Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I'm nothing if I'm not stubborn.. I'll stick with stone.. .. the problem is I don't know which kind..

 

This one's pretty different:

 

Peculiar might be a better word. A high degree of skill. Almost more like the cameo equivalent of an artist's sketches/studies for some more organized work. Cutter has used helmet shell the opposite way from usual, with white for the ground & orange for the figures. Like the macaw. But the spaniel better watch out!

 

It is meant to look like white lava & is extremely convincing in texture, appearance, weight, coolness. The only ways to know better are to see others exactly like it or to see how smooth & shiny it is inside when the surface gets chipped. It is 'lava glass'.

 

With a spray can? Possibly not what you meant to ask?

Meant to look like stone? Painted with gouache?

I'm feeling particularly .

 

So it IS painted glass?

And you thought I knew because I made an earlier comment about spray painting a piece? I swear on my cat: I was being a smartass and I had no clue it was a Done Thing.

 

Oh, and my other guess was going to be plaster, but it seemed like a really deep mold for plaster.

 

Such a wee little dog.

 

It's such an odd choice of animal grouping: a parrot/macaw, rooster, dog, and some sort of rodent lurking behind the rooster. Could it possibly have something to do with the occult? Or simply a representation of someone's own animals? (Though a rooster isn't generally kept as a pet...)

I'll be appropriating that phrase!

 

I thought you might be using 'painted' to mean 'coated'. Also thought you might see the file name.

This one is seen even more often, described as lava about half the time, although at least 80% of the time it should be obvious it is glass:



The lady is a separate piece, and turns up against different backgrounds.

 

Before GPS, I once called my poor husband and through much wailing and gnashing of teeth asked him if he could figure out where I was based on the descriptions of buildings I was haphazardly tossing at him. It sounds ludicrous now, but I had been hopelessly lost in a very small geographic area for over an hour by the point I called him.

He could not help me. In the moment, I had trouble not holding his failure against him.

He did buy me an early Garmin GPS thingy for my next birthday.

 

Apparently our internet is very speedy today, as I saw nothing.

So, what is used to coat "lava glass"?

Perhaps the carver was having trouble coming up with ideas and so his assistant wrote down a bunch of animals on little slips of paper and tossed them in a hat.

Then, it was all, "betcha can't fit another one on!" and "it has to make sense!" and "not fair, that dog is so wee!"

Always best to assume alcohol is involved in these scenarios.

 

I don't know, Think it is also glass, made grainy somehow.

Seller says there's a rodent. I keep thinking the chicken is sitting on the head of a teddy bear.

 

So maybe an acid bath or sandblasting. Or a glass enamel paint mixed with chalk/sand.

Looking at the front of the one you posted, I'm thinking it's the paint/chalk thing.

Looking at the back, I'm thinking sandblasting.

Either way, I find it another tricksy thing I have to remember.

 

Well now that's all I can see.

 

At one point, I wanted to say chalk, but I didn't think it would be possible to do it..
The cameo world is really confusing..

 

It just takes some experience. It's easier to tell from photos what material something is when you've also had the direct experience of holding different types in your hand. Just looking through listings acquaints you with what is & isn't normally used.

If you do a search for French meerschaum (or pipe clay) plaque, you will see many examples of chalky looking carvings of mainly religious subjects. It is really too fragile for use as jewellery. I sometimes see a cameo described as meerschaum, have never seen one I believed was, usually lava. E.g.:

https://picclick.com/Antique-Meerschaum-or-French-Pipe-Clay-Carved-Cameo-182754781152.html

 

This one (scroll way down) looks like dripstone to me:

https://www.rubylane.com/item/173699-RP-17-101/Victorian-French-Pipe-Clay-Carved-Display

 

I didn't even knew those terms before, so it's clear to me I have a lot to learn.. thank you for all the information, @Brownen !
I'm ready for the next test... hi hi..