Source: Pexels
Ever looked at natural stones or gemstones jewelry and got astonished? This is our reaction by looking at the natural beauty that God has created for us.
Gemstones/natural stones are created in nature with no interference from humans other than being polished, cut, and mined.
So are you ready to find out how to make natural stone jewelry? Without wasting any time, let’s get straight into the blog.
Which Natural Stone to Select for Jewelry Making?
In this blog, I’ll tell you about how to make natural stone jewelry from scratch to finish. But first, let’s discuss some important things.
There are numerous natural stones out there with a variety of designs. With a trend going on in crystal jewelry nowadays along with raw stone jewelry, no matter if you’re either a consumer or business owner, understanding different types of jewelry will benefit you. If you want to know more about different types of jewelry, click this link.
Natural Stones & Its Benefits
Source: Pexels
Here are the top 5 natural stones & their benefits:
1. Druzy
2. Water Worn-Rough
3. Crystals
4. Sliced Stones
5. Opaque Stones
1. Druzy
Source: Gem Rock Auctions
The minerals that increase as plates/genocides and the surface of small, glowing crystals are known as Druzy. The druzy adds a special structure to a jewelry item.
A combination of calcite, garnet, and quartz can develop rare minerals but they also form Druzy this way. This actual gemstone comes in different colors like hot pink cobalto calcite.
The Druzy stone is usually found in either blue or grey but can also be found in red, orange, yellow, etc.
A bit of trader coat druzy with titanium or gold to make uniform and bright colors.
Also, see how to make druzy cabochons as well as how to make druzy jewelry.
2. Water Worn-Rough
Source: WorthPoint
Got a rough piece that is lying around and is not quite fostered? Don’t worry, it can still make attractive jewelry. Accommodate a stone by building a cage around it or bead, this is a great way to use it. Water Worn-Rough is great with color but sadly inclusion.
3. Crystals
Source: Pexels
Crystals are large, they have completed embodiment which makes them great, noteworthy pieces. Quartz is very much popular, but tourmaline also forms massive and eye-catching crystals. Iolite and pleochroic minerals are also interesting and popular specimens
4. Sliced Stones
Source: AliExpress
If you’re into trending when it comes to polish and cut, then stone slices can blend a raw stone sense with a shiny and bright surface. Watermelon Tourmaline and Banded Agate are more classic sliced stone options.
Geode slices are an impressive choice because their hollow interior gives you further options for innovative jewelry design.
5. Opaque Stones
Source: Magnetism in Gemstones
Opaque stones can be charming to your jewelry designs as they are vibrant in color. If any of the stones has an attention-grabbing texture without any sharp edges and polishing, then you can utilize it in jewelry as a raw stone.
Lapis Lazuli and Turquoise may have unpolished texture and color. While Opaque Quartz Matriz usually has patterns of inclusions.
Raw Stone Jewelry Cleaning & Care
Source: Pinterest
Raw stone jewelry needs a little bit of cleaning and care like faceted gems. As rough surfaces make the cleaning difficult, proper storage will reduce dust growth, however, cleaning will become compulsory. Also, Learn How to make jewelry with raw stones.
A little bit of compressed air is a nice early step to remove dust and dirt. But if your specimen isn’t water-soluble (like calcite druzy or turquoise) you can soak them in warm water with detergent and mild soap. You can even use a soft brush to remove the remaining dirt. Learn how to make a druzy pendant.
Be really careful with specimens like druzy because a few crystals can be removed by cleaning on your own. Dry the jewelry gently with a hairdryer or stream of compressed air on the cool setting after shaking off excess water.
Druzy specimens can get damaged by Steam Cleaning and Sonic Cleaning. Only steam cleaning is applicable for raw stone jewelry that isn’t warm sensitive.
Check here to know how to make druzy earrings.
Are Natural Stones Real from Us?
Source: AliExpress
Due to the high demand for precious stones in the market, people get tricked into buying fake stones that look almost the same as real. But how do we find if the stone is real or fake?
Let’s have a look at what you need to know before purchasing a stone.
Step 1
Check for any involvement on the stone with your naked eyes. If it’s not possible to see any involvement with your naked eyes, then use a magnifying glass. Find any chipping or mark to know the stone has been removed from a ring. Also look for scratches, black spots, and cracks inside the stone.
Step 2
The second step is to check the color of the gemstone. To find out the fake ones, they should be vibrant in color and eye-pleasing as well.
Step 3
To save yourself from getting scammed, then you should contact a credible seller. The advantage of contacting a credible seller is that he/she can educate you about it and help you find the stone you need.
Step 4
The most important thing people look at when buying a precious stone is design and shape. When you’re buying one for yourself, make sure there aren’t any marks on it.
Step 5
Once the above points are clear, now is the time to look for the transparency of the stone. The value of the gemstone is determined by its transparency which means the higher the transparency the more its price.
Beware that the transparency isn’t created by glass filling, metal filling, or heating.
How to Cut Natural Stones?
Source: Youtube
Did you ever wonder how to make natural stone jewelry? Firstly, working on natural stones is a big challenge, and most stones don’t have holes. Those who have diamond-tipped bits and high-speed drills are ok to go, but what if you don’t have any of them?
Then I have an alternative solution for you. Not only that but I’ll be sharing which natural stones to select for jewelry making and much more.
See how to make natural stone bracelets here.
Natural Stones Cutting Process
You can use chunky stones but the flat stones are the ones that are easier to work with. The stone you’re working on shouldn’t be too heavy. Your stone must be adjustable in a 2×2 inch square.
There are other considerations as well if the stone is patterned or plain? If one side of the stone is more interesting than the other? Or are both sides fairly engaging?
These are the questions that you must answer to know which method you’ll want to use. Before you choose any stone of your choice, the stone must be washed in mild soapy water to get rid of any oil or dirt.
Once the stone gets dry, you can leave it or paint it on it. After all these stones are unpolished, you can apply acrylic sealer, paint on them with fingernail polish, or you can spread some vegetable oil to make them look bright.
These items may expand the color of your stone. So better do some experiments first on similar stones so you know what result you’ll get.
For example, if you’re using vegetable oil, let it absorb for some minutes, then clean the excess. Remember, only use vegetable oil if you’re not sure to paint or glue the stone. Alas! Now you’ve organized your amazing stone, let’s move to the next part.
How to Make Natural Stone Jewelry?
Source: Pexels
Step 1: Wrapping Flat Stones with Wire
So the first method should be wrapping flat stones with wire. Wrapping with wire is an appealing form of art. You can find all types, gauges, and colors of wire and enjoyable tools too, so if you find wire is your thing, then you’ll have fun while doing it.
I’m going to keep the instructions as simple as possible. The above is just to give you an overview of how the wire is gonna work with the tools involved. So you can have an idea of making jewelry. Now let’s make some jewelry!
Instruments you’ll need:
- Needle Nosed Pliers
- Paper & Pencil
- 26 Gauge Floral Wire
- Eye Protection
- Wire Cutter
A flat stone is the best option for this particular type of wrap. To begin with, put your selected stone on the chunk of paper and make an outline of it. Your outline might be handy if you need assistance while wrapping your stone.
Now what you’re gonna do is cut the wire into 4-5 pieces of 2 inches long and keep them aside. Take the stone in one hand, measure the top and drop 2 inches of wire tail. Now wrap the wire around the stone 3 times.
If you’re struggling to do it, you can determine the outline of the stone you just made with wire on the paper. Once you get 3 wraps of outline, drop a 2-inch tail at the top and cut the wire. Hold the outline wire collectively, now wrap it around approximately 6 times after taking a small piece of wire.
The first 2 wraps might be more loosely wrapped, unwrap them leaving only the tight coils that are wrapped. Lastly, with the wire cutters, clip off the ends. Resume placing the remaining short wires around the wire outline. Assure that there’s a short wire wrap on all sides of the stones.
Step 2: Some More Wire Wrapping of the Flat Stone
In the prepared wire outline, make sure to fit your stone. Now there are 3 wires:
- Leaving the One for the Outline
- By Using Your Fingernail Pull One Wire to the Front
- One Wire to The Back of the Stone
Don’t forget to do this all around the stone. For the next part, take 2 tails, make a loop by twisting them together. Protect the loop to the outline wire and clip off the ends. To give the professional look, you must know how to hide your ends.
To make it even more perfect, I suggest you watch tutorials on youtube and buy/borrow some books to see how others do it. Practice it until you get it right. These may look like average materials but you can make them look magnificent with practice.
Want to learn more? Keep going, as I’m telling you about how to wrap a chunky stone in the next step.
Step 3: Chunky Stones Wire Wrapping
For wrapping a chunky stone, you’ll be using again the same instruments:
- Wire Cutter
- 26 Gauge Wire
- Needle Nose Pliers
- Beads with Holes
Now to start the wire wrapping of chunky stones, first cut 3 pieces of wire about 10-12 inches long. Again cut the wire 2 inches long but for small wire. It’s suggested to have wires that are long, not short.
Put the wires parallel around each other, even the ends of the wire, then find the middle. Take the long wires and wrap the small wire together with 5-6 coils, as we did in the previous step.
Spread the wires out like an expanse in a wheel once the above gets done. Near the wrapped spot, put the bottom of the stone. Now pull up the wires there should be wire on all sides. In case you’ve beads, take them out so you can add them later as you go.
This process is like free-flowing and weaving as compared to the last. Just start crisscrossing the wires, add some beads until you have a pleasant design. When you are done, pick and take your wires up to the top. Make a loop by picking out 2 wires. The other ends can easily be wrapped several times around at the base of the loop wires and cut, you can even coil them to make them a segment of the design.
How Natural Stone Jewelry are Manufactured in a Factory?
Want to know how people make natural stones jewelry in factories? Have a look at this:
DIY Natural Stone Jewelry
Source: Pexels
Selecting the Right Natural Stone for Drilling
Any natural stone can get drilled, but I would suggest you start with smooth sedimentary rocks (limestone, mudstone, sandstone). For instance, if you randomly picked a stone that isn’t rounded like other ones, this will give you an idea that this rock will take a longer time than the regular one.
Some other ways to find if a pebble is too hard to drill is by seeing if the stone is glossy or shiny like quartz or you can detect crystals in the stone.
Start with sedimentary rocks, as they are easy to drill. Don’t worry too much if you can’t find out what kind of rock it is. If it takes much longer for drilling than the stones you have, then it’s for sure metamorphic and igneous.
Tools You’ll Need to Drill Natural Stones
- Rocks
- Goggles
- A Little Piece of Wood
- Tiny Plastic Container
- Dremel Collet Nut
- Hollow, Diamond Tipped Coring Bits
- Fast Speed Rotary Tools
If you want to know in-depth about the above tools, click this link.
Let’s Begin the Drilling!
- Wear the goggles first
- Strongly hold the natural stone on top of the piece of wood.
- Using another hand, power on the rotary tool and hold it perpendicular to the stone. Stay alert and be careful when using the rotary tool around the water. Make sure that every part of the tool doesn’t get wet and don’t pick the tool with your wet hands.
- Start the drilling and the weight of the drill machine will do your work. Don’t forget to lift the drill up & down.
- You’re done when you feel the breaking of stone to the other side. With these natural stones, the drilling takes approximately 3 minutes. It will take less than this when you become a pro at it.
The possible way to change these natural stones other than drilling holes in them is you rub them with your hands after applying some eucerin lotion (unscented) only after stones get dry. This method supports the stones so the natural oil from your skin doesn’t leave dark spots on the pebbles and this brightens the natural color of the stone.
Now that you know how to make natural stones from start to finish, get up and make some incredible stones. And once you’re completed with the drilling, you’ll then just need some basic jewelry to finish the work.
Conclusion
In this art article, we’ve discussed which natural stones to select, their making, and everything you can possibly think of. This article will be sufficient for you to give you enough knowledge to know about natural and raw stones. After reading this article, you will be insightful enough to make natural stone jewelry by yourself at home.
Are you looking for natural stone jewelry? Then TTT Jewelry is the solution for you. What is TTT Jewelry? TTT Jewelry is a natural stone jewelry-making company with years of experience, we take good care of our customers and deliver beyond their expectations.
Benefits for Choosing TTT Jewelry
- Original Gemstones
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