These activities are offered to all members of the North Brisbane Lapidary Club Inc. Some may require the completion of a specific course before members are allowed to participate. In addition some courses require a fee to pay for the resources used. If there is a fee it is noted on the activity specific page.
Faceting of Gemstones
Faceting is the art of taking a peice of rough, uncut, gemstone material and turning it into a thing of beauty ready to be set into a piece of jewellery or added to your collection.
Faceting is taught over one weekend and then it is simply a matter of practicing during regular sessions.
Cabochoning Of Gemstones and Opals
Cabochoning is the art of cutting a stone on a grinding wheel to form a domed top, then sanding and polishing the surface. The most common are oval shaped though more experienced cutters will cut any shape that suits the particular stone, limited only by their imagination and skill.
Any stone can be cut in this manner, but they are predominantly opaque or translucent, such as turquoise, agate and carnelian.
Some are cut to display certain visual effects like tiger eye which shows a cat’s eye known as chatoyancy, or “star” sapphires which display a six rayed star when cut correctly.
Even the more prized transparent gemstones (sapphire, ruby, garnet etc.) can be, and have been cut into cabochons, but are generally faceted to give a more outstanding effect.
Silver Smithing Under Construction
Gold Smithing Under Construction
Beading Under Construction
Enamelling Under Construction
Precious Metal Clay
PMC was discovered in Japan the early 1990s by Dr. M. Morikawa of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC). It is a pure metal powder combined with a non toxic organic binder and water. When kiln or torch fired, the binder burns away, leaving pure, 99.9% fine silver. PMC can be combined with a variety of media, glass, ceramics, gemstones and polymer clay. It looks, feels and shapes like potter’s clay and can be rolled, sculpted and shaped easily with fingers and other simple tools. When it is dry it can be sanded, filed, engraved, drilled and pre polished. Once it has been fired it is pure silver and can be treated like any other pure silver, with all silversmithing techniques.
The Beginners Course is taught over 2 days, during which all the basic techniques are taught. Regular weekend workshops will then be run to expand on these techniques. Firing of pieces, in the kiln, will be done during these workshops.
Gemmology
Gemmology is taught initially as a two day weekend course on Practical Field Gemmology. After that there is regular workshops conducted on a Wednesday Morning.
Sawing of Materials
There are saws available for most cutting tasks. We have small saws to cut cabs and opal, though slabbing saws to a 24" saw.
Tumbling of Gemstones
The club has a number of tumblers available to members for hire. Tumbling of stones takes time and therefore the tumblers are available for one month periods.
