cutting rose quartz for star effect?
339883
Asterism in quartz (as well as sapphire and ruby, which are both varieties of corundum) is caused by the presence of abundant microscopic needles of the mineral rutile that are oriented with their long axes parallel to the prism faces of the hexagonal crystals of these minerals.  The rutile needles preferentially reflect light relative to the matrix mineral.  Not all samples of rose quartz have rutile inclusions in sufficient number to create a "star".\n\nIf there are enough rutile inclusions, the "star" figure will be centered on the "c" axis of the the quartz or corundum crystal.  The "c" axis is the "long" axis that is parallel to (i.e., doesn't intersect) the 6 prism faces.  \n\nUnfortunately, unlike corundum, rose quartz does not form nice, large, euhedral (i.e., with nice faces) crystals, which makes it almost impossible to determine the crystallographic orientation of a piece of rose quartz from it's crystallographic morphology.  Furthermore, it's almost impossible to see the asterism in an unpolished piece.  Your best bet is to tumble the rough and look for asterism under a bright, single source of light.\n\nThe reference below discusses asterism in the context of corundum, but the same ideas also hold for rose quartz.
1073180
I made earrings out of guitar picks and to install the french wire I melted a hole at the pointy end with an awl/ice pick.  I heated up the metal tip of the awl on the gas stove and used it to melt a small hole in the guitar pick.  Cool idea, now I'll make a matching necklace!  Thanks!
292533
This is the best that I have found yet. Here is the link to the B&W actions, http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/TLRB&WConversion.htm .  Check out the rest of the site. The sharpening is also very good.
219409
I do.  It has to do with my religion.  \nHere's something you will like.  Feel free to use it and pass it on!\n\nMaking Rose Beads\nFirst thing to do is collect the rose petals in a brown paper bag sothey  don't get crushed. Optimum time is in the morning just after the dew has  dried. I guess early evening wouldn't hurt either but I don't know about  that. You can use petals that have dropped on the ground,i.e. after a rose  has 'exploded' as my kids say, but don't use any brown edges of the petals.  I just snip these off with scissors.Second, the way I used to do this was with mortar and pestle but now I use  a mini chopper. Take the rose petals, you can mix colors as they are all  going to turn to a dark shade of ebony anyway and you can mix scents too if  they are compatible, and put them in the chopper dish and chop until very  fine. Take out that bunch and put in a glass jar andcontinue chopping the  rest of the petals a dish full at a time. Put them all in a glass jar and  cover loosely.Third, the next day you can chop more fresh or slightly fresh petals then  add them to what is in the jar and process the whole bunch again. Continue  doing this for the next few days until you get at least a cup of rose petal  paste. Then start the process over with a new jar. This takes a lot of  paste.  Fourth, once you've got the paste to the consistency of playdough take a small amount and roll it in your hands to make a ball the size of agreen  pea. For this step you will also need a large sheet of cardboard,  I cut up  sides of cartons from grocery store, and some rust proof straight pins. Once  you have made the 'pea' stick a straight pin through it and stick this into  the cardboard but don't let the bead touch the cardboard.  Fifth, put them in an out of the way place as they have to dry untilhard.  This time varies depending on the amount of humidity in the airbut we have  AC in the summer so it is usually no longer than 3 or 4 days for me.  Sixth, once they have dried polish them with a soft lint free cloth, actually I have found that baby diapers work well, until they have a lustrous shine.  They will be dark, depending on the color of the petals some are very black  and some are a little shade of blackbut I have always mixed my Duets,  (very pink) Don Juans, (very red),and some smelly yellow ones that I don't  remember the name of.  Lastly, I use beading thread and a small eyed needle and string them inlong enough strands to go over a head, as I make them for different people,  knot the thread well, put a small dab of hot glue on the knot and you are  off and running. Every once in a while I polish them up with another rub  with a cloth, perhaps once or twice a year, and wheny ou wear these in the  summer months the fragrance of roses is pretty strong, not like being doused with perfume but you can tell they are there.  .A wonderful side benefit is that as you are making the paste your kitchen  will smell like roses for most of the day until you cook something with a  strong odor.
386803
I can't answer your question with absolute certainty, I apologise, but may have something to point you in the right direction...\nThere used to be a show on HGTV called Modern Masters- there was a metal artist on there once, the cut 1/2 inch wide copper strips, wove them into a 'fabric', carefully folded it and placed it into a kiln (1500? 1600? degrees f), he let it soak in the heat for a while (can't remember how long), then took it out and placed it into a water bath.  I think part of the colouring process might have come from the rapid cooling?  The piece had the colours you were looking for, as I recall.  \nI like the sound of what you're doing...hope it all works out for you...
550882
You can do it in a table\n<table border=1>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<img....>\n\nOr you can use a program like Fireworks or Photoshop that have plugins to do it for you.
148967
You could do gold "leafing" at home but most likely not gold elecroplating. Unless you plan to do a lot of plating, the equipment and chemicals required to electroplate would be cost prohibitive. Leafing on the other hand is easily mastered and done using common adhesives and gold leaf which are both available at any craft store.
171688
Are you sure it doesn't say "pres cut". If it does, that would be a brand of cut depression glass. I'm sure yahoo groups has a pottery/glass forum.
238502
yes you can use that method, however, you can't if you don't have a red rose already.  You must take a tissue (perferably the auxillary node) of a red rose plant and harvest that to grow the new red rose.
227707
yeah, if I could scratch it with a steel knife.  Pyrite would be flaky and would feel like glass almost. Gold would be soft and I could sink a knife into it a bit.  I don't know what silver feels like but I could tell it after I found the first two.
835412
Below are some good links to try.  You should get some good ideas there.\n\nFor the "fade out" at the bottom, I'd suggest an overlay of a Photoshop gradient.\n\nhttp://www.alohababyclothing.com/_borders/Pink_Hibiscus_Large.jpg\n\nhttp://image51.webshots.com/51/5/36/99/2165536990059706282oEfimQ_fs.jpg
1020277
Tiger's Eye (Alexandrite)\nIt's cool the way the gem is one color is indoor light and another color in sunlight.
96253
Calcite...my favorite mineral!!! (Calcium carbonate, get it?)\n\nHardness is the most obvious. Calcite is 3 on Moh's scale. Quite soft! and quartz is 7.\n\nA penny, a nail or knife, a glass plate, all will help you separate these two. The quartz will scratch everything there. \n\nOne more test, that I didn't put on your other list that is the best test here, the acid test. A dilute acid will fizz when applied to the calcite, while the quartz will not react at all. This is why all good geologists carry around a bottle of acid in the field. Quartz (sandstone) and calcite (limestone) can be deceptively similar in appearance. \n\nThese two are good examples of why you cannot rely on just color or shape. Both quartz and calcite come in a variety of colors, depending on the impurity, and both can be completely opaque.(Think of rose quartz, milky quartz, amethyst, etc, and realize that calcite has as much variety) Both can be very similar crystal shapes since they are both in the trigonal system. Both have a white streak. Both have a glassy (vitreous) luster. \nCalcite:\nhttp://webmineral.com/data/Calcite.shtml\nQuartz:\nhttp://webmineral.com/data/Quartz.shtml\n\nThere is one more online resource I think you should look at:http://www.mindat.org/\nWebmineral.com is better for the questions you have asked, but mindat.org is very comprehensive and will have photos of more variations of the minerals that might help you understand the challenge of picking which properties are best for which minerals. On a lab test, you may be given samples to test that you have never seen, and they may be minerals you have seen before but in a different form (yes- its a trick), so knowing your tests can save you.\n\nBy the way, I just noticed your question about why color should be used with caution for identifying minerals. I think this answer is a good example of that. Many minerals come in many different colors due to some small impurity in the mineral. Both quartz and calcite come in almost every color of the rainbow. Fluorite is another good example of a mineral that can come in many different colors. Other examples are the many copper compounds which come in various shades of blues and greens. Because there are so many different copper minerals with the same color you can't use the color as a diagnostic for any one of them.
432900
Red, orange and yellow felt squares from the craft store can fairly easily be cut into triangles, and then glued or tacked (with stitches) onto any old pair of jeans or sweats...This will look like flames.\nYou could do a similar effect with crepe paper (perhaps birthday party streamers?).
248880
This is a small barrel tumbler that comes with tumbling grit. To make it work, you should fill the barrel with about 1/4 inch of water, about 2/3 full of rocks and then grit. You want a mix of water and grit that doesn't just wash off of the stones when the barrel turns, so you want it to be a slurry consistency like a paste almost. The idea is to have the grit stick to the rocks. \n\nIdeally, you want to polish your rocks in steps, using progressively finer grit each time, and finally a polishing compound. You start with coarse grit, a second finer grit, a third grit, and a polishing step. Each step may take as long as a week of tumbling. \n\nSand is a very poor tumbling grit, and will take much more tumbling time to produce the same result, plus you cannot use sand for any rock that is not softer than quartz, and many attractive tumbled rocks are some variety of quartz. \n\nHere is a detailed explanation:\nhttp://www.gemservice.com/lapidary.htm
115179
Doing this with an unamplified human voice is very hard, no matter what you use.  Basically, you'll need the thinnest, mosy fragile design you can find, and a very powerful diaphram.  Did you see the episode of Mythbusters where they did it?  They found a professional singer who could do it, but only after trying a couple dozen different glasses.  As far as what kind of crystal, I'm afraid I don't know that.  But ultimately, this will be much easier with an amplification system.
775728
you dont have to use a crystal pendulum, you can use brass, gemstones or if you can get those you can use a ring. just cleanse it and charge it for your chakras. you can get a good reading from that as well. also you can get gemstones to match your chakras and use the pendulum on those to see what chakras need "help" the you can get a tuning fork that is tuned to the "OHM" sound and balance your chakras that way.