Stone - They're Not All Winners

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JohnGreco

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
740
Location
Sewell, NJ 08080
I've had a lot of people asking, either in threads or PM's, about my stone process. It's not easy and there's no book written on using real stone for pens (at least none that I've seen). A lot of it for me was trial and error starting back in November of last year, and while you've seen some of my successes, you haven't seen any of the failures.

This is my Staging bin. Staging, as in, 1 step away from the trash. This is where the rock cut-offs and blowouts go. I hold onto them for a while to see if I can figure out a way of salvaging them for another project, but otherwise they go in the trash (and as you can see, it's quite full!). Most blowouts are not salvageable and go straight to the trash.

My best advice if you want to work with stone (or anything else that is out of the norm) is to just experiment. What worked for me might not work for you. I love the inspiration the IAP has offered me as I came up a learning curve from starting pen turning a few years ago. I hope I can further inspire people to look at something and not be so quick to dismiss it as 'unturnable'. Give it a try!

What? Your first few attempts were failures? There's a great story about a professional tennis player, Vitas Gerulaitis. 16 times in a row he was defeated by his opponent Jimmy Connors. When Gerulaitis finally won, he proclaimed:

"And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."

If you've got your mind set on making something work, don't give up!
 

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Dick Mahany

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
323
Location
Palm Springs, CA
I'd call that stick-to-it-ivness. The ones that have made it are without equal and if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

That said, my scrap bucket is bigger than yours :wink:
 
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