[Bert]

Dose anyone make jewellery? What with? Where do you sell your creations?
Dose anyone use a rock tumbler?
 OK more than two questions.
I make a bit of jewellery for fun more than profit. I use mostly beads. My rock tumbler should turn up this week     hopefully (depending on which delivery company is bringing it on to the island, but that is another story). Was hoping someone would have some tips for me on rock tumbling.

[SallyintNorth]

ellisr makes lovely jewellery  ; she gets on here from time to time, I think.  I have no idea what rock tumblers are (some kind of pigeon ) so have no idea whether she uses them or not.

[Fleecewife]

I will be interested to hear how you get on with your rock tumbler - I think they are very noisy but such fun to see how the different rocks turn out.  I am a rock fiend in that I love everything to do with rocks, from geomorphology to jewellery 
 
Sally - A tumbler is like an artificial shore - you put rough pebbles and bits of rock in, plus some sand or whatever to grind, then you turn it on to tumble and leave it until all the pebbles are smooth and shiny and ready to be made into pendants, earrings and so on.  But we will hear from Bert if that's how it actually works, and how long it takes     And some pics maybe ??

[Birdie Wife]

Ooh - I'd be interested in finding out more about this too. How long does it take to get the rocks useable? How much leccy does it take?
 
And yes, pictures please, before and afters 
 

[bloomer]

the ones i have seen and that was many years ago really didnt take that long in the great scheme of things and ran on tiny little motors that used almost no power


you can get some awesome looking stones with them as well

[Scotsdumpy]

Hi Bert, I'm also looking forward to hearing how your rock tumbler performs. I've seen a few homemade tumblers on youtube which is also a good place to find examples of jewellery. I'm particularly interested in wire wrapping and I'll try and upload some pics (I've not done it before!!) We get quite a bit of sea glass on our beaches and it makes interesting pieces.
People have used Etsy for selling craft and there are a few other sites which I'm sure someone will be able to give you advice on.

Best of luck!!

[Bert]

Will post pics when I know what I'm doing. Rock tumbler takes very little power. I know it can take up to a week for each stage of tumbling depending on what type of rocks & hardness (between 4 & 6 stages. I think, from what I have read on the web). But there is a catch I'm not going to use it for rocks I'm going to be tumbling cow & ram horn, so there is going to be a lot of trial & error. Lot of timing issues to sort out, as horn is obviously softer than rock. Will let you know how thing go .
Scotsdumpy love your pendants they look great  .

[Fleecewife]

Bert - what a clever idea     I will certainly be watching for the results of your experiments.  I have quite a stash of horns destined for jewellery and buttons............'one day when I've got the time' 

[Lesley Silvester]

Scotsdumpy, love your pendants.

[Birdie Wife]

Bert - what a clever idea     I will certainly be watching for the results of your experiments.  I have quite a stash of horns destined for jewellery and buttons............'one day when I've got the time' 

Same here with deer antlers... 

[Alistair]

I make necklaces with fossil pterosaur teeth, 95 million yrs old, look great, only problem is the cost of the fossil in the first place, they are about £30-£40 for a good one

I tried with other teeth but generally they don't look like teeth so it might well be a tyrannosaur but it just looks like rock to most.

Ive just had a tooth out myself and was thinking of making a necklace out of that, not sure if I could sell it though...

[Fleecewife]

Well that's different      Can you post some pics Alistair?

[Alistair]

Will do, just can't do it off the iPad

I assume you mean the pterosaur tooth, not mine?

[Brucklay]

Bert - please tell us about your rock tumbler when it arrives - that sounds like a fun hobby. We have so many pebble beaches close by that is the sort of thing I could get into.

[Hermit]

My sister makes her own jewellery and uses a rock tumbler amongst other toys. She went on a course somewhere to learn how to use all the gear. She now goes all around Britain selling gems, fossils and jewellery for a firm based in York. She has a market stall to sell her own stuff when at home. She makes good money from her gems so good luck , ps if you do get qualified and a good name you can get all sorts of commissions from weddings etc. It all started from a hobby , then expanding. Good luck again.