Thursday, August 30, 2012

Engraving Agate

One of Ruth's larger agates
Ruth Venner lives on Macleay Island in Moreton Bay, and is an artist and calligrapher. You might be interested to know that she has been engraving agates for some 20 years, finding them by visiting lapidary shows, alternative crystal shops and even car boot sales. She kindly agreed to share the process with us. (Thank you Ruth.)
Some of Ruth's tools
The tools she uses are diamond burs in a flex drive. For lettering, a 1mm round and 10mm long bur is used, this gets shorter as the tip is has to be kept flat. She designs the lettering to suit the stone shape and size, and writes on it in gouache.
An agate being processed
This one has been written on in gouache and is waiting to be engraved. If the surface is washed thinly first with gouache the pen should write on the surface. The centre of the letter forms are then engraved, the gouache is then carefully polished off before slowing engraving away the rest of the letter forms, bit by bit. Leave the thins as fine as possible, occasionally using a ball bur for the thickest areas.
One of Ruth's medium sized projects.
A smaller agate.
This is a special piece Ruth sent to Herman Zapf, 95mm x 75mm.
If you want to see more of Ruth's tools please visit here.

No comments:

Post a Comment