For some reason I started noticing a lot of feathers on the ground this autumn. And started taking photos, not exactly knowing why. Through a long chain of associations (including Lennie Gallant, Wild Hunt and fairies) it transformed in this - a story about someone escaping the hunters, pulling the arrow from the wound and flying away. Because fuck them. And because I need hope
My half of an art trade with @whitewingedcrow, from a while back.
Stone is either black agate or black jasper, I have forgotten which one — will have to go back through my notes to find out. Measures just a bit over 4cm tall not including the jump-ring, just under 3cm wide, and about 7mm at the thickest part.
The symbol was sandblasted into the stone, then filled in with a slurry of glow powder mixed into clear porcelain varnish. I did the fill in stages because it would shrink a bit each time it dried, and sometimes there would be large air bubbles that needed patching. When I had it built up high enough I used a razor blade to shave it down flush with the stone's surface. After baking it to fuse the varnish/powder mix to the stone I hit it with a few layers of clear-coat on the painted bits.
I like how the daytime colour of the glow powder and the minuscule air bubbles that you can never entirely get rid of give the painted areas the look of bone. It is very fitting for the character this symbol represents.
Top photo is in daylight (by which I really mean my desk lamp). Lower left photo is under UV light, and lower right photo is in the dark after charging up the glow powder. The exact hue of the glow does vary a little bit depending on how long since last charge (and depending on individual monitor settings it might not be displaying true to real life on every particular device).
I have a major surgery coming up and the date got bumped up to Dec 15th. (I'm likely going to be fine they just have to remove some stuff and I'm not gonna be able to work for a few weeks.)
I don't have the energy to list these all on etsy right now so they're all Pay What You Want + Shipping (Usually like 5$ if you live in the USA) until Dec 13th.
Payment info:
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/hshinai
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/dnacademic
Cashapp: $hshinai
Venmo: @ hauntedshinai
If you want me to make a custom etsy listing for you to buy them I can also do that: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alchemodel
If you don't want to buy anything and can't donate then reblogs help. If you want better photos of an object then feel free to message me. Most of these are meant to be like protection/lucky talismans and if you want deets you can ask me.
Info about the materials under the cut. I'll cross them out or something when they're sold:
CORD/CHAIN INFO
Black string with lobster clasp, semi adjustable ~22" long.
Black leather with lobster clasp, semi adjustable ~18" long
Stainless steel chains in 18", 20", and 24"
If you need another lengths, I have some copper-toned chain that can be cut to any length. If you want the custom sized chain, I also have copper-colored lobster clasps that are larger than the average size if you have a hard time using the regular ones.
MATERIALS
All pendants are wrapped with copper wire. The ones that have silver-toned or gold-toned wire are wrapped with plated copper.
Moons: (about 4-5cm long. warning these can be on the heavier side for amulets)
M1 - Dyed sapphire cabochon along with beads of tiger eye, cat's eye, agate, shell, moonstone, and an aura quartz point
My Xisuma gemcyt design on a sheet. Originally I was gonna have both him and Evil X in one post but I had too many thoughts.
the whole gemcyt au got kicked off by @chrisrin so make sure to check out their stuff and all the stuff they reblogged if you haven't already.
Variation of the sheet above but with more notes below the cut.
Alright. Originally I had just been searching for gems to be potentially fusions as I was planning to do a ZIT and/or ZITS fusion, then noticed that tango and impulse don't have a fusion yet. (tango and skizz don't either, and there's no ITS yet, but whatever)
I was scrolling through potential gems and stumbled upon the existence of purpurite. And there's all the theories of Xisuma being a voidwalker or something and having the mask bc end air is thinner and the overworld atmosphere is too thick, etc etc. But like! Purpurite like how there's purpur blocks in the end. And xisuma's two main colors are purple and green and purpurite is apparently purple and green! I had to make him as a purpurite!
His outfit is trying to adapt his skin/the doomguy armor into a gem style. Xisuma himself is essentially shaped based on Holly Blue Agate since that or jadeite seemed like the most similar gem (ish), and i couldn't see him looking like a jade. Also there was another agate on the show that looked more like the various jaspers that had been corrupted, so there is variety in shape anyway!
I almost have him green spot markings, but they just never looked good, so he doesn't have them. Maybe I'd try again to try and match with Evil X's markings, but maybe the opposites are fine.
Instead of a regular gem weapon, he has a mask. And while it was never confirmed, the main theory about Garnet's glasses is that they're Sapphire's 'weapon'. Plus, Jasper had a helmet, so straight up weapon isn't necessary. I'm planning to do an extra sheet for both of the 'sumas, and for Xisuma it will probably show how he emotes even with him wearing the mask 24/7. If you've seen the Fool's Gold series by Dingodoodles, I imagine it vaguely similar to how Gothi emotes.
And finally, the x's. Like, the x shaped on his outfit/form/whatever. I have it similar to how Rose has the star around her gem. It's just that X has an x around his gem as a cutout from his cuff glove bracer thing. Originally, it was just that his backside felt empty and I wanted something there, so I put another x on the back, but then I got ideas and now there is a very good reason why he also has one there. But I'm not covering that here.
And the actual last part is that the sheet mentions its from Cabochon Cut. I'm actually working on a one shot under that title that I will hopefully post tomorrow. Hopefully. We'll see.
Oh, right, I never posted these! Here are the rocks I acquired at my last rock show!
This big sparkly girl with the bottle green, glassy appearance is vivianite, a rock which is just as fragile as it looks! Vivianite has some really cool properties. It begins as a colorless mineral, but as soon as it’s exposed to light, it undergoes a chemical reaction that turns it this blue-green color. As long as it’s exposed to light, this chemical reaction will continue, and the crystals will turn darker and darker until they’re completely black. Another cool thing about vivianite is that it exhibits pleochroism, meaning the crystals look more green or more blue depending on the angle you view them at.
This funky-shaped sparkly girl is a scepter quartz! Scepter quartz occurs when a younger crystal begins growing on the tip of an older one, resulting in a big crystal perched atop a skinny one, like the jewel atop a scepter! This scepter is a smoky amethyst with some really cool stuff going on inside. My favorite detail is those red spots, which are caused by needle-like crystals of hematite growing inside the quartz!
This is the third meteorite to join my collection! This piece fell to Earth about four to five thousand years ago in northern Argentina. Its melted appearance is because the heat of entering Earth’s atmosphere actually caused it to melt! Campo del Cielo meteorites are iron-nickel meteorites, made from a metal alloy called meteoric iron. (Ok, so, not to go off on a tangent but meteoric iron is really cool stuff, historically. See, iron doesn’t occur on planet Earth in its native, metallic form. It’s always bound up in ores and has to be processed. But native iron does occur in the vacuum of space, and sometimes that iron falls to Earth as meteors, so the only iron that Bronze Age people had access to before the advent of iron smelting was from meteors. They made some really cool stuff with it. Did you know that Tutankhamen was buried with a dagger made from meteoric iron?)
This fossil boy is a slab of turritella agate! It comes from a fossil deposit in Wyoming called the Green River Formation. Those white shapes are the fossilized shells of turritella sea snails encased in chert. These shells were once buried at the bottom of an ancient ocean! Because of the cool patterns their cross sections make, turritella slabs like this one are used by lapidary artists to cut cabochons for jewelry.
Speaking of cool agates, here’s a neat little fire agate! This piece came from the southwestern United States. That metallic, rainbow iridescence (or “fire”) is caused by alternating layers of goethite and limonite, which form as botryoidal bubbles encased in translucent chalcedony. Fire agate is one of the coolest forms of agate, because it’s so incredibly rare! The only place in the world where it’s found is an area from central Mexico up through California and Arizona, where it was formed during ancient volcanic activity.
Here’s another cool agate! This is Aztec purple lace agate, which comes from Mexico. I don’t think they’re mining it out anymore (actually, it hasn’t been mined for a long time), so this is pretty scarce stuff! It doesn’t photograph well, so trust me when I say that this piece is much purpler in person. Other than that, I don’t know much about it!
Also very purple and also from Mexico is this Coyamito agate! Note the super cool hexagon shape. Coyamito agate is known for its pseudomorph formations: it replaces other minerals and grows in their shape. That’s rare in agate, but super common in the Coyamito agate deposit! In this case, the agate was growing in the hollow left behind by a hexagonal crystal.
Here’s something I’ve been wanting to add to my collection for a long time! This dignified boy is royal imperial jasper, possibly my absolute favorite kind of jasper. (And unlike most of the rocks the crystal healing crowd likes to slap the word “jasper” on, he’s actually a real jasper!) We’re seeing in cross-section what’s known as an “egg” formation, the result of a jasper nodule which started small and then grew outward in uneven layers. Changes in the environment during the formation of each layer resulted in all these different colors! This piece is also from Mexico.
And finally (drumroll please), it’s time for opals! As is tradition, I came home from the show with three brand new Ethiopian opals. Here they are!
Opal number one! Beautiful! Subtle and refined! 10/10!
Opal number two! Stunning! A style all her own! Her birthmarks really add warmth and color to the overall presentation.
Opal number three, the Big Girl. Gorgeous! Full of fireworks! What a wonderful sparkly girl!