Stamford Lapidary

Dave Austin from Stamford Lapidary

Lapidary: as far as I am concerned this is the craft of taking a lump of rough rock, be it semi precious rock or a lump of something interesting that I have found in the fields and through the process known as Lapidary, transforming it into an item of beauty that can be used in jewellery.

This is a very lengthy process because it involves various stages including sawing, shaping, sanding and finally polishing and maybe drilling as well. We also produce tumble stones as well in our rock tumblers, again this can be semi precious rock or just something interesting we have found, for example flint and pebbles really do polish up very well.

Wire Sculpture: I only recently discovered this craft while it was too cold to work out in the Lapidary workshop. In only a few months we have learnt how to create really beautiful wire tree sculptures, some we have attached gemstones on the branches, other we have flattened the twig ends to form leaves.

Our small workshop (ever evolving) contains 4 rock tumblers a rock saw, our homemade cabochon machine and a rock drill along with all of different rough rocks which will eventually be cut, shaped and polished for use in Shalini’s jewellery.

We also sell rough rock specimens for those interested in crystal healing or who just want some nice rock samples to display in the home or office. I keep a piece of Labradorite on my desk, it helps my imagination and creativity. Visit our Rough Rocks Shop

Contact Stamford Lapidary via Dave’s website www.roughrocks.co.uk or leave a message on this page.

You can also see Dave on

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stamford-Lapidary
• Twitter: twitter.com/roughrocks