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Wyrdhaven — Antler Staff Head with Malachite
Published: 2011-11-19 15:17:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 5326; Favourites: 181; Downloads: 65
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Description
More photos are posted here on my Tumblr to avoid flooding my gallery with all the angles of this staff: [link]This is a Sweet Gum staff, with wood harvested by me from my mother-in-law's land. It has been aged and dried for over a year before working, so it's very stable and will not crack or warp like greenwood staffs will.
I started by carefully removing the top layers of the bark to show the smooth reddish brown underlayer, which I then sanded smooth and finished with hot beeswax, hand buffed to a satin polish.
It is topped with a carved antler upper and leather lower grip. The antler has been carved with intricate spirals and adorned with a beautifully banded malachite cabochon set in silver, as well as two small matching malachite beads dangling from piercings in the antler. The leather lower portion of the grip is soft chestnut colored suede, bordered with a soft ruff of variegated gray/black/silver rabbit fur, and handsewn tightly and securely with thick, strong black braided waxed thread. The thread is tied off at the bottom of the grip, and the ends are finished with a white bone bead and silver beads on one side and a natural turkey feather, black wooden bead, silver beads and a malachite bead on the other side.
This staff is for sale, $110 + shipping. Talk to me about the shipping, as the price will vary depending on where I'm sending it.
EDIT: SOLD. `skiesofchaos scooped this one up to go with his wand. I'll be switching out the Malachite to Labrodorite for him.
If you want your own, let me know and I'll make one just for you with your choice of stone.
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Comments: 51
Spectacularly crafted and an excellent photograph! Great work.
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Thanks so much!
about to head to bed, so I'll answer your question about photo advice when I wake up.
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Thanks! It's also for sale, if you need a staff.
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As always truly amazing work. Your a gem and a master artisan.
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I think you could certainly sell those as wizard staffs, grins, would be quite the thing to offer to the shaman folk too.
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Well...I do know a wizard with a matching wand....
And he might be able to talk me into switching the malachite out for labrodorite....
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Hmmm. I am thinking... I am kind of attached to the staff I have, yet.... a more elaborate staff would be good for the whole mountain wizard ambiance....
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Nods. I will get these metal weights out to you today and we can talk about it.
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Note the weights to me. Would rather not have that out here in the open.
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Ok, I did a bit of checking, and with it being in the form of jewelry, I'll need to call the place I use for this in the morning to ask about it, since their standard pricing applies to jewelers scrap. The best bet may end up being to send in all of the pieces, and you get a check for whatever is left over after the work you want me to do. You'll probably get more than nearly any other place you could take it, as I should be getting over 80% of the raw gold value.
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Love how the carving works with the organic shape!
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Doing these is SO much fun for just that reason. Playing with the natural shapes is a blast.
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Stunning. Once again, the subtlety and the use of natural contours has me floored.
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Aww, thanks! I'm so glad you like it.
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Thanks! Glad ya like it.
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I think I showed you this one in person? Or did I just bring mine with the amber? Also, did you click through to look at the other pics?
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No, I hadn't seen this one or the one with amber
and yes, I did click through to your new Tumblr site... but, afraid you might not appreciate my thoughts on that..
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I'm going to post the one with amber later.
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really fantastic
what do you use for carving the bone 
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This piece is actually antler, not bone, but I use a combination of tiny bits and burrs with a high speed rotary flexshaft tool and sandpaper, files, and various polishing compounds.
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so a dremel it's perfect ^^ thanks
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I actually use a Foredom.
I started out with a Dremel, but found that while my old Dremel has higher rpm, it doesn't have as much torque as my Foredom. A Dremel is ok for a beginner's needs though. Bear in mind if you are considering learning to carve like this that I have been doing this for several years, and if you look back at the older carved work in my gallery you will see that I've improved a lot since I started. Don't give up if you aren't able to easily achieve what you want right away.
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thanks for the advice ^^ i will try and try
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