Araneae are everywhere in our home, in the garden, on the eaves, and inside the house. As always, Gregore stone carver extraordinaire, gets a penchant for something new to make, currently it is spiders, specifically a black jade spider.
This spider is a tester, a model to figure out how we are going to make the spider so that it is strong. Realism was the approach here. Later on Gregore uses his natural flair for design when he makes the smaller spider in jade and also in steel with exquisite stylization.
leg templates, black jade slice and black jade legs
Gregore is very practical. He prefers to mechanize a task in order to gain himself some leisure, though he is not one to shy away from hard work. He started by designing the various leg stances in CAD. He used these outlines to cut away the legs in a sheet of brass. He used the brass template with an aluminum pencil to mark the jade slice. We have a diamond bad saw which made easy work of cutting the jade leg outlines.
Black Widow Jade Spider that measures 32 mm x 32mm
The spider above measures 32 x 32 mm. It was practically the very first spider Gregore started to carve, because of this many of the parts were carved exclusively by hand. In general a fair amount of hand work is required after a stone is cut on the CNC, because it is faster to do it by hand than to let the machine do it. Later on we might actually cut the legs exclusively with the CNC , it just takes time to program it in and there are too many new things to try first!
Black Jade Spider 3/4 view
We shot the different angles to show the beauty of the thing. As you all know one always falls in love with one’s own creations the most. This carving feat by Gregore is admirable because later on this spider inspires one much smaller. It is also a testament to jade which is a tough mineral that can handle a lot of abuse. There are two types of jade, nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of minerals), and jadeite (a silicate of sodium and aluminium in the pyroxene group of minerals).
Nephrite can be found in a creamy white form (known in China as "mutton fat" jade) as well as in a variety of light green colours, whereas jadeite shows more colour variations, including blue, brown, red, black, dark green, lavender and white. Of the two, jadeite is rarer, documented in fewer than 12 places worldwide. We love our minerals.
black widow checking you out
32mm x 32mm spider
The small spider below measures 25mm x 17mm. I will provide completed pictures of this one later on along with the steel spiders.
25mm x 17mm Spider legs carved out of black jade
the dramatic leg stance has the characteristic gregore flair
Gregore admitted it just was more fun to stylize the spider. As you can see the legs are hand sculpted somewhat but the geometric form is still fresh off the band saw. This spider is part of a diorama. His steel spiders make great earrings because they are light weight and very ominous.
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