Couple of Intarsia pieces

[mickey]

Here are the last two intarsia pieces that I've made.


Honduran opal, howlite, flame agate, noreena jasper, obsidian


Chicken track jasper, howlite, sodalite, brown jasper, agatized dinosaur bone

[DigDug]

wow! How thin are they?

[mickey]

The top one is 5mm and the second one is 6mm.

[arappaho]

Great Pieces, Mickey!
Makes my head hurt thinking about all the work involved.

Joe

[Ryan]

They really are beautiful. That must be such a precise art. Looks like they fit together absolutely perfectly. Nice stuff! You sell those?

[sophia]

Really beautiful work! Very good straight lines and good harmonious color choices in your stones. Especially effective are the choices for the "frames"

[mickey]

Arapaho, these do take quite a bit of work to make. Both of these pieces are polished on the front and back. Cutting slabs, trimming pieces, grinding and polishing can take hours to days depending on the size and hardness of the material.

Ryan, While I have given a few away, I have not tried selling any so far. I make these because I enjoy the hobby and have to do something with all the rock that I've collected over the years.

Sophia, Thanks for the compliments. Every time I finish a lapidary project, there are always different parts that aren't right. Whether it's the technical work, the choice of stone, or the design, there's almost always something that I don't like. Sometimes I know what it is and sometimes I don't. Constructive criticism, good or bad, is always appreciated.

[andyeatsrocks]

Amazing! Great work!!!

[Ryan]

Well in my humble opinion, you could easily sell those. They are amazing to look at as both art and as mineral specimins. Maybe mounted as a necklace, bola, hair-piece or a broach, I couldnt see you (at perhaps a craft show or mineral show) taking any less than $25-$50 per piece. (and maybe thats even low-balling it) Im really impressed.

[crowsnake]

I'd say $25-50 is low balling it all the way to china.

[tracey]

Amazing talent, such lovely, unique pieces!

[Ryan]

I figured Crowsnake, I would have no idea what those are worth and mean NOT to insult the artist with my estimates. I am just speculating on value keeping in mind what I have seen at Art-festivals we have around the city and what portion of the market is interested in hand crafted goods; I also intended $25-50 to serve as a starting point rather than a limit. The precision of the work in those pieces is amazing. I can easily see things like that exceeding $60-100 if there is a market for them.
For instance, my aunt makes little early 1900's replica paper mache' christmas houses for under the tree, she sells them at craft shows for $20 or so. But there wasnt much of a market for them. She put them online with a little website and now they are selling in the $40-50 range.
Handmade goods are seldom sold for what they are really worth. Some people just dont appreciate the finesse neccesary to make an item like these lovely stone pieces. I guess to come up with an accurate estimate of market value on these, I would need a comparison to a similar piece that was for sale somewhere. However, as another compliment to the artist, these are quite unique :-)

[mickey]

Thanks for all the posts on these two pieces. Ryan, I am not insulted by your remarks on prices. Intarsia and faceted stones made overseas can reflect a labor market with which we cannot compete. I do try to make fairly unique pieces realizing that the love of the hobby is the reason for the effort and not the monetary gain. I post the photos here hoping that others will enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoy making them. I do not take artistic or technical comments as insults either. So if anyone wants to jump in and say what they would have done differently, then I would appreciate the feedback.
Mickey

[Ryan]

Well, the whole reason I was speculating on price is because if I saw these at a show, I would purchase one of these for my collection. Mainly I was just curious as to what one pays for something like this. I really like the second one best. It kindve looks like a little framed picture. Sand dunes or a beach maybe? I enjoy the color combinations. I am a hobby oil painter and do graphic design for my company so I can appreciate and enjoy color and color schemes and appreciate other artists choices. Your choices in color are limited by the stone from which you work and I feel you have a good eye for that based on these two. If I were to criticize anything I would feel I am overstepping my bounds as I cant facet, cab, or anything. Basically, I have no right to criticize someones skill in which I have zero experience. I can only say I like something or I dont. In this case, I like. ;D I would like to also see more. Post em if you got em Mickey.

[Ryan]

Just wanted to post this. I mentioned I like to paint so here is a painting I made last summer after a trip to the Franklin and Asheville areas. The mountains inspire me and I wanted to try to capture what I liked about them in oil. I had several photos of mountains I could have painted from but rather just pulled a memory out of my head and tried to paint it instead. To some, this might look good, to a more experienced artist, it may look like crap.
Bottom line is this: With art, how "good or bad" something is will always be a subjective opinion. I enjoy your intarsia pieces, they look good to me. Also, when looking for criticizm, remember artists ALWAYS find flaw with their own work. You've had the most time to look at it and tear it apart. Most people speak highly of paintings I think totally suck.

[crowsnake]

The only reason I thought the ball was low, Ryan, was because of the ancient saying - time is money - which it is if you're a skilled tradesman, shoe cobbler, artist, gem cutter etc. So if a job takes two days to complete, and you divide $25 by 16 hours give or take you'll roughly be earning nothing in this country. And on top of the value of a skilled craftsman's time there is the value of the materials used and the uniqueness of the final piece.

Of course the time is money rule doesn't work with hobby rock hounding because a broken crystal that takes eight hours to extract isn't worth a nickel.

Thanks for posting the painting. I also spend some time painting landscapes from memory. The only one I ever sold I didn't really sell but traded for a sweet Diamond Hill amethyst point. I'd say a good painting or intarsia piece is worth how ever many hours it took to complete, an abstract value of how long it took to learn to do that, and what it's worth to the artist personally. Amen, happy hunting, good luck, merry christmas and happy belated birthday!

[Ryan]

Wow, now I am really confused. I googled "intarsia stone" and saw everything from $20 pieces up to $1600!! I guess I didnt realize the high price some of this stuff commands! I read about some Thai or vietnamese guy who makes amazing little pictures with his stuff. To say the least, this looks like a labor of love. You'd have to love doing it to pursue such a precise and delicate art.

[gsellis]

Ryan, 1600 is not the top. Check out Nicholai Medvedev. This is one of the more expensive ones I remember.

www.northamericangemcarvers.com/nagc/pages/image_template.php?&itemName=NM-P1

There are some more expensive ones too.

[Ryan]

Blahahahahahah!!! Indeed! What does anyone have on this planet that they would need to keep in a $130,000 box! The Holy Grail perhaps? Wow, that floored me. To be honest though, it IS truly beautiful. The box in and of itself is a treasure, regardless of contents. Mickey, would you consider sending me a PM with a ballpark figure of what you would ask for that second piece? I understand it may not even be for sale, I am just very curious. If not, thats cool too.

[CrossfireBusiness]

you two have some awesome artwork ...!!!! wow amazing !!!!