lapidary at the "eerste Velpse stenenclub"

Today i went to finish the polishing of a couple of agates i was working on at the lapidary club in Velp, in the Netherlands. http://www.evsc.nl/
We are a group of 27 enthusiast who spend a reasonable amount of our time making raw stone in to gems...

there is like a 1000 years of different experience in the house, we all know our bit, together we are strong....!!

most of the members are over 50, years of searching for rocks, grinding them en polish them, into earrings, necklaces, into Broches or, as i do, i grind them round and leave parts raw, i love that way of polishing.
there are silversmiths and goldsmiths, there are specialists in faceting, we have all the things and equipment we need. true heaven for a Rockhound like me....!!
There are people who come once a month, people who want to come every day.
A very nice and gentle group of peoples...!!

today it was not so busy, maybe 8 other members where there, drinking coffee, talking about the next exhibition coming up in may. and doing the grinding washing, grinding more, washing, polishing, grinding some more and more... til the gem is finished...

i did some work on 3 agates i had lying around for a while... most of the work was already done,two weeks ago i did Finnish the 100 and 220 grain of diamond sanding belt, took me about 3 hours to get the job done, today..... first a dry 220 sanding belt on very high speed and after that the polish at 1500 and the ultimate polish at 15.000 with serum oxide... and at sight i was very pleased with my work..... but after taking photos i still can see some scratches so i have to return once more... it takes forever to do it right.... a good photo flash will reveal all the flaws of the work... urg....!!

and here some pictures of the ones i have to do in the future, if i find the time... to much rock lying around...!!

and after all that work.... they come home with me... and get their rightful place among the rest....