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When I go for a walk, especially on a beach, rocks have a way of making their way into my pockets. Often I only mean to take a closer look and get distracted by another interesting rock. Sometimes when I get home and empty my pockets, there are a few I look at and wonder why I picked them up. This has been going on for as long as I can remember, so despite several purges, I still find caches tucked away in the bins of stuff I have in the basement.

 

About two years ago, though, I saw a random YouTube video about turning a beach rock into jewelry. The rock looked like dozens I've brought home over the years, and the creator was from Nova Scotia, so I went looking to see if I still had one around. I didn't, but I had something much nicer. A rock I picked up working in a vineyard (I worked in five in that year or so, don't remember which it was) thinking it was a hunk of quartz with paint on it. It wasn't, though. It was a fragment of seam agate.

 

Out came the little 4.5" wet tile saw, and I slabbed it up (after testing on a few random rocks first). It took a long time to figure out how to polish, but eventually I had a combination of tools that worked. Is it perfect? No. Am I going to redo it? Maybe if I get access to better machines. Working with agate reminded me of dabbling in rock tumbling and making trees as a preteen. There was a tumbler in the garage that I had been tripping over for years. I cleaned it up and got it running. It's a fifteen pound barrel, though, which is larger than most hobbiests use. For a good reason, too. The rocks beat each other up too much, bruising and chipping apart instead of grinding to a polish.

 

Do we still have the little one I remember? I don't know, I haven't seen it since 1997. Maybe I can justify picking one up to do some of these rocks justice. As much as I hate the "turn your hobbies into a side hustle!" mentality ... maybe if I can earn some money with what I have, I'll actually do so.

 

I've also been trying out wire-wrapping. I don't think I've managed a single one out of the hundred or so I've done so far that I'm happy with. But they make nice pendants or tree ornaments. Maybe I could sell some, especially if I get better at it. Except some of them are so unique I can't bring myself to part with them. I must have them in my collection. You know, the ones that people might actually be interested in paying for. There are three other problems. One: For how long it takes and the cost of materials, the recommended price would be $30-$60 for what usually looks like it would cost $5 at most. Two: If I was selling online, I would have to ship them, which would cost about $25 minimum for most international orders. Three: To sell in person, I'd need to sit at a table in farmer's markest and craft fairs or whatever, which might be fine for a couple hours, but not for whole days repeatedly (for me, it sounds like a nightmare).

 

Anyway, here are some pictures: