local stone beads(new)

[lithicbeads]

I have a selection of beads that I made from stones collected here in western Washington and quite a few of the rocks came out of the stream in my gully or on the beach nearby. I like greenstones and a few are depicted here, listwanite, serpentine, hydrogrossular garnet and jade.No sun here for a month so I had to take the pictures out in the gloom and no photo shop will fix greens not taken in sun, sorry they are not quite true, not lively enough. We also have  slate, quartz crystal, poppy jasper, various granites, rhodonite, rhodonite with spessartite garnet, black hematite with spessartite garnet and various metamorphic things. all are perforated, they have at least one hole and the spacers and some of the pendants have two. these were my bread and butter at bead shows , I used to make and take gallon plastic bags of them and they would sell and grease the skids so to speak for the more spectacular bigger pieces. It is an amazing day when i can have the time and energy to go out and find the rough, slab it,drill it and finish it in a day.That is an amazing experience. hope you enjoy looking. Frank

[christopherl1234]

Wow that is a lot of work...well  done!

[pete]

Great stuff. Really interesting beads.

[DonniesTreasures]

Frank, I LOVE your beads!!!

[ScarlettoSara]

I love beads and I have made tons of bracelets and given them away but mostly they were with glass beads.
Frank there is nothing to compare to gemstone beads. Your extra shaping and carving is so cool.
No wonder these sold like hot cakes:)
Loved seeing them all:)

p.s. bead making is not for sissies...

[hulagrub]

That IS amazing!

[Helene]

Beautiful material and unique beads.  Jewelry artists would have a heyday coming up with ideas for creative jewelry, with those beads.

[drocknut]

Those are really great.  Handmade stone beads are rare so it's no wonder they sold well.  Definitely enjoyed seeing them. 

[mossyrockhound]

That's amazing!  It's astounding that you could do all that in a day!

A friend found some small beach pebbles and asked me if I could drill them for her.  I have this little quirky diamond drilling machine from Covington where the drill goes up and down, maybe 20 times a minute.  I decided I would try it on one of the little beach rocks and after half an hour it just started to make a little divit in the rock.  I walked back in the house and gave the rocks back and told her that I didn't think I would live long enough to drill her rocks.  After seeing your drilled stones, I know I was doing something wrong. 

[lithicbeads]

    Using an ultrasonic drill is an entirely different game than using diamond bits. the initial investment is very steep so to justify the expense you really  have to do volume. In addition the only ultrasonic worth having is the Imahashi , the others are S and M machines.

[TownsendRockworks]

Those are VERY COOL!  You done good.