About the service
I take stone in batches and start with sorting rather than with the barrel. Soft and hard material cannot tumble together: calcite next to agate turns into grit within a week, so I group the rough by hardness and run separate loads. One boundary up front, and it is not a formality: I am not a gemologist and not an appraiser. Identifying the species and the value of a stone is a specialist's job; I work with what is brought to me, and I make no claims about any "healing" or "magical" properties of stones. I also do not take material collected in a nature reserve or on protected land — the origin is on the owner's conscience, and I do ask about it before anything goes into the drum.
Tumbling takes weeks, not hours, and I say so before we agree on dates. The barrel runs through grit stages, from coarse shaping to pre-polish, and between every stage each pebble is washed by hand: a single coarse grain carried into the next load leaves scratches that no later stage will cover. Deep chips and sharp edges I grind out before loading, and a cracked specimen gets a separate warning — it may split in the barrel or on the saw, and that risk is stated in advance, before you hand the stone over, not after. Dry grinding throws fine dust that is dangerous to the lungs, so all abrasive work here is done wet and in a respirator.
From solid material I saw slabs, mark a cabochon to a template, shape the dome and bring it to a mirror on felt and leather. The hole for a cord is drilled slowly with water cooling and from both sides, so the exit does not chip out. The mounting stays deliberately simple: a bezel cup or a wire wrap, sized to the finished stone rather than to a catalogue number.
What I do:
— intake, sorting by hardness, separate loads for soft and hard rough;
— hand removal of deep chips and sharp edges before tumbling;
— staged tumbling from coarse shaping to pre-polish, with washing between stages;
— slab sawing and cabochon cutting to a template, dome finishing;
— polishing to a mirror on felt and leather;
— drilling a cord hole with water cooling, from both sides;
— a simple bezel cup or wire wrap for a pendant;
— matched sets of pebbles for interiors, with a plain wooden stand;
— batch size, honest timing and the risk on cracked pieces agreed before work starts.
Tumbling takes weeks, not hours, and I say so before we agree on dates. The barrel runs through grit stages, from coarse shaping to pre-polish, and between every stage each pebble is washed by hand: a single coarse grain carried into the next load leaves scratches that no later stage will cover. Deep chips and sharp edges I grind out before loading, and a cracked specimen gets a separate warning — it may split in the barrel or on the saw, and that risk is stated in advance, before you hand the stone over, not after. Dry grinding throws fine dust that is dangerous to the lungs, so all abrasive work here is done wet and in a respirator.
From solid material I saw slabs, mark a cabochon to a template, shape the dome and bring it to a mirror on felt and leather. The hole for a cord is drilled slowly with water cooling and from both sides, so the exit does not chip out. The mounting stays deliberately simple: a bezel cup or a wire wrap, sized to the finished stone rather than to a catalogue number.
What I do:
— intake, sorting by hardness, separate loads for soft and hard rough;
— hand removal of deep chips and sharp edges before tumbling;
— staged tumbling from coarse shaping to pre-polish, with washing between stages;
— slab sawing and cabochon cutting to a template, dome finishing;
— polishing to a mirror on felt and leather;
— drilling a cord hole with water cooling, from both sides;
— a simple bezel cup or wire wrap for a pendant;
— matched sets of pebbles for interiors, with a plain wooden stand;
— batch size, honest timing and the risk on cracked pieces agreed before work starts.
