Well, I've decided to try some "sculpture" . Combined with a wonderful seller at
Ebay I managed to make this crystal ball. It is the second one I've tried and
I think it came out nicely.

I am a rockhound and the old urges are returning, now that I have some time.
So luckily for me, this one seller on Ebay has just what I needed!

What do you think? This is the same ball from two different views. The sharp crystals are only on the top 1/4 of the ball, the rest are tumbled smooth
quartz.

Ooooooo MrsD this is sooooooooo pretty.

DO you take orders

Some day maybe... but these are not "cheap" to make.

Here is the first ball...I did this just before Xmas. It is rose quartz, fire agate and jade/aventurine mixed on a larger ball. It took 2 weeks to make. The crystal quartz one only took 3 days. It is like putting a puzzle together with no picture or plan. And the pieces fall off etc. I have a grabby thing to help get them back...but after about the 50th drop language gets a bit colorful here @@#$%^&*.

I am hoping to do an amethyst one soon, but I have to get more stones for that.(they cost more too)

Wow that would look great in my living room

You are very taleneted!

THese are sooooo great. You should sell em at the AA Art Fair!

I love that! Let us know when you are ready to sell some!

I love natural elements; I'm a leaf freak myself.

Don't know why but I find leaves to be the most amazing things and so varied in their beauty. I just gravitate toward things with leaves on them.

Tootsie

Absolutely Gorgeous!
What do you use for a 'base' to affix the stones to?

I'm a 'rock' lover, too. spendy hobby are rocks, sometimes, but well worth admiring a budding collection!

Keep on creating!

I love rocks too. Don't know what it is about them, but they are so varied and so pretty.

Where I live we have quartz rocks in the soil. So I have a few here and there.

Could you suggest the best glue for attaching the rocks or gems to something?

Tootsie

If you use a styrofoam base (and there are some nice ones, different shapes now in stores)..you have to use special glue for styrofoam (this is like extra thick Elmer's) It is not quick to set, so you have to hold it, prop it, or something for at least 15-30 minutes (the heavier the longer)

For the slabs on wood I use E6000 Clear. (not the epoxy type)
http://www.eclecticproducts.com/e6000.htm

If you want an exciting thing...there is a coating resin, which I am investigating myself, called Envirotex Lite.
This will shine up and make rocks look spectacular.
They use this in bars and restaurants to coat table tops... but the rock guy I know coats his large pieces with it...
http://www.sculpt.com/technotes/Envirotex_tech.htm
It is spectacular--- really! So I am planning on getting this soon. Maybe will take on vacation, since temp is important, and it is too cold here now even indoors for it.
You could glue down your leaves...to any clean surface and pour the Envirotex over it and make a "painting" or plate or whatever... Believe me the final result is fab..and it does not yellow.

Here is another site with ideas...
http://www.save-on-crafts.com/enpr.html
you can do an infinite number of ideas with this stuff!

Someday I want a MrsD original!

I updated my "power shelf" collection, today, with some new Ebay treasures, so I took some pics:

#1 is the whole shelf --it is above my monitor.

#2 is the left side close up:
I started with the large purple fluorite on the right when I was a teen, this was from a museum shop. The large quartz to the left I bought on my honeymoon from a uranium mine gift shop in WaWa Canada. Most of the things are inexpensive (we don't have mega bucks to spend on things like this). I collected spheres just because I like that shape. Those in the far left back are not stone.
I put them there just for "texture".

#3-- has my new crystal ball that I experimented with, and a wolf print sculpture I made on vacation several years ago, from the casts I took made by the wolf clan that lived on our other island. I'd go over there in a boat after a rain, and see if there were good tracks. If so I made casts of them, then reversed the cast with a new casting to get the negative effect. It is made out of plaster and found objects from the shore. The other things are gifts, and collected items from over the years.
The large pyrite was just given to me yesterday, from a nice guy I met on Ebay! The black crow's skull I just got for my birthday last November. It is the most expensive item on the shelf. It is a true to scale sculpture made by a guy in Utah who makes all kinds of skulls out of precious stone. This one is obsidian from Mexico.

This shelf has become much nicer since my forays to EBAY! LOL