I finished taking the last of my notes for my Beatles class last night, and that meant that after I finished getting the struts replaced on the hatch of my VUE this morning, my day was free to explore Faux Bone. I decided I wanted to do two pairs of earrings layering three rectangles of Faux Bone on a dangling sterling silver wire. I wanted to do some very simple carving on the Faux Bone, but nothing super detailed.
I may have some pictures to show later of my first attempts at working with this stuff. I tried to set up my tripod with my camera on “continuous” but after a while the frustration of working with the Faux Bone took over and I couldn’t have cared less about pictures.
Yes, I got frustrated. Not to say that I don’t like working with the material. I was frustrated at my lack of experience with tools. Obviously the “Industrial Arts” class I took in the 8th grade was a waste of time. That or I’m just old.
Anyhoo. After setting up the camera with all good intentions of having a sort of picture tutorial to share with you, I sat down and attempted to attach my V-slot vise on the table. First snafu: The metal vise part wasn’t big enough to fit on the card table that is now my “dirty work” table. Great. Safety issue #1.
My desire to work and master Faux Bone kicked in. To heck with it, I don’t need no stinking vise. I pressed on. I inserted the first new blade into my new jewelry saw.
Though Robert from Robert’s Real Faux Bone states you don’t need wax to use a jeweler’s saw on the stuff, I followed the advice of the lady at the lapidary store. I ran the blade through the wax. Excitement was building. I gingerly placed the blade at the pencil mark I made on the Faux Bone, and tilting it about 30 degrees, I began sawing.
I honestly tried to keep in mind the other advice from the lady at the lapidary store: let the blade do the work.
Shyeeaah. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.
By the time I sawed almost two inches of the lenght of the Faux Bone, I was on my third blade. And it had been about 45 minutes.
Oh yee of little patience.
I sat there pondering my dilemma. Hubby is in Cali til tomorrow. That left my neighbor Bob. Bob lays tile, but not just any ol tile. He does artistic stuff. The compass he laid on his foyer floor is to die for. He has tools. He luuuvvvvssss tools. Bob can help me make this process go just a tad quicker.
I placed a call to hubby to let him know I needed to improve my tool situation, and I trekked over to Bob’s. He was happy to help. He got out some nifty little small hand-held saw, whipped out a block of wood to lay my Faux Bone on, and in no time he cut my 3/4″ X 8″ strip of Faux Bone for me. We talked about Dremel tools for a bit, and he loaned me a blade for Hubby’s dremel (not knowing immediately what was in our case out in the garage) and I went back home. I went into the garage, and got out Hubby’s Dremel. Sure enough, we had the same blade, so I didn’t need to use Bob’s.
Back upstairs to the studio. I put together the Dremel, getting nervous. I don’t normally use power tools of any type. It’s not my job in the house, and I get more nervous because Hubby gives me such a hard time about being a klutz. So I imagine him there, getting all snippy about what I’m doing, and I get more nervous.
No.no.no. Get that evilness out of my head. Just do it. I took the Dremel and cut 3/4″ pieces from the long strip. Part way through the first piece, it became incredibly clear: a mask and goggles are necessary. Hubby has goggles somewhere in the garage, but I know we don’t have any masks. I pushed onward, and by the time I got my eight 3/4″ pieces of Faux Bone, I was covered in PVC-esque dust particles. My black sweater was snow white. After that, I took a cone shaped file and sanded the sides of the pieces a little more evenly. More whiteness on my face and my black sweater. I then took a round sanding bit and sanded the fronts and backs to rough up the shiny finish.
It was time to start doing the carving. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I first grabbed an embossing tool to see if any kind of marks could be made in the Faux Bone. Not so much. Hmmm. Ok. Let’s try the Exacto knife. That made marks, obviously, but it would have taken forever to do what I wanted to do. Hmmm. Ok. Dremel tool to the rescue again. Hubby had a small bit that would do terrifically in carving lines in the Faux Bone.
On each piece I made groups of angled cuts with the small bit. Originally I thought each one had to match, but I decided having each piece with its own design of angled cuts would be better. Once the cuts were made (and my nails shredded!), it was time to start sanding again for a nice finish.
I used sandpaper of 250, 320 and 600 grit. The documentation for Faux Bone says that even after you use the 600 paper, flip that paper over and rub the piece on the back. For some reason this gives a final sheen to the Faux Bone. I did so, and sure enough, there was a sheen on it that I couldn’t get before.
One of the recommendations also was to use shoe polish (not shoe creme) to color the ivory. Having seen the gorgeous pieces on Faux Bone, I grabbed Hubby’s shoe polish from his valet and I’ve colored two of the pieces, one in brown and one in black. I have to say I like the brown better, though I don’t quite get how the carvings on the Faux Bone site are blackened without affecting the entire piece, which is what happened with mine. I also found that I had to grab the Exacto knife and make some slight cuts in each of the carved grooves to give the shoe polish a deeper place to get embedded.
Once I rubbed the polishes off the pieces, I again sanded them to remove some of the intensity of the color and bring back the white. That seemed to work pretty well, but I still prefer the brown over the black.
I stopped after coloring and sanding only two of the eight pieces.
In the end, I like the material. The issues I had today solely revolve around my lack of experiences around machinery. Having said that, I won’t stop here. I’m hoping to finish these pieces this weekend, drill holes in each of them, and make these earrings.
I’d like to thank Hubby for his contributions to this endeavor, though he isn’t here to actively contribute.
My apologies for the lack of photos–it’s rather hard to photograph yourself under these circumstances–but I will photograph the final product.
Be BOLD.
Miachelle
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