u/Chickennugget636

Synthetic opal and tanzanite in sterling. Purchased recently for $20 and $15 respectively.

And in better and more natural lighting.

Is this a crack on my new yuanbao? I’m shaking right now because they’re my most expensive pair, and I love them a lot already 🤣😅😅😅

I got these off aliexpress for $1.20. They didn’t melt under a hot needle, so I assume they’re real? Are they worth keeping or should I pay a bit more for some Qiuzi? 🤣
I think they might be dyed or treated somehow? There was weird yellow residue in the stem holes

Don’t worry about the very loose dust in photo 2 🤣
That’s gone now. 5 days of cleaning about 2-4 hours a day! (Mostly just 2) I think I’m happy with it.

Is there any chance they just have a really red color naturally? The translucency to the high spots says they haven’t been dyed to me maybe, but let me know. I’m considering buying them, but they say they’re just polished with brushes and not played at all. Thanks!

Just passed the two month mark on my
Tiger heads! Thought I’d give an update. The photos are: current, before their recent resting period after getting sticky, after their priming, before priming when I first got them. Such a cool progression! My favorite pair so far, but four towers on the way so we’ll see!

The second photo is my favorite one. It came with 3 and I wanted to roll the two similar ones, but they’re kind of big and oblong to roll. Still glad I had the options though. What do yall think?

They’re developing well, but I’m worried about this weird dark patch that just showed up.

The second photo is my new peach pit bracelet I made. I took a rougher approach and left them basically untouched, so we’ll see how they patina raw.

I didn’t know if y’all would find this interesting, but these peach pits went through a compost pile and were sifted out of the finished compost with the rest of the wood and bone debris that survived their first round in the process without decaying. Speaks to the resilience of peach pit material, as well as dyed the pits a really nice brownish red. I’ve worn these for a few years now at this point too. The material was damaged by the process, but I think it’s recovering through the skin contact.

Idk if this counts as wenwan, but recent posts regarding seed beads have inspired me to share these. I’ve had them for several years in different necklaces, but recently restrung them into a rosary type thing.
They’ve definitely gotten shinier and maybe the red color has come out a bit, but in normal lighting they’ve always been pitch black. The sun reveals their red color.

I posted the central bead on here before, but I finally finished the necklace. For those who didn’t see the first one, the orange bead is a nectarine pit I’ve worn for a couple years on a bracelet. The only other nectarine pits are the ones separated by knots at the ends. The rest are peach.

I got these years ago as part of a huge strand off of Etsy before I knew about this hobby. I strung them on a stretchy plastic cord and have worn them off and on. I even wore them to the beach in the water once so I’ve been very irresponsible. I think they still look decent though!

This is a bracelet I just made out of some pits from some pickled snack olives that I got at an Asian grocery store (and then ate). I soaked the salt out of the pits, but the process seems to have damaged the wood. I imagine I can’t get a nice clear patina on them but we’ll see what I can do. I’ll post an update if they have any promise. The spacers are cherry pits.

I finally finished carving the turquoise gems to plug the stems on my tiger heads. I think it turned out great, but let me know if you think I should shave the more oval one down even further like I did the wavy one. It’s wavy because it follows the grain of the navel so it can be pressure fit into the walnut instead of glued. Let me know what you think! They’re my constant daily companions now so they get a ton of handling and 20-30 minutes of brushing every day.

These are ancient toad head variety. I posted about the yellow tip on one of these recently and got some good advice that ended up getting me a full refund, getting to keep the walnuts! So, here they are after a light wire brush cleaning and their full acclimatization period. They’re quirky little toads but that’s what I found so charming. Too bad about the tip, but maybe they’ll even out.

I paid like $60 for these and the seller claimed no yellow spots. They are ancient toad head variety and these are the only suspicious spots. Are they worth cultivating?

My new wheat ear tiger heads had bad stems that were fragile and came out with initial brushing. So, I thought it might be cool to carve turquoise corks! I’m working on the second one, but it’s taking too long so I thought I’d go ahead and post the first one and do another post later for the second. It’s friction fit! Let me know what you think! It’s basically shaped like a tiny cork with a little stick that goes off the back of the part you can see that fits inside the hole.