Dopping a stone with wax is a valuable skill for any lapidary artist to learn. It will result in your cabochons being better overall finished products while saving your fingers from needless wear and tear. While the general idea of dopping your cabochon with wax is simple, it can feel daunting at first. I’ll share …
Making cabochons out of rocks is a great way to show off their inherent beauty and take your enjoyment of them to an entirely new level. Whether you’re making the cabochons for jewelry or as stand-alone pieces, a well-polished cab of a unique-looking rock is a striking piece of artwork. I recently started making cabochons …
Your rocks are finally done after days or even weeks of tumbling and it’s time to move them along to the next step in the tumbling process. Great! But what to do with the used grit and slurry you’ve just created? This can be a significant problem for a lot of rock tumbling hobbyists – …
If you’ve spent the last few weeks or months polishing a batch of rocks it can be extremely disappointing if they come out looking dull or hazy. The first batch of rocks my daughter and I tumbled together didn’t quite live up to our expectations, but we have since refined the process and now we …
Rock tumblers are amazingly simple yet effective machines, but one of the most common complaints their users have is the amount of noise they produce. It’s a shame when would-be rock tumbling enthusiasts have to abandon the hobby because their rock tumblers are too loud for themselves, their family, or even their neighbors to listen …
One of the most common questions I’m asked about rock tumbling is about where I get my rocks. While I think the most rewarding place to get my rocks is out in nature, it is certainly easier and less time consuming to order them online. My daughter thoroughly enjoys the wide variety of colorful minerals …
When my daughter and I bought our rock tumbler and were going through the tumbling process for the first time I noticed that the barrel became less full at every step. The tumbler we bought came with instructions but it didn’t mention the need for any tumbling media. After tumbling more batches of rocks and …
Rock tumbling is a relaxing and rewarding hobby for people of all ages. My daughter and I enjoy tumbling batches of rocks together and she particularly enjoys finding creative ways to use the exceptionally beautiful rocks that are produced as the end result. If you’re interested in getting into the hobby of rock tumbling yourself …
My daughter and I really enjoy tumbling rocks together, and after our first batch of rocks was complete we started to wonder what other types of rocks we could tumble. It would be nice if you could just throw any old rock into a rock tumbler and get great results, but that simply isn’t the …
Rock tumbling is a great hobby that people all over the world enjoy. My daughter and I have really enjoyed tumbling rocks together, and I never tire of seeing her face light up when she sees the progress her rocks have made. For the most part, rock tumbling is a pretty simple process. If you …