Stone Soup, Stone Diets, Stone Porn – It is all about the STONES!

There are so many stones, and as the old adage goes, so little time. For those of us crazy enough to make metalsmithing our lives, there are few things that make us drool, swoon, tear up,  gasp, and need a self-help group more than stones.  I belong to a great group of metal artists – The Aspiring Metalsmiths. We all love stones. We covet stones. We buy stones all the time, sometimes we even buy stones favorited by others in our team (always without malice). We just can’t help ourselves.

Because the only thing we love more than buying and collecting stones, it is looking at stones – gawking at stones – drooling over stones – pure stone porn I tell you!  It is an addiction. While we all still love our coffee, chocolate, and shoes – I think most of us love stones more. Our Team Blog Challenge for February is to show you, our readers/friends/teamies/buyers – our stone collections. I can’t wait to see all the beauties my teamie’s are hoarding in their studios. It is an addiction I tell you! Here are pics of some of my collection:

The Jaspers

The Agates

The “Ites” – all stones with names ending in “ite”

Koroit Boulder Opals

Misc. Stones – too many different stones to name

Labradorites – these get their own photo as they are one of my most favorite stones.

Faceted Gemstones – love all of these – maybe I should try setting one some day!

And a quick pick of some of my Favorite stones – well, for today anyway…

So, as you can see, I am quickly spending my kid’s inheritance on a big box o’rocks. Poor kids.

You can see some of my Aspiring Metalsmith’s teamie’s collections at their blogs, here is a list:

Autumn Bradley – http://www.autumnbradley.blogspot.com/
Clarity @ Scrollwork Designs – http://thesquarepegnation.blogspot.com/
Stacy Low – http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com
Chrissi Lynn Designs – http://www.chrissilynn.blogspot.com
Sylvia Anderson – http://www.sylviaanderson.blogspot.com/
Jessica @ Abella Blue – http://www.abellablue.com/blog
Contemporary Jewelry by Beatriz Fortes – http://cjbf.blogspot.com/
Esmeralda – http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com/
Steph Stargell – http://www.stephstargell.com
Pennee – http://allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Silver Pearl Jewelry and Metalworks – http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/show-us-your-stones/#more-4
ArtistiKat – http://artistikat-scratchingpost.blogspot.com/
Claire – brightstar109.blogspot.com/

And always check http://aspiringmetalsmiths.blogspot.com/ for what is going on in and around our small world of stone loving metalsmiths.

You may see some of my stones in finished pieces by visiting my etsy shop, I listed 3 new pieces on Sunday at http://sstargell.etsy.com .

Thanks for visiting 🙂

Steph