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Stone Mountain Mine -
Our mine is located in high deserts of Lyon County, Nevada. The mine was discovered in the late 1970's and since that time we have discovered the majority of our turquoise by hand and pick.
Click here to see our mining photos.
Keeping turquoise natural
Rough Turquoise
We utilize many natural processes in our excavation, lapidary, and jewelry endeavors. The turquoise is carefully hand picked from its rock matrix then tumbled clean with jasper or a quartz medium accompanied with a small amount of tumbling grit. After removal of the tumbling media and foreign or rough debris, we sort and select the stones. Often times the selected specimens are tumbled again with a small amount of tumbling grit for additional cleaning.
We never stabilize any of our stones!
Polished Turquoise
Windowing is a great way look ’into’ a stone. In early endeavors we sat with a few of our very first artisans we discovered that it was much easier to see the true color and pattern of a stone after it had been ground, cut, and polished on one or more sides. This is the process we call "windowing". The process is generally performed on a flat side of a specimen to maintain the original shape while still demonstrating the variations within.
Click here to see our lapidary shop photos.
Drilled Turquoise
Our newest product is pre-drilled turquoise. Enough material has been collected and is now being made into beads of various types. Each bead is shaped and then drilled using a hand-dremel. The holes range in size from 1mm to 5mm. Here are a few examples of the beads we create: side drilled pendants or focal beads, drilled disc beads, long drilled beads and focal beads, natural tab beads, heishi beads and tumbled beads.
Turquoise Cabochons and Free-forms
Finding the natural center of a stone is the most crucial and essential task in carving cabochons and free-forms with turquoise. We first pre-select stones that reveal a lot of character. Stone Mountain stones all have their own particular shape, much like a fingerprint. For us it is a huge victory if in the end the stone selected retains its natural shape and character. The tools used in this process are a Genie wheel lapidary grinder for shaping, rock saws for matrix rock removal, tumblers, a hand-dremel, and a lot of sorting, cleaning, and thinking.
Click here to see our lapidary shop photos.
Turquoise Specimens
Every once in awhile a really exquisite specimen is found! In the 1980's, some turquoise veins that were very thick and plate-like were located. One in particular was over 300 grams and about the size of a 6x6 inch salad plate. A few years later some larger material that was 2 inches thick and heavy in iron was excavated. Although this material is not exclusively turquoise, the specimens are often carved and polished. In particular was a large quartz vein that had turquoise and metallic material throughout. Additionally there was material that looks like calcite but it is much harder and heavier than expected. This could be an iron magnesium silicate formed in rhyolite or an altered feldspar marble. This heavy material also has turquoise and other metals, most likely pyrite or limonite, within it. Gemology and additional assay work is planned in the near future to test this hypothesis.
Miners and Lapidary Artists
Suzanne Cassidy - Co-founder, lapidary artist, silversmith, bead maker, and rockhound
Kevin Cassidy - Co-founder, miner, lapidary artist, and rockhound
Canyon Cassidy - Miner, lapidary artist, bead maker, web guy, and random task
Handmade Jewelry and Art Jewelry
Stoneworks Gallery
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