Question: Shell cameo carving Agate cameo carving question

[Handcrafter]

Hello. I am completely and utterly new to all of this carving stuff so please understand that. The reason I joined this forum is because for a while now I have watched that Scamillio guy on HSN shopping network selling hand carved cameos from Italy and I have always wanted to try carving one either on shell or agate.

He was on again this evening and so I googled and that is how I am at this forum. There is an old 'tutorial' here that I am waiting for all the pictures to download, I am on dial up, and I thought while that was doing its thing I'd sign up for this forum.

My question is are there other tutorials and what about supplies for shell and tools?

Thank you

 

[Doc Mark]

Handcrafter,

I'm the one that wrote the little mini-tutorial on Cameo carving. There are no sites where you can buy pre-cut cameo shells for a reasonable price. I say that because there was once a "Cameo Factory" in Italy that sold shell ovals but I'm not sure they still do that and their prices were astronomical. As for the tools. Any standard hand engraving gravers (mostly rounds and flats of different widths) will work well. A rotary tool like a micro-motor is not essential, but extremely useful. Even a Dremel will work but it's a bit large and cumbersome compared to a micro-motor set-up.

You can buy the uncut helmet shells from many sites in the Bahamas for very reasonable prices and then cut them to size. I use a cheap diamond blade tile saw that I picked up at Lowes. It's great to have an engravers ball vice but even a simple Versa-Vice works.

If you want, Private Message me and give me your phone number and we can talk about this in greater detail.

Good to see more people interested in Cameos.

By the way, those guys you see on HSN are turning out crap compared to what is done in the small shops in Italy.

Mark

 

[mitch]

go to www.janeljacobson.com she is a phenomenal miniature carver and also runs a website similar to igraver.com for that stuff at http://www.thecarvingpath.net/forum/

i'd recommend everybody check it out- there's some fantastic work to see.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Mitch, Janel, Jim Kelso and the other members of that group are very talented, I go over there and look around now and then. It's exciting to see all this talent and information. J.J.Roberts :thumbs up: