Black Magic

[michael B]

Inspired by some awesome NZ bone carvers I had to have a go at carving this, this is the West Aussie black jade, there is some debate weather its jade, being self tought was a challenge, sanded to 120 grit, pic taken wet.

[Nelson Lepine]

Beautifully designed and executed!! Is it as hard a stone as the green jade?

[Ed Twilbeck]

Beautiful , and well designed good color for the piece.

[mace ngata]

nice mate, yeah i heard the same with the WA stuff, in that it may not be nephrite, if its anything like that cowell stuff its gotta be hard !!!! it looks really nice , the twist design suits the black better than most designs that i have seen, one thing i have noticed with the SA stuff is that it doesnt have as many "soft" spots. did the material you used have many?

[michael B]

Thanks for the comments, its as hard as the green in my hook, no soft spots, said to be actinolite, still sanding the inner sections, made some special shape carbide hand sanding sticks to sand the inner sections of the cross over and the cord end. My band saw is great for this, will post a pic when finished, take my time on this one, the WA material is absolute black, the good Cowell black has a green tinge when cut thin.

 

Cheers michael B

[yloh]

Thanks for sharing the nice work.

[michael B]

Some pics of the finished article, I broke the first one in the top pic, expanding drum parted on the join, angry for days, this is my second one finished.