Dinosaur bone sphere collection

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I was unsure which category to post this to, so I hope it is considered art. I consider them artwork at least. The spheres are hand-made, from various pieces of silicified dinosaur bone.The last picture is a dinosaur coprolite, made into sphere form. Makes a great discussion piece for sure.  I find it stunning how many patterns and color palettes nature has provided in looking at them. Enjoy !!!

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[Himmapaan]

A, now I know what these are made from, at last! I saw a number of them at the Museum of Insects and Other Natural Wonders when I went back to visit Chiang Mai last autumn. They were playfully (and deliberately) labelled as 'Dragons' Eggs'.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

A, now I know what these are made from, at last! I saw a number of them at the Museum of Insects and Other Natural Wonders when I went back to visit Chiang Mai last autumn. They were playfully (and deliberately) labelled as 'Dragons' Eggs'.

Oh thats funny, and makes sense placed in context. If they are patterned the way mine are, it is highly likely the material is dinosaur bone. You are actually able to see the cell pattern, as the cells are so large. Amazing stuff

[Himmapaan]

I've found a picture:

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I've found a picture:

That is stunning. I was looking at the patterning and its similarities and differences to mine. It does look quite similar. It also places the label they gave in some context that is fitting

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Figured since I already posted the dinosaur spheres, I would add a few made from other materials from that time period or perhaps a bit before.
First picture, fossil coral.
Second picture, Moss agate.
Third picture, fossiliferous limestone, bearing Crinoids.
Opalized wood from Oregon
Arizona redwood sphere
Petrified wood sphere
Chrysocolla in matrix
Ocean Jasper
Mookite



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[amargasaurus cazaui]

I thought to add this sphere to the thread today. I made this one roughly four years ago, out of a small piece of bone . The piece showed great cell structure and patterning, but it also has a series of features that I have been unable to properly explain. In the second and third pictures you will notice a linear set of circles made of darker material in the bone.  They seem to form a straight line, almost as if they were from a row of teeth having bitten into the piece. I have had mineral and fossil experts examine the piece and they cannot explain the patterning, except they all agree it reflects some form of healed damage to the bone. (pathology) I had speculated it may be a bite pattern, but I was told this was not likely, and instead it was suggested it might be a form cancerous growth. I freely admit I do not have a solid idea what the patterning is, so feel free .

[Himmapaan]

You've reminded me of what I meant to ask a while ago but had forgotten: would you be able to post just a short demonstration of how you make these (with accompanying pictures, if possible)? I'm intrigued!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

You've reminded me of what I meant to ask a while ago but had forgotten: would you be able to post just a short demonstration of how you make these (with accompanying pictures, if possible)? I'm intrigued!

I would be glad to Niroot, they are rather involved so I will try and take it a step at a time and if I miss something or confuse please let me know.
The first step is selecting a piece that would be adequate for the application. The overall idea is rather basic, you want something with a large central mass, rather than thin , or elongate. The piece will be sawed into a square , so this means the smallest side will determine the size of your sphere. A chunk of stone that measures 4x 5 x7 will still only net a four inch perfect cube. However , you often get a larger piece that is 11 x 9 x 10 and you may opt to cut it into two 4-5 inch cubes. Most of the choice for how to cut it is at the whim of the maker, some prefer many smaller pieces for resale, others want a single massive sphere for personnal collecting.
  Having chosen a piece, you then are ready to saw it into a cube. You begin by cutting one side, on a diamond sintered saw, using water or oil to lube the blade. Generally many saws either use a gravity feed or electric method. The rock moves through the blade far slower than if you were cutting wood, and takes a bit of getting used to. As different rocks have different densities, they all slice differently and require careful attention. Generally the first cut is made, and leaves one side of the stone flat, and you can then use an aluminum nail to draw your markers for the other cuts. You measure and create a square, on the cut side so you know where to cut the rest of the sides, and then saw those as well. At this point you are now in possession of many scraps, that go into sawdust to absorb the oil or water from the cutting, and you also have a nice lovely cube of your desired material. The cube must then be cut at angles to remove the corners. This takes a bit of trickery and adjusting, getting the cube to sit still while being cut at difficult angles, but with clamping and correct bracing , can be done. Once this stage is finished, you have something most accurately resembling a disco ball. You then need a small grinder with diamond sintered wheel to remove the high corners and edges .Then you are off to the fun part. You have a three dimensional corner flattened shape to work with. At this point you turn your attention from grinding and slicing to what I call turning. Turning might be more accurately termed grinding, but not quite as you might think. The intended sphere, which will now be referred to as a preform, is placed on a massive machine. Mine has three huge motors. Each motor drives a shaft, and three are arranged in a circular pattern. Mounted on those shafts are plumbing cups, that have diamond sintered into their beveled edges. Above the operation mounted on an adjustable track is water reservoir. As the pre-form turns roughly within the circle of the three turning and rotating cups, it is being scratched badly by the sintered diamond, as water drips slowly to remove the grinding and lubricate the cutting process. After a period of anywhere from three hours to twenty, the piece becomes round meaning all flat spots disappear. You then have a very roughly ground three dimensional sphere of whatever material you began with. Bear in mind as I am using diamond I can cut virtually any stone, metal or glass known, with a few exceptions. Anything with cracks is not a great canidate unless they are healed fractures.
   So once you have your sphere round, you need it smooth. You switch from rough cutting cups to a set of cups that have smaller diamond, in the 600 range, or roughly equivalent to 600 sandpaper. This has the effect of removing the deeper scratches and smoothing the material nicely. Once I finish with this level, i remove the diamon sintered cups and use either copper or brass cups, and a fine silicone carbide paste made with 800 grade silicon cutting grit. I either paint it on the sphere using a brush or create a dangling chain that feeds itself over the sphere, down into to pan of the paste and back over the sphere. The sphere turns for hours in this stage removing every blemish, flaw and scratch.
   Make note this is the simplifed version. Often the stones have cracks, voids, vugs, soft spots, or other issues to contend with. For instance dinosaur bone has a problematic nature in that the cell walls are softer than the cell material so the tend to cut more deeply, often creating an orange peel effect.This brngs into play many various kinds of sealers, fillers, gap glues and so forth.
   So now we have the sphere smooth and without any visible flaws and wish to give it a mirror shine. You will need three very clean iron cups, some canvas and rubber bands first. I make something akin to drum heads for each cup using rubber bands to secure the canvas, and keep it tight. There is a serious need at this stage for cleanliness and no debris in your work. A fleck of dust, if hard enough can leave a scratch if you are not careful. Everything must be clean and dirt free. You place your round sphere between the three canvas heads, and slowly let it turn. At this stage you apply a thin and small amount of paste made from powder known as tin oxide with just a touch of vinegar.
  You tighten the cups against the sphere and allow it to turn as it moves about. It has the effect of smearing the paste over the canvas and itself quite completely. As you are working with powdered tin, it does scratch the sphere evenly over its surface
I generally turn mine until the canvas is either so hot it smokes, or the sphere gets so hot it cannot turn without squeling badly and loudly from the friction and heat.
  At that point I shut it off and allow to cool. NO you do NOT dip the piece in water to cool it off., that can cause a loud shattering noise as you watch all your work vanish into ten million fragments. Sometimes once cooled I apply a light rinse of cold water to remove any buildups of the paste, or debris, but generally thats all .
I will attempt to add pictures to illustrate the steps now for you Niroot.



Large piece of dinosaur bone, being rough cut and measured for potential cubing





Two future spheres of dinosaur bone, now cubed



Side view of preform



Different preform, made of black bone with peach and orange cells.



Corners rough ground away


Sphere being turned, notice the slag from grinding and how the stone is literally melting away from the diamond and water cutting it.

Massive Lepidolite sphere, with a single non cutting cup to stablilize and two other cups laced with diamond for
cutting


The final product, the two dinosaur bone spheres we began the odyssey with as rough, then cubes, then preformed, and now finished as spheres. These two are a sister act from the same specimen of bone. The more pastel one is sitting on a base made from a shark or perhaps Mosasaurus vert from Russia, I am unsure genera or species, only it is a huge vert centrum.



The final picture is the black and peach piece, shown as a preform, before and now also finished.



Ha and finally my friend Slimy posed on a slice of trim from cutting this last sphere.

[Himmapaan]

Wow. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for taking the time with all those annotated pictures too; I hadn't expected them so soon!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Wow. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for taking the time with all those annotated pictures too; I hadn't expected them so soon!

The japanese more or less began this art, using a rough stone, and two reeds, filled with water and beach sand to grind with, some five thousand years ago.My grandfather was an accomplished sphere maker in the sixties, seventies, and early eighties before hanging it up. It was his fascination and hobby. When he stopped, my father was given the gear and the remaining stone and so forth and made them for a few years before deciding it was not quite his thing. I have been exposed to it my entire life. When I was eight my grandfather showed me a sphere of dinosaur bone and I wanted it more than than the entire world. He promised me someday he would make me one...someday, someday. When I helped carry his coffin in 2004, someday had never come. So I had my father teach me how so I could make my own. Since that time I have made well over a hundred spheres, but the 21 spheres of dinosaur bone that I have done so far, are my true love of the entire batch. I somehow think there will be quite a few more as it is a hole I doubt I will ever quite fill.
   Nowdays I work within the mineral society he helped form and create. I write for them and produce useful educational aids however my focus is primarily dinosaurs. Each year at their shows I have a few displays, one being dinosaurs, another being dinosaur eggs, and yet ...I also each year have a display showing the three generations of my family's sphere work. It is called "Generations" and has spheres in rows from all three of us. This coming year the show will be a bit more fun even, as I will be displaying my newly acquired pet dinosaur Nim, the Psittacosaurus for everyones enjoyment as well.

Pictured is my generations display for last years show. Each year I add in new spheres I have made and remove a few of the ones I had the previous year. To compare or understand who did what..the back row, and the massive purple sphere in the next row in front of that are my work. Still moving  from the back, other than the large purple centerpiece, the second row was done by my grandfather as well as the third row.
The front row are my fathers work.
I hope that answers all of your questions and somewhat fills in the missing blanks for you Niroot.

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[amargasaurus cazaui]

Likely a one of a kind collection, seventeen spheres of dinosaur bone, all hand made by myself. Will be adding more in the coming weeks so I thought to picture the current grouping for now.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

My three most curent projects. The first is a large sphere of Palmwood. As palmwood does not have rings, you can see the vertical "shoots" within the material that somewhat allow you to orient what direction would be up and down for the piece. All of the small dark eyes are actually the ends of shoots. My grandfather made several pieces from this material that were shown nationally, however this piece was the worst of the group. When it was given to me, the "eyes" were all small holes in the surface that needed dealt with. A  work in progress, and while much closer, is still not finished.

The second of the three...a sphere made from the center of a dinosaur vertebrae. I am at a complete loss to explain the clear worm-like shapes in the texture. They are quite solid and were riddled throughout the piece. Holes for blood flow perhaps? Otherwise the piece is almost entirely solid maroon colored.





The third piece is a good five inches in diameter and would sell for quite a price. Solid black webbing on a piece that is also a vert centrum. Small cells within of light pink and baby blue and a large patch of well defined large cells of red. There are also some tan patches visible as well.....gorgeous piece, one of my best and not even finished.

[Georassic]

gorgeous work, my friend. Is that what you do for a living?

[amargasaurus cazaui]

gorgeous work, my friend. Is that what you do for a living?

Nice to hear from you George !! Hope the herd continues growing and the window display is forever populated.
To answer your question I have never sold a piece of my work ever. Given a few pieces away to friends or people I felt were deserving....but this is largely a hobby or art form for me. I learned it when my grandfather passed away, as he had spent half his life doing it as his passion and love. Of course I turned it in the direction of dinosaurs, making many spheres of bone, coprolite and various plant and tree specimens from the time period. (cycad, palm wood, fern, moss, etc.) For me it is a form of expression sometimes. At other times it is taking a riddle left by my grandfather and trying to find an answer using more modern materials, methods and insights. ie. the palm wood sphere above. If you could imagine being an artist...and the canvas for your work is a 300 dollar dinosaur vert...and one misground or miscut side and the entire thing might be wasted........those are the factors I work with. A sphere can often take a hundred hours work to get just right.
  Of course when I get older and retire these might just make a solid little nest egg at some point.

[Georassic]

I think it's amazing that you use such rare/expensive materials and don't turn a profit. More than once I've seen items like yours on ebay, and checked the seller's location to see if it's you.

Thanks again for my dino-shard. It has a prominent but safe home, serving as a stepping stone in the sand portion of a desktop zen fountain just a few feet from "Georassic Park." I'll have to remember to shoot and post a photo some time...

Funny you mention growing herd...my wife is due a week from today with son #2, and contractions have already started so it truly could be any time now... Sleep may be short and sporadic for the next several weeks. But watch Facebook for the official announcement. :-)

[amargasaurus cazaui]

You have hit on precisely why my dinosaur bone sphere collection is not much larger. The pieces availible to work with are becoming scarcer, smaller, and more common looking colors and cell types. The really nice material is being absorbed into collections, or more often being sliced and cut up for cabachons to make jewelry. The first block of bone I made into a pair of dinosaur spheres cost me thirty dollars. Today I would expect to pay 150-300 for that same block.
  In addition dinosaur bone is some of the most difficult material there is to work with doing this type of work. There are normally cracks often not healed either. Vugs and cavitities are often a problem. There are often areas that are not filled in with minerals and therefore almost spongelike. Finally dinosaur bone has one very unique property...the cell walls are generally softer than the material infilling the cells so as you work with it, the cells tend to undercut, leaving your finished work with a pattern similar to an orange peel unless you have the technical know how to deal with that issue.
  I am glad the dino piece has found a loving home ! you should be able to compare its patterning with what you see in this thread to get a really good feel for dinosaur bone.
  As to your news about your soon to expand herd....excellent !!! Nim and I will be keeping our eyes open on Facebook of course . You know Nim, he does not miss much. Congrats and I wish you the best . Any clues if its a boy or girl?

[Georassic]

" Any clues if its a boy or girl? "

Another boy, joining my 3-year-old, who is very excited to be a big brother.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Been dusting the collection, cleaning the older ones and adding a few new ones, and playing around with some macro type pictures as I go...my results from today. The first two images are a sphere of bone from a vert, that is maroon in color and quite well mineralized.





The next several shots are from a sphere of entirely pastel bone, that was my first dinosaur bone sphere. I always called this one the "candy Store" as it has light greens, yellows, pale blues, and even reds visible....something for everyone. As time goes on this particular style of bone becomes more sought after and highly rare. It was blind luck my first piece was like this.







The final set of shots are of a sphere I made years ago, that has some rather gorgeous cells and patterns and unique colors.

[Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus]

Amargasaurus, your work is truly beautiful. The post about how you do it was fascinating as well! Thanks for making this topic.