Welcome to my kickstarter! Two years ago I was driving by a building, one I had driven by many times and it had a word I wasn’t familiar with… Lapidary. After all the times I had passed by this word with only confusion and then dismissal as I assumed it wouldn’t interest me I finally had to google it.
Wow all this time I was passing by this building and inside were things I was interested in but didn’t even realize it. At the time I had a line of jewelry made out of recycled ammunition components to make bullet jewelry. I was in the process of thinking how I could expand in to other areas, ones that meshed with my bullet jewelry as well as something that could be on it’s own too. Lapidary was it. I started by messaging the Facebook page of the Evansville Lapidary Society and was told to come in and try it out. They offered 3 free shop sessions which were 3 hours each, during these sessions they would show you how to make your own cabochon from a selection of rocks and minerals. The idea was to allow you the time to see if it was something of interest before you join the club.
After the first session I was hooked. Aside from learning complimentary skills to the jewelry making path I was already on, the plethora of rocks and minerals I had been stepping over all my life, fooled by the plain exterior they had, I was in shock. When you slice them open the unique patterns, colors, and even what elements combine to make them is amazing. From that point on I have been acquiring materials from all over the world through suppliers and even taking some trips to local dig sites to find my own. A combination of creativity and adventure got that fire burning to discover and absorb as much information as possible.
That brings me to this point, one of my favorite things to make is hearts. With everyone rushing for Christmas but Valentine’s day not far behind, I thought it would be a good time to see who has money left! lol Of course for those who are also shopping for themselves or other occasions I have tiers that fulfill later through the year. Not wanting to leave out the creatives like me I even came up with some tiers for the makers out there!
The process to take a rock from raw to polished might appear simple at first but a lot of science is doing most of the work. through many levels of wet grinding they are shaped, smoothed and finally polished to a matte or almost mirror shine depending on the material. The hardness of the material plays a big factor in the type of shine you get. Softer materials will have matte sheen similar to an eggshell or satin paint, while harder materials will have a semi gloss or even mirror gloss appearance like a car paint.
All of the rewards are for finished hearts allowing you the ability to give them on their own or make them in to a necklace. If you choose the necklace option a hole will be drilled for a bail. I will offer wire wrapping services for an extra fee as the vast number of designs and complexities could range from something simple for twenty dollars or something complicated that takes many hours and could cost hundreds. It is this reason that I have not included it with the standard tiers.
There are three groups of materials for the tiers with the exception of black jade which has it’s own tier as I have limited supply and it’s rare/expensive. The tiers are based on material value and how much I have.
Group 1 Materials. Top row Left to Right are Aventurine, Gold Tiger Eye, Snowflake Obsidian. Bottom row Left to Right are Sodalite, Crazy Lace Agate, Blue Lace Agate
Group 2 Materials. Top row from Left to Right are Blue Tiger Eye (sometimes called Hawk’s Eye), Mexican Lace Agate, Serpentine. Bottom row from Left to Right are Green Moss Agate, Picasso Marble, Fossil Coral
Group 3 Materials. Top row from Left to Right are Calico Lace Agate, Gary Green Larsonite, Cathedral Agate. Bottom row from Left to Right Noreena Jasper, Chevron Amethyst, Shattuckite
Stretch goals will unlock currently locked materials. In an effort to not set the goals too low or high I will come up with the unlock goals as the kickstarter progresses. I would like to see as many materials get unlocked as possible and feel feedback from the live kickstarter will make that happen the best way possible.
The risks are minimal as I have all the materials and equipment necessary to complete the kickstarter. In the event that my equipment were to break I have access to the local lapidary which has multiple grinders and saws for use while waiting on my equipment to get repaired or replaced. Any other issues would be illness or injury which are never planned but that is life and something that is a factor for any project.