Encasing Stones in Boro?

[Corrin520]

I know most precious stone shave too much moisture to encase in boro, but opals and moldavite work. What else do you suggest would work? Maybe Fire Agate???

[istandalone24/7]

utfsf. tons of threads and info on this already.

[istandalone24/7]

search "encasing gemstones"

[Matt P]

theres a few threads listed at the bottom of this page under "similar threads" that could be useful.

oh, and the only reason we're encasing "opals" into boro is because they're synthetic laboratory opals.

[olddog]

Natural opals have a lot of moisture in them.

[Aymie]

I am not going to search for you but I have contributed to numerous threads on this subject, and may have even started on if that helps in your hunting.

I will say this. You are messing with serious stuff when you heat rocks like this. I have produced sulfur gas and crystals and it fogged up the whole studio and was very frightening. Research the make up of any rocks you want to try, a d possible effects of breathing the resulting gases, or touching the resulting elements.

Also, hardness level and quartz content seem to be the key to what I can successfully encase.

[istandalone24/7]

yup....i was gonna try and encase some amethyst, topaz and the like but i've read it's very problematic. and the stones almost never look the same encased....they off gas and bubble a lot.

[Aymie]

Both of those will change color. Amethyst turns to heat treated citrine in the 3-500 degree range. I have done it in my kiln, but I imagine you could do it in an oven. My experience with any and all quartz is that it turns clear in the end. Maybe amethyst will turn purple again and the make up is similar to amber purple, but I am totally talking out of my ass with that and have no knowledge of the make up of either. I had a piece of blue topaz that I set in the center of a flower, and it turned clear, maybe the faintest hint of pink.

[Greymatter Glass]

I heard Aymie turns a crispy brown and red at about 350ºF

[Aymie]

I am best when slow cooked at 150 for several hours.

[menty666]

Wouldn't that turn you into jerky?

[LarryC]

I am best when slow cooked at 150 for several hours.

....And marinated beforehand :)

[Greymatter Glass]

I am best when slow cooked with 151 for several hours.

...fixed that for ya...

[Aymie]

That's much better. Thanks.

[Corrin520]

I know the opals are synthetic for use in boro. So theoretically any stone could work as long as its a synthesized version of it?? Just playing around with these ideas in my mind right now not on the torch quite yet.

[menty666]

I know the opals are synthetic for use in boro. So theoretically any stone could work as long as its a synthesized version of it?? Just playing around with these ideas in my mind right now not on the torch quite yet.

Not really, keep in mind it's not just the whole 'exploding from moisture' problem, you're also looking at the COE differences, plus some stuff simply burns at those temps.

[nodice]

You can put stones in hollow glass.......

[skip]

I throw stones in hollow glass house and UV glue to fix everything