Technology/Equipment Grant
Technology/Equipment Grant
Lapidary Equipment - Flat Lap, trim saw and blade, rock and metal tumblers and media, rock driller.
Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Michelle Ronning: jewelry designer and maker; Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, Cultural Programming Coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Jeanne Doty: Retired Associate Professor UMD Music, pianist; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children's Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Schubert: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Emily Fasbender: student liaison, visual artist
Adam Guggemos: graphic designer, art events promoter; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children's Theatre employee; Janeen Carey: vocalist, retired Hibbing Community College librarian and information media specialist; Jon Brophy: lighting and costume designer; Amy Varsek: Education Director at Duluth Art Institute, visual artist; Greg Mueller: sculptor.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Goal: To increase the efficiency and quality of transforming raw minerals into semi-precious polished gemstone cabechons placed into jewelry settings. Our current 40 year old equipment takes a minimum of 4 hours to trim a slab of stone to size, grind it to shape, drill holes, and polish it. Speed is limited by the RPMs we can achieve in the current setup without exacerbating the amount of wobble inherent in the old technology. Even then, the quality is only "fair" to "good" (a subjective assessment). Our current equipment was hand-built with external electric motors driving exposed pulleys to turn the lap and saw, with poor coolant control, making them inaccurate and unsafe. Modern equipment would be safer, would allow us to complete a piece in half of that time, and increase quality to "excellent" (again, a subjective assessment). It will also reduce incidences of loss - projects that must scrapped and begun anew. While it is difficult to measure artistic productivity because each piece is unique, and different stones cut and polish at different rates according to the Mohs Hardness Scale, we will quantify the number of pieces produced per hour during the first 6 months of equipment use in order to provide a measurable outcome of productivity. We will photograph pieces and rate their quality for the final report, if required.
We purchased all of the equipment approved by the grant by 9/8/18. All was put into service. This equipment dramatically increased the safety in our studio by eliminating all exposed/unguarded belts and pulleys, and by securing rocks during hole drilling . It increased the efficiency of rock cutting and polishing by 400% due to the speed and stability of the flat lap and tumbling system. The quality of our jewelry improved by 100%, with fewer failures and better finishes.
Other,local or private