What is it about me and rocks, anyway?
Hello, and welcome! By way of introduction, the photos directly above are actually a slide show - roll your mouse over the photos until the arrows come up, and you will see a brief slide show depicting my creation process.
Like to know a bit more about me? Who I am, how I got here, where I am today?
Well, here we go!
I started out as an avid rock hound, eventually joining my local gem and mineral society. This club was a wonderful discovery for me, for the group had their own lapidary shop available for members. This was a place where like-minded individuals could get together and share knowledge and expertise.
Best of all, the shop had the lapidary tools needed to transform rough rock into gemstones, knowledgeable club members willing and able to offer instruction on how to accomplish this task.
A big THANK YOU to the Feather River Lapidary and Mineral Society of Oroville, Ca. I wouldn't be where I am today without the kindness, patience and courtesy of these friends.
I have now been designing and creating stone jewelry for the past fifteen years. In that time I have designed and created many hundreds of jewelry pieces.
After having my own jewelry website for some years, I decided to move over to Etsy. I am very glad that I did, Etsy has been a revelation for me. I have had great success on the Etsy platform, and hope to grow my shop inventory as time goes forward. But it is difficult, my pieces seem to sell very quickly on Etsy, so my available inventory tends to remain small.
All of my jewelry pieces are created using copper, silver, stone, crystal and glass . I nearly always also use stone, metal or glass beads for the beading part of my necklaces.
My necklaces are strung on what is known as jewelry "wire" - but it is in reality a very fine wire cable, composed of multiple strands. Nearly all of my necklaces are strung on this 49-strand bead wire (cable). A few might be strung on cables with fewer strands (some of my pieces will have have copper chain), but nearly always the 49-strand variety of jewelry wire is used.
This multiple-wire cable is not stiff (as are other beading wires) and adds to the flexibility of the piece. I want my necklaces to dangle, move and flow! Multiple-strand beading wire adds flexibility, strength, durability, and resistance to kinking.
No string, plastic, or any other kind of artificial bead stringing methods are used in any of my pieces, and nearly all of my jewelry will have a stunning focal made of natural stone.
Some of the stone used in my pieces was originally "rock-hounded" (other times stone is out-sourced) on a field trip with the aforementioned gem and mineral society. That is to say, the original rough rock was found out on a steep mountain-side somewhere, or maybe out in the middle of the desert.
My "finds" are then packed back to my car (imagine packing a heavy cloth bag of dirt-encrusted rocks - which might weigh fifty pounds or more - while sliding down a steep hillside trying not to fall!).
From there the pile of rock is poured out onto my concrete driveway (washing stone on the ground just creates more mud!), where it is washed with a garden hose (one doesn't really know what one has until all the encrusted dirt gets washed away!) to see what I might (or much more likely the case - might not!) have for all of my efforts.
Any rough rock found to be promising is cut into thin slices (called "slabs") on a lapidary saw, then, from these flat slabs, small pieces (ovals, rounds, squares) - or "free form" shapes (my personal favorite) are then cut from these slabs.
It is only then that the really fun stuff can finally begin! These cut shapes are still rough and raw, but it is from these nondescript stone chunks that a beautiful cabochon (a cabochon is a polished gemstone - also called a "cab") are born.
After the time it takes to find a bit of promising stone in the first place, wash it, cut it, shape it - it will then take a further two to three hours to polish the rough cab into the shining gemstone it was always meant to be. Once a finished gemstone is in hand, it generally takes a further few days (as many as 20 - 30 hours) to fashion this polished gemstone into a beautiful piece of jewelry.
Creating stone jewelry art is quite a lengthy process.
There you have it! And this is just the SHORT version. :-)
I welcome all questions and queries. Please do not hesitate to message me. Creating beautiful hammered copper and stone jewelry is my life, my passion - and my joy.
Thank you for visiting my shop.
Anne Parr
Sacramento, Ca.
