crushed stone inlace questions

[Wes Ramsey]

I've been tinkering some over the last year or so with inlacing, and have found that it is a handy technique to use. I've used turquoise, powdered copper, coffee grounds, brass shavings and red coral, but I want to expand a bit with some different colors of natural stone. I picked up some scrap chunks of lapis and agate at the local gem and mineral show last weekend, but I haven't seen any prior examples to know if they will work well or not when crushed. I have high hopes for the lapis! Any thoughts on those two, or recommendations for other natural mineral/stone/media/etc I can use?

Also, I've read that the dust of some minerals is very harmful if it gets into your lungs. I'm thinking malachite was one of the bad ones. Are there others I need to be careful with or avoid?

[Jim Tobias]

Wes,
I've used some blue lapis and some green malachite. Both work well in my opinion. The blue lapis really shows up well after finishing. I've read the same thing about stone dust in general. I wear a P100 mask all the time in the shop anyway as I have allergies and don't want to irritate the sinuses.
I don't have pictures but will try to take a couple later today and post tonight if I can.
I'm sure you know this but how you crush the stones(fine,coarse, etc) really changes the look when finished ( at least in my opinion).

Jim

[Wes Ramsey]

Thanks Jim. The color of lapis is probably the prettiest natural stone color I've seen. I've seen a lot of jewelry made of it and it does polish up nicely. I'm anxious to try it, but at $.40 per gram it will have to be the right project, and I'll probably google some pics first to see how finely others have crushed it and what the results look like. Very fine is what I'm after, but I'll have to play with it and see what looks best.