Now that you have collected all those great rock specimens, you are probably wondering if you should try to turn them into something you can wear as jewelry.  Of course, you may not have any skills or equipment to make that happen yet., but that can be accomplished in several ways.  Most of us have a lapidary club in our area that we could join.  These clubs usually have a whole array of lapidary equipment available for members to learn on and use.  Some of the older members are willing to teach newcomers to the hobby, and are more than happy to share their knowledge and skills with you.  Or, if you really don't think you are up to the task, there may be someone in the club who will make your stones into jewelry for you at a nominal charge.

 Agates, jaspers and quartz are good stones for beginners to learn with, and are the most commonly collected stones.  If you have some banded agates, multicolored jasper and quartz crystals in your collection, you can begin with them, learning how to cut and preform cabochons, grinding and polishing them into finished stones ready to be wire-wrapped or set in silver.  The old time rockhounds used  glue and base metal ready-made mounts to turn their tumbled stones into bracelets, earrings, key fobs, necklace pendants, tie tacs, pins, and so on.  You can still find these base-metal mounts for sale through the Ebersole Company catalog, or check out your local rock shop to see if they still carry them, if you are interested in this quick and easy way to set your stones. 

The photos I have included in this article are : collecting agate and jasper pebbles at Moonstone Beach, Cambria, Calif., digging beautiful dark green variscite near Mina, Nevada, and some examples of  roughly formed turquoise cabochons from Royston turquoise rough (near Tonopah, Nevada).  In Part 2 of this series, we will show you some of the steps along the way toward getting your stones ready to wear.  See you next time!