At the request of Juliet76 I'm finally gonna put this thread up of what I've been doing of late. I've been working with wood more than I think I ever have in the past (jewelry wise) and I've also been experimenting with making some micartas.
Micarta, for those of you who are interested, is a loose term for a composite material composed of layers of fabric (usually canvas or linen) or paper impregnated with resin and compression bonded into a solid block of material. It has existed since the mid 19th century and is used today for electrical insulation, aerospace applications, piping supports, and for its aesthetic allure in pool cues, gun grips, knife handles, guitar fretboards & bridges, counter tops, and some tabletops. It is a strong and usually easily carvable material. Fiberglass and carbon fiber structures fall into this category and is where we see the most use of micartas today in the industrial world; Indycar bodies and 787 wings made of carbon fiber can be described as being micarta structures.
For what I do though, I've been using mainly canvas because it proves easier to carve than anything else thus far. But I will be experimenting with fiberglass and other fabrics very soon and will let you know how the results turn out. Maybe I'll even do a carbon fiber/Kevlar or fiberglass/carbon fiber. I'll soon find out how these ones work out. But for now I'll leave you with these:
Here's the most recent one, made of oak and the darker is either incredibly dense oak or Indonesian poplar (it was advertised as oak but looks way different so I'm not for sure)
Top Front:
Back:
The spiral goes 3/4 the way around. Teak oiled for strength and lacquered for high gloss.
This next one is canvas drop cloth (the white) and some fabric that I cut off of the back of a couch that was sticking out of a dumpster.
Still lacquering this one to a high gloss finish.
That scrap of fabric that I cut was one of those multicolored strip jawns so I have the luxury of being able to pick some colors
This next one is alternating copper color and natural. The flash makes this one seem way lighter than it is under normal light. The fabric uses a black warp so it gets dark to near black when the fabric gets resined. This one's been lacquered to a high gloss and has a bit of brass tubing in it for a chain guide.
This next one was about 3 of the solid green stripes from that couch fabric.
Also lacquered to a high gloss.
And the first one that I did about 2 weeks ago: an earring (about an 8-10 gauge)!
It's that same dense dark wood as the first one. Also oiled for strength and lacquered for high gloss.
There were 2 others that I'll try to have my sister send me pics of cuz stupidly I sold them to her before I took any decent pictures of them.
These ones are all just over an inch across their major axis and make good pendants. They are also all for sale (and cheap!) so PM me if you want to acquire one and it'll be in the mail to you straightaway.
Micarta, for those of you who are interested, is a loose term for a composite material composed of layers of fabric (usually canvas or linen) or paper impregnated with resin and compression bonded into a solid block of material. It has existed since the mid 19th century and is used today for electrical insulation, aerospace applications, piping supports, and for its aesthetic allure in pool cues, gun grips, knife handles, guitar fretboards & bridges, counter tops, and some tabletops. It is a strong and usually easily carvable material. Fiberglass and carbon fiber structures fall into this category and is where we see the most use of micartas today in the industrial world; Indycar bodies and 787 wings made of carbon fiber can be described as being micarta structures.
For what I do though, I've been using mainly canvas because it proves easier to carve than anything else thus far. But I will be experimenting with fiberglass and other fabrics very soon and will let you know how the results turn out. Maybe I'll even do a carbon fiber/Kevlar or fiberglass/carbon fiber. I'll soon find out how these ones work out. But for now I'll leave you with these:
Here's the most recent one, made of oak and the darker is either incredibly dense oak or Indonesian poplar (it was advertised as oak but looks way different so I'm not for sure)
Top Front:
Back:
The spiral goes 3/4 the way around. Teak oiled for strength and lacquered for high gloss.
This next one is canvas drop cloth (the white) and some fabric that I cut off of the back of a couch that was sticking out of a dumpster.
Still lacquering this one to a high gloss finish.
That scrap of fabric that I cut was one of those multicolored strip jawns so I have the luxury of being able to pick some colors
This next one is alternating copper color and natural. The flash makes this one seem way lighter than it is under normal light. The fabric uses a black warp so it gets dark to near black when the fabric gets resined. This one's been lacquered to a high gloss and has a bit of brass tubing in it for a chain guide.This next one was about 3 of the solid green stripes from that couch fabric.
Also lacquered to a high gloss.
And the first one that I did about 2 weeks ago: an earring (about an 8-10 gauge)!
It's that same dense dark wood as the first one. Also oiled for strength and lacquered for high gloss.
There were 2 others that I'll try to have my sister send me pics of cuz stupidly I sold them to her before I took any decent pictures of them.
These ones are all just over an inch across their major axis and make good pendants. They are also all for sale (and cheap!) so PM me if you want to acquire one and it'll be in the mail to you straightaway.
