Stunning Stones

Since I am always curious about other artists' processes and how they make their work, I thought I would give a little peek inside the studio at how I make my birthstones.

I make two different styles, the attached and the slide-on. But I use all the same stones for both styles, which are called cabochons. Cabochon just means the stone is round on top and flat on the bottom. They are all set inside of a sterling bezel, which is the outside part that holds the stone in place.


The stones all start out loose like these, so teensy!

Then I use my torch to solder the ring to the bezel. Next all the little lovelies go into the pickle for a nice cleaning and come out looking like the bezels in this photo:


And these are the hand tools that I use to set the stones by hand, each and every one. After that they get their final matte polishing. Phew! They are a lot of work but I think they are worth it for the end result:

You can see a full birthstone chart with colors and each month's choices on my website. Remember if you don't see the stone you want, I can usually do custom orders. Just ask me!