gem stones...

[Waffles]

encase quartz, it looks cool as shit, tekites look cool to. preheat rocks to offgas them

[Greymatter Glass]

I just toilet encased last nights Chinese food... off to encapsulate some breakfast burrito...

[Aymie]

Corinne has successfully and cleanly encased natural opals. I will see if I can dig up a picture. I have had success with small cz's. Very small though. And pyrite works but the stink is the sulpher burning out and you are left with a chunk of iron. When I tried it the sulpher crystalized on the walls of the tube, smoked like a son of a bitch, and smelled like the worst egg fart ever.

I have a friend who does small snail shells and they are awesome.

No one seems to have mentioned labradorite. It works inside and if preheated can be attached to the outside.

[SeñorPyro]

Aymie, does your labradorite retain chatoyancy? I haven't found any that does yet, the sample i tried all turned grey.

and you hit the nail on the head with pyrite. a lot of sulfur ores/minerals will boil out. also, watch out for lead containing ores/minerals like wulfenite. i would highly suggest not trying to encase wulfenite due to the heavy lead exposure. just my two cents. might save you some medical bills down the line.

[Aymie]

It turned gray and rusty but reteined sparkle.

[SeñorPyro]

interesting, the stuff i tried was gray and rusty allright. but at least you got some sparkle. maybe it can be coupled with another mineral for better color, maybe something copper based like malachite were you get some nice fume.

re: the snail shells, are they fossilized? I've tried a few but they quickly vaporized.

[Aymie]

The shells we just tiny snail shells from his yard. Not sure how he got it to work.

[smolder holder]

I've tried shells collected from the ocean and they just disintigrated. Now encasing kittens on the other hand......

[Chris Vargas]

I've tried shells collected from the ocean and they just disintigrated. Now encasing kittens on the other hand......

lol... i saw that kittens in a bubble post... not so sure about that

[sertaiz]

what about just encasing the kitten for a minute as a demonstration on heat bases. aha.

[Bonz manifest]

re: the original post - amethyst is a type of quartz. typically, quartz can be encased with various outcomes. usually amethyst, citrine and other types of colored quartz lose their color and become cloudy when being encased. some don't like how it looks, others do, just preference. i second GreyMatter mostly except I do encase garnet, magnetite and real opals. the trick with magnetite (and most other iron bearing minerals) is that you need a really low temp so as to not boil out the iron. the trick to real opals are....welll...i can't give that one away...but it can be done.

about the other post, there are hundreds of minerals that can be encased despite what many say. I devote my glassblowing career to encasement of gems, minerals and extraterrestrial rocks. PM if you want more of an idea of what works (or doesn't).

and one last note, sometimes a certain mineral from one location in the world won't work, whereas the same mineral from a different location will. try multiple samples from various locations before you declare a certain mineral won't work. you would probably be surprised how different different samples can act.

"devote ur glassblowing career to encased gems"/.. thats cool, i would love to see ur work, where can i see ur stuff?

[SeñorPyro]

Here's some old stuff. I have a bunch on new products being photographed now, and getting posted soon. This work is kinda stale, I've been working with totally different stones and some new techniques lately. Keep an eye out for the new stuff. Cheers!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73607445...glass-cabochon

http://www.senorpyro.com/node/38

http://www.glassartists.org/SenorPyro

[Boozeclues]

Step #1



step #2 Condense

step #3 $$$

[themoch]

Dear god... i always love step #3... it's always my favorite step

[FredLight]

I encased a fossilized Ammonite and made a marble with it to see if it would work. The guy that gave me the Ammonite bet me that it would work. If it worked, I told him he could have it.

He said put it in the kiln at 300F and take it out when it gets to 400F. I did that and successfully encased the Ammonite.

Since he was right, I gave it to him. I was not happy, but I handed it over.

About a month ago, he asked if I could fix it. I laughed and said any checks deep down would be irreparable. He said, " no checking, it split in half."

It stayed together for over 6 years with no signs of checking.

While we discussed it, he recalled how he loved how it looked like an opal. I said "like rainbow colors?"

He said "yeah, the shell's surface had a rainbow sheen".

I can only guess that was a sign of major stress.

[jac1961]

I was going to ask the doctor if they'd save my gallstones to see if someone could encase some in a marble... but then the thought of it grossed me out too much.