Polishing Jade Eyes
For a Jade Weta I planned to use the same type of Pounamu for both the head and the eyes (my darkest Pounamu) but when floating ideas realised I needed to make the eyes really pop. The natural way to do this is to polish the eyes to a good shine but leave the head satin.
Since I prefer to leave most of my work with a satin finish the finish on these eyes gave me the opportunity to try out some new techniques.
This one worked really well.
(1) I glued a small piece of hardwood (Rata) onto metal shaft and turned it till it was round.
(2) I then ground a concave dish in the surface.
(3) I put some loose silicon carbide grit – 280ish on the eye and with the burr in my handpiece slowly rounded the eye off.
(4)I repeated this process with a new wooden burr (to stop cross contamination between grits) + 360 diamond paste from Mountain Mist.
I’ll make some more burrs up and take it up to high shine but I’m really pleased with these trials.
More soon
Aaron
