My Grandpa's Legacy - Part I

My mom used to wonder where I got my desire to create - not that she isn't capable of creating neat things. I remember her making these really neat porcelain dolls. But she never had a passion for it. Her passion is in gardening - You should see her flowers. She and my husband love gabbing about flowers and Japanese Maples.

The desire to create jewelry must have skipped a generation because my grandma and grandpa used to create the most amazing pieces of jewelry. They found their own rough stones and then cut and polished these into cabachons (cab-ah-shons) or "cabs" to create stunning and award winning jewelry, belt buckles, and bolos.

Grandma is now in full time care and grandpa says he can't create without her (isn't that sweet and sad?!?!). I am hoping that he will create if I am there so he can teach me how to cut stones. The last time I was down there I took over 200 photos of their work. I'll be posting it and showing it off over the next few months - and asking if anyone knows what some of the stones are. He's forgotten some of them - that was grandma's job.


Petrified Dinosaur Bone



Malachite

Botswana Agate

He has so much uncut stone it's like heaven to go through it all. I'll post the photos I took of some of this rough stone. I know you'll drool just like I did! He got a kick out of how excited I got to see it all and he was impressed that I was able to name most of the stones. I've taught myself quite a bit in the last five years when it comes to different types of stones. What can I say? It must be genetic!