[Jewelry making - Article 01055] - [Orchid] Surface holes & crust in Amber

[BT Teoh]

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Hi All,

    I have quite a number of rough borneo amber pieces of different
    colors, bought from a local wholesaler (Amberasia) and started to do
    polishing myself. There are two things i noticed after sanding and
    to final polishing. 

    1. small surface holes from less than 0.5mm to larger ones 3.0mm and
    depth 0.5mm to 1.0mm. I believe these are air bubbles lies trapped
    in the amber and becomes surface holes when i sand opened it. What's
    the best way to treat or cover up the surface holes. 

    2. new fine crust swirl will appear after two to three days after
    final polishing. I do some searching for answer on the internet and
    concluded that when water in the amber evaporates, crust will
    appear. This occurance only happens to my brown and cognac with swirl
    amber and not to other colors - cognac, green, white etc. Tried
    applying by dipping the whole polished amber piece into water-based
    varnish or lacquer to stop the water from evaporating and still after
    one week, the same thing happened. 

    Will be happy to forward pictures of the amber to helpful members
    for review and feedback. Any help or advice is much appreciated.

    Thanking in advance.

James
amberavenue AT time.net.my

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