Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Bone Wars Continue

There's only about 14 or so inches of snow that will need to be removed from around the car and driveway!  This NW Arkansas!  We aren't supposed to get this kind of snow!  So, I guess I will be shoveling snow instead of trying to do some jewelry work.

Believe it or not, I have managed to get something in the works.  I have four faux bone pieces in varying stages of completion.

First mistake.  Working too small.  Faux bone works much better for larger pieces.  If you ever want to try using this material, think big.  Two inches and up.  In other words be BOLD!  This is not to say that smaller pieces couldn't be done.  For me anyway, the smaller pieces are more difficult to hold onto.  Even larger pieces can be troublesome.  To facilitate holding the material when filing, I resort to using a ring clamp.  If you have strong hands and fingers, you wouldn't necessarily need a clamp.  Another reason to think big.

A common double cut, 8", half-round file or rasp, plus one single cut half-round file, and Robert's shaping tool, are all you need for shaping the material after sawing.  If your design shape has a more complex concave curve, then you might need a small 4", No. 1 cut, half-round hand file.  I doubt if you would ever need to use any needle files.

Then there's the sanding.  A necessary chore which you really need to do in order to remove the shiny surface of the material.  I'm not a big fan of this, but it pays off in the end.

To incise lines in the surface, all you need is a sharp pointed awl and an ordinary craft knife, such as an X-acto or similar.  Of course, there are endless surface treatments which can be done by stamping, heating the faux bone and pressing in any of a myriad of texturing sources.

Anyway, I'm beginning to win the war.

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