Realistic pink quartz

One of my teachers in Fine Arts school used to say:
"to imitate something, one has to see it; to SUCCESSFULLY imitate something, one must study and understand it". He made us one time study a pebble for two weeks.

So, let's take a look at quartz in general and pink quartz in special. Not going to get in the science of it, I linked to some professional websites if you want to find out how it forms and all that.

Let's just focus on the look of it. What do we notice?

1. There are no round lines. Really. The only slightly rounded things we might find are inclusions and "clouds" of other minerals. Otherwise whatever fractures there are in the crystal, they are comprised of straight lines. Jagged lines, maybe, but straight not rounded. Not a single curve. This is not turquoise, malachite, agate or jasper. This is a true crystal.

2. There are no linear, as in thin line inclusions, as is the case with labradorite or rainbow moonstone. There are small crystal agglomerations inclusions, quartz in quartz.

3. No sparklies. That is no sparklies at all, not like opal and fire agate or labradorite.

4. There are fractures in the stone. The more fractures the more opaque the stone. Fracture lines, see point 1.

So in order to imitate a quartz, we need to:

1. make sure there's no blending, and we keep our lines pure and as straight as possible.

2. no worries about making cuts mokume gane style. Also that means no veneering. It's pretty much a block.

3. no worries about adding mica powders, using pearlescents or glitters or foils.

4. see point 1

So to start with we need a clay that has been conditioned but not too conditioned. That will allow us to safely stick together pieces and crumbs but will not have the tendency to blend. Make sure it still cracks when you fold it.

Do not add anything. I honestly tried to see if adding white pastel chalk would enhance the fracture lines but it made the pieces and crumbs not stick and the piece fall apart. And you can't add liquid clay because... well, blending. Definitely do not add any sparklies or glitters. The only times when quartz sparkles is if it has other minerals in inclusions. That is, the other minerals sparkle, not the quartz.

Careful when adding the red. It's exceptionally strong as a pigment. Go poppy seed size and just add the same if it needs be. And as you see in the video it doesn't really loose a lot of color when baking.

I explain during the video how to make the faux quartz.

I do not have a buffer and it's too hard on my hands to buff by hand so I used Judikins Diamond glaze. I finally got the PolyFast for sanding but didn't find a solution yet for buffing. Honestly I don't think I could safely work with an electric buffer, not with the way the nerve damage in my hands make me drop things.

And yes, I do have a lot of semi-precious gemstones in my house. I used to buy and sell a lot of them, raw, tumbled and polished or ready for jewelry setting. And I learned a lot from Native American friends who were/are in the trade and the silversmithing and jewelry making craft.

Just as a teaser, this is a final result. Video will take over 3 hours to upload.....

Ok  it's uploaded