Internal quartz microsculptures

[Bob in SF]

Carved these in quartz with a Foredom flex shaft/diamond (gem carving) bits by digging towards myself using a jet of water from a WaterPick to ease the cutting - basically complex holes that catch the direct and refracted light in interesting ways.

Can't sketch it - just dig it.

Stegosaurus, chair and table with fossil moss,lady in waterfall, reef scene.


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Have mostly done jade carving, but reversed it for these. Fun challenge in small spaces.

Warm regards to all. - Bob

[bigwater]

Awesome stuff there man... Thanks for sharing it.

Do you dig, cut and polish your own quartz, or buy it precut and polished?

[daugheg]

wow those are cool

[Whit]

Some Nice Lookin Work There,,, Reeeal Nice !!!
Why not thro some of these in the Sunday Show as well !!!

[Bob in SF]

Thanks!

Ron - I get slightly rough quartz, then polish it on a graded series of lapidary diamond coated discs, then carve it.

Sometimes I've found nicely polished quartz at gem shows - ready to carve.

Chunks of glass are good for practice - but are softer than quartz.

Beware quartz fracture lines.

- Bob

[harborbill]

Bob, all I can say is amazing. The only thing even close to that that I have seen is what looks like a glass etching inside a block of glass. A friend of mine has one that has the NY twin towers inside the block of glass.
You are very talented.
Bill

[AndyW]

With the rest amazing stuff Bob, these are nice.

[bigwater]

It's trully amazing based on the pics you've posted. I can see those types of tidbits selling for high dollar in the tourist shops in my town. While I'd probably never achieve your level of artistry with them, you could pay for a pop up tent and booth space in about five minutes selling that stuff at any of our seasonal tourist events. People go mad watching that kind of stuff being created before their very eyes and will pay exorbitant amounts of money for it, even if they wonder why the next day.

[AndyW]

Actually as you mentioned glass, do you look at a ref and engrave or as in glass, as I have done before place the ref and use like a trace, was just wondering...........far more intricate looking than what I was playing at, mind you going back around 30 years, seems like yesterday though......

[ScorpionAir66]

Absolutley Stunning!!! :dropjaw:

The detail is amazing!! Do you sell these? You should......I know easier said than done! I agree with Ron, you should give it a go..

[Bob in SF]

Ron and Scorpion - I've sold a number of them when the economy was more flush.

Andy - I look at refs, but often change course while carving depending on how the light is running through the quartz.

Thanks for the kind feedback.

- Bob

[AndyW]

Cheers Bob, one more thing lol are these more carved than engraved, like turning 3d inside out to give the dimension appearance, if you see what I mean, I did flat engraving, these look as though it is more, a bit like painting a Lexan body, where the foreground is done first deeper in the crystal

[Bob in SF]

Andy - here are a couple of view of the backside of the Reef scene scene.

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I rough out the background plane first, then continue carving through mid-ground up to the foreground, stopping when light and form seem right (and in a nick of time) - just a bunch of holes - carefully working negative space (sort of like arguments at home).

Best regards

[AndyW]

Ahh thanks for that Bob most appreciated....