Alchemy Stones: The Challenge of Drilling in Extremely Hard Materials
Sidetracking...
Since not everybody is interested in owning a painted rock, one of the ways we've been trying to expand the scope of Alchemy Stones is by offering versions of the stones that are a little bit more ”functional.”
I've previously written a bit about how we have turned particularly flat stones into pendants you can wear as jewelry, and whereas these have been well received they do present their own set of challenges, at the "production" end of the situation.
For one, we have to find stones that are extremely flat/thin as well as extremely smooth so they are suitable for painting in great detail. Of course they can't be too big, because very few people are willing to wear a heavy ”anchor” around their neck!
Another difficulty I have encountered with these kinds of stones is that the very smooth ones also tend to be from extremely hard types of stone.
This presents a challenge because the most effective way to turn a stone into a pendant is to drill a hole in it through which we can either put a jump ring for those who wish to use their own chain, or we can attach some kind of cord or chain of our own.
With one of our big summer events only a couple of months away I need to be putting a lot of effort into creating items that people can easily take with them, and visualize themselves owning, at what is essentially a music festival. Hence the importance of developing the "wearables" line further.
And this is where I am discovering that the single most time consuming part of the creation process is actually drilling a nice clean small-diameter hole through a supremely hard stone.
Now, I should hasten to add that there might be those out there who have great ideas for drilling holes in stone that involves specialized equipment… but a large part of the point here is that we don't have much of a budget. So the real option here is basically to use one of my rotary drilling tools, diamond tip drills and then drilling the holes by hand.
It is time consuming — and somewhat expensive — because the drills wear out rather quickly in hard materials. Plus, the drilling has to be done underwater to keep the drill from overheating and shattering.
Yes, I have gone through this process in the past, but the difference this time is that I am trying to drill holes in 50-60 stones rather than the previous two or three experimental pieces. I've pictured a few of them to go with this post.
So, I'm starting this as a bit of a progress journal as I experiment with different ways of drilling holes in the stones in the most efficient way. I would really like to be able to have a nice selection of these "wearable" stones ready for the music festival.
Stay tuned for more!
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