Rock Tumbling

I can look at this pile of stones and happily say "we made these."
Sort of. We assisted mother nature with the polishing process.
These stones represent a very old hobby; rock tumbling.

Paul and I are both interested in stones. So during the winter we decided to get a rock tumbling kit. We set it up in the garage where our stones would need to tumble for a few weeks. We had fun going to a rock shop and selecting a nice big pile of rough stones. Truth be told, they all looked the same to me. It was hard to tell which stone was which. But I will say this, buying stone in a rough state is much, much cheaper than buying it all polished as a finished gem stone.

We have several really beautiful polished stones to show for our efforts. Unfortunately, we burned out two rock tumblers in the process. The first one broke down fairly quickly and the second just managed to get the job done. I think if we were going to be serious about rock tumbling we would have to buy a pretty expensive machine. I think I need to do something with some of the rocks we already polished before I seek out another pile of stones.

Happy Sunday Friends. I Hope you are enjoying some blog reading with a nice morning coffee as I am. There are some amazing links to peak at from my beading gang.

About.com Jewelry Making
Fiber is a fantastic medium to add to your jewelry designs. Tammy takes a look at some fiber jewelry books she has reviewed in the past.

Art Bead Scene
Stumped on this month's ABS Challenge? This post just might help you out!

Beading Arts
Do you like beaded beads? Cyndi shares a tubular peyote bead that takes center stage!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi transfers some images to shell in order to make this simple necklace.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
The deconstructed watch makes an encore appearance.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
What's new pussycat? Melanie finds inspiration from more than one source to create a new line of Kittycat pendants

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei teams up with 4 other designers to take part in the first Art Bead Scene Design Team challenge.

Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Jean observes that all art has something in common (pssst! it doesn't all come down to jewelry design, every time!) when she reviews the new digital eMag from Interweave: check it out!

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off her necklace design that won second place in the Metal Clay category of Bead Dreams 2010.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Kate McKinnon generously offers up THREE copies of her new book, "Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry", in another installment of Andrew's Thursday Giveaway.