A New Year

I’ve never been big on New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I’ve made a few I fully intend to keep.

My first, if you couldn’t tell already, is to make time for blogging. I really enjoy blogging, and I’m looking forward to setting some time aside to babble online about who knows what.

The second is to become more computer literate. I used to be pretty good with this machine, but I’ve failed to keep up. There are many programs I would like to learn for fun, as well as learning more about different internet sites.

To start off my computer learning, I’ve downloaded a free trial of Photoshop CS5 and signed up for a membership at www.vtc.com. VTC is a site with TONS of learning videos for different programs. The course for Photoshop alone is 7 ½ hours. I did finish this lesson, but I now have plans to go through it again and take some notes! The photo up top shwows what I have learned so far.

50% off Sale!!

Next week my etsy store will be closing for a few days and opening with a brand new inventory of stones. This weekend we are offering all of our current inventory at 50% off. This is your last chance to get any of the stones you've had your eye on!

I'm SO excited to be doing this, my shop is ready for a whole new look! Prices in my shop already reflect the 50% off discount (thank you etsyonsale!) To take a look, visit us at www.cabbingrough.etsy.com

Signup for our Newsletter!

I am so very excited excited to invite you all to sign up for the new Cabbing Rough newsletter! These newsletters will be sent out via email and will include articles about what we're working on now, what's coming up next, featured etsy artists, and flickr contest winners. The newsletters may also include special offers and coupons. To sign up, simply use the form below. Your email will NOT be passed along in any way without your permission.

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An Artist to Watch....

Looking at jewelry on etsy is very inspiring to me. It's a wonderful indulgence to enjoy a hot cup of coffee and browse all of the talent on etsy. One of my Favorite shops to browse on etsy is Jewelstreet. Aimee's work just takes my breath away. Her pieces are so unique and tastefully done. My personal favorites are her cuff bracelets.

You can also see Aimee's creations on Facebook

Storing Cabochons

I have a few blogs I really enjoy following. One of my favorites is Contrariwise Ramblings. About a month ago, Contrari posted this awesome article about storing your cabs.
http://akacontrariwise.blogspot.com/2010/05/one-can-never-be-too-thin-too-rich-or.html What a genius idea! However, I HATE taping stones, removing them can be such a pain, so I came up with this version of the cab binder. I used the clear pages my kids use for their Pokemon cards, bagged my cabs, and slipped them in the individual slots. I think this would be great for keeping track of where you get your stones from as well, because you could slip a business card right in with the stone!!

Thanks Contrariwise, you've made my life SO much easier!!!!!

WARNING: If you do this, you have to be careful not to tip it upside down, or all the cabs will fall out! Maybe someone has an idea from keeping this from happening???

Garage Sale season!!

I spent the best $5 of the season today when I bought this old fixture from a Target store at a Garage Sale. It's now set up in my eating area (where nobody EVER eats) and is PERFECT for sorting all my slabs! This is after about 30 minutes of sorting, I'll add new pictures when it's full!

I'm a Proud Wife and Mother

Today is Father's Day, and Father's Day is more of a Thanksgiving for me. It's a chance to sit back and take a look around. I am so very grateful for the amazing family I have, and I owe everything to my wonderful husband, Karl.

I hear people refer to others often as perfect, and many times they receive the response of "nobody's perfect." Well, Karl is perfect for me. He has always supported every last crazy idea that comes into my head. He has stood by me in every occasion I needed someone to lean on, and he has given new meaning to the vows "in sickness and in health".

My husband is such a modest man, I'm sure he would turn all sorts of colors if he knew I was posting this. I see that just as another amazing quality of his. And not only is he a wonderful husband, but an amazing father as well. Since the day our children were born, he has never once grumbled about helping change diapers in the middle of the night, and has a way of staying calm and patient even when I'm stressed to the max. He has always thought of us before himself.

So, looking around this Father's Day, I just wanted to say I Love You, Karl and thank you for your hard work each and every day.

Before and After Mooka

I am pretty excited to show these before and after photos of the Mooka Jasper I recently purchased from The Gem Shop. This stone was so beautiful to begin with, I held my breath while I cut it! The cabs that I finished with were some of the nicest I have ever made. I wish I would have had a bigger piece of this rock. Maybe I can find some more on our next rock trip next month!

winners!!

And the winners of our gift certificate giveaway are....

VA and DIEM DESIGNS!

Congratulations, you each have $25.00 to spend at www.cabbingrough.com!

Molly and Karl cutting rocks

It's time for my first giveaway!

Well, we have reached 600 fans on facebook, and I promised we would do a giveaway in celebration! The prize will be a $25.00 gift certificate good towards anything in our etsy store. Simply post a comment here, and my lovely daughter Molly will draw a winning name from the hat this Saturday!! Winner will be posted Saturday afternoon.

If you are not a fan of our facebook page, please join us at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cabbing-Rough/323409776233

And our etsy store

Good Luck everyone, and thank you for your continued support!!

*photo by Bridget Stark Photography

Beautiful Jewelry!

Here are 3 new pieces made with my stones by 3 different artists.

1.) Malachite/Azurite made by Brita http://antennaeart.com

2.) Plume Agate Tree made by Connie http://www.etsy.com/shop/tescar

3.) Gold Moss Agate Necklace made by Ros http://www.jumpingjunipers.ca


Each of these ladies has such an amazing, unique style. It is just unbelievable to me that my stones have made their way to become such gorgeous pieces of art.

Just got back from vacation!

So, I have not taken a vacation for 6 years, this one was way overdue! We packed up all the kids and the dog and went to stay in a cabin at Pride of America in Portage, Wisconsin. We were there for 4 days, and had the best time! We roasted marshmallows, went fishing, and made sandcastles. We stayed up late playing Yahtzee and Uno.

The second day we were there, we took a day trip down to Madison where we found Burnie's Rock Shop. What a great place! This little store has big drawers in the back FILLED with slabs of every color, it was like my very own treasure hunt! If any of you are ever in Madison, I highly recommend you stop by Burnie's.

So now that we are back home, it's back to work, and I am more excited than ever to start creating more rocks to inspire all of you talent jewelry designers.

I think I have a little to much time on my hands...

Beacause here is my rock angel :)

Really Cool Beading Contest

I ran into this contest today, and I can not wait to see the submissions later this year! The challenge is to design a piece of jewelry inspired by a couture fashion from the recent runway. All the details can be found at : http://goodquillhunting.com/Haute_Couture_Beading_Contest.html

I hope you'll all take a look, and if you enter, let me know so I can watch for your design!

New Stones I'm working on today

I feel kind of bad, I have been so addicted to my rocks I have not been keeping up with my blog and other fun computer stuff! So here's an update!

I am working on a variety of pieces today. I am super excited about this big chunk of Mooka I have, I had cut and sold a cab from it yesterday, and the rest of the rock looks to have some amazing potential! Also, I have found a part of a Porcelain Jasper slab that looks like the clouds are blowing on the earth, like you see in old cartoons. My husband sees aliens attacking, but I see clouds :)

The Gem Shop just sent us 5 more pounds of Amazonite and they are now sold out. One of the pieces is a darker color than I have seen this stone to be, so that will be exciting to see how it comes out.

And last but not least, I am still attempting to work with some Rainbow Moonstone. I have cut this material efore, but I am having problems with the stones breaking with this batch. It $30.00 a pound, it's not a stone I want to mess with as much as I already have!

Hope you'll all keep an eye on my etsy shop to see how some of these come out this weekend!

Do You Love What You Do?

I was listing some new stones this afternoon, and it occurred to me I don't really have a favorite. I get as excited as a kid on Christmas with each and every one. Anything I have cut that I have not liked has ended up in a bowl on my desk. It seems to me that if I don't love it, why should anyone else?

When a jeweler looks at my pieces online, I want them to feel the same thrill I do looking at the amazing beauty we can all find in nature. My motivation when I cut is wondering what my piece may inspire and draw out of others.

I think this is what makes an artist an artist, the passion and excitement we feel about our own work. When I make a sale, the most exciting part to me is later when I see what someone else has created with it. Because my work is technically a supply for other other jewelers, my work is now in such a variety of pieces across the world. And everyone's style is so exciting! Some stones I will never see where they ended up and what they became, and there are a few I will probably always wonder about.

Jewelry made from my stones!

I think the most exciting part of cutting rocks is if you get to see what the artist makes out of it afterward. Selling stones on the internet provides a great opportunity for easily sharing finished work later on.

One of the projects we did this month was to cut custom stones for designsbysuzyn. As I was cutting these beautiful Spectrolite stones, I was imagining what I would do with them personally. When I saw one of her finished pieces last week, I was amazed with her vision and talent. Suzyn works with PMC, which I have extra respect for just from playing around with regular polymer clay. You can find her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/designsbysuzyn

Another artist that has finished a product with one of our stones is DiemDesignsJewelry. This jewelers does a mazing work, and the detail put into her pieces is just extraordinary. I love her rings, you can see them at http://www.etsy.com/shop/DiemDesignsJewelry

It has been an honor to work with both of these jewelers, and I can not wait to see what they create next!

New Stones!

I have been busy cutting in the basement, and now it's time to get to work on the computer again! I thought I would post a quick sneak peek to my blog followers, here's my new stones that will be coming up for sale on etsy this week. You can find these and lots more at http://www.cabbingrough.etsy.com

A Really Fun Website

Bracelet made by aidapray on jewelrylessons.com

Goodbye kids, Mom's found a new Jewelry website! Jewelrylessons.com is an amazing community full of talented artists. It is a place to show off your work and to teach techniques to others. I have found enough information here to last me a lifetime of creating new pieces.

The Gallery is used to post your newest pieces and receive feedback from others on the site. If you sell your jewelry online, you can post your direct links to as many items as you like for only $3.99 per month. I hope you'll all take a look at this community, I don't know if there is any site on the internet with this much talent.

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/

I Finally Found a Use for Twitter

I have a Twitter account, but I can't say I have really enjoyed it until now. Tweets look like another language to me, and there is little interaction when you're looking for it. However, today I stumbled upon a very talented jewelry artist to add to my list of favorites.

OceanPearlJewellery had posted a link to one of her etsy listings in a tweet, and I was immediately hooked on her work! I was impressed with the particular piece she posted because of the gorgeous, complimenting clasps. Little things like this show a jeweler that takes pride in their work. Her wire woven bracelets are very elegant, and the simple design would compliment just about any outfit.

Also featured in her shop is a pair of hand painted ceramic earrings. These bright earrings are perfect for summer, and also one of a kind.

You can find these beautiful pieces and more at http://www.oceanpearljewellery.etsy.com I hope you all enjoy her shop as much as I have!

The Incredible World of Rocks

The use of stones in jewelry is neverending. Very commonly stones are used in silversmith or beading work, however, I am a huge fan of wire wrapping. I think wire wrapping impresses me because I have done it, and I know how hard it is on the hands. Not to mention the difficulty of keeping everything even and tightly wrapped.

HardCandyGems on etsy has some of the nicest wire wrapped pieces I have found. Her store features many labradorite pieces, and her wire wrapped rings are just astounding.
You can find her work at http://www.hardcandygems.etsy.com

Thirteen Gems - An Amazing Artist

Melissa of Thirteen Gems is one of my favorite artists on etsy. I love to look at her work and I'm always excited to see what she will make next. Her new turquoise piece is just breath taking, and she pays attention to many details, using excellent quality stones.

Like myself, Melissa is a big fan of druzy stones. For those of you that are unfamilar with this term, it describes a stone with open crystals. Druzy stones can be very hard to come by, and also prone to cracking during the cutting process.

Although I have admired Melissa's work for quite a while now, I just discovered she has a blog today. On her blog, she goes though every step of making one of her pieces. It is very refreshing to find an artist willing to share their techniques with others, and incredible to think of the amount of time and patience that goes into every piece she creates.

Melissa's work can be found at www.thirteengems.etsy.com
and her blog at http://www.thirteengems.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll all take a look at this amazing etsy artist!

New rocks

I have a lot to do tonight! I'm so excited about all of my new rocks. Actually, some I've had for a long time, but I've just now dug them out of the endless boxes of stones in my basement. Where to start, they're all so neat!

BTW, anyone wondering why my work area is so messy, my equipment is ancient and broken valves make stone cutting very muddy and very wet! But getting dirty is part of the fun!

The new workbench

For those of you that do not know me, I work with my husband Karl cutting rocks. It's our favorite passtime once the kids go to bed. Last week I was gone all day running errands, and I came home to the best surprise - Karl had built me a brand new workbench! I have so much more room now, I can't wait to get everything moved over!

Learning about blogs

So far today I've learned how to find people, all about etsy mini, and how to do the Alt Print screen thing, like this. Thanks everyone for the help!

Some of my favorites

One of my favorite things to do when I'm taking as work break is to scan etsy for my favorite jewelry using stones. One of my favorite shops to follow is corybethy. Corybethy makes amazing, unique pieces. My favorite of hers right now is this Crazy Lace piece:
http://www.corybethy.etsy.com

A beautiful blue treasury on etsy

I'm a blogger

I've always wanted to find the time to set this up, and my time has finally came! I've always thought blogs were amazing, giving a voice to anyone that had something to say. And I have a lot to say! Let me start by introducing myself.

I am Laura, a married mother of 4 always on the go. My favorite hobby is stone cutting. I cut rocks from all over the world. I cut many for other jewelers, and some for my own work. One of the greatest rewards of my work is to see all of the amazing designs others come up with using my stones.

My rock cutting started a few years ago when my husband brought up his rock collection from when he was a kid. I wanted to know if he could cut them with his tile saw. We tried and it failed, but lapidary equipment was way out of our price range.

A few weeks later, I was shopping and socializing at my favorite flea market. I started talking to a 92 year old man, and telling him about my husband's rocks. As it turned out, he had old lapidary equipment he did not use anymore. He sold it to me for almost nothing! I think fate put us together that day.

Anyways, I've started this blog to show off some of etsy's great artists, and to have an outlet to share my work. Hope you enjoy!