Lapidary Gary's Hand-Crafted Stone Jewelry
Argentium Silver Wire-Wrapped Stone Jewelry
Lapidary Gary offers custom-made Argentium Silver Wire-Wrapped Jewelry, such as the Sodalite necklace pictured here. Gary's wife, Ilene, does the wire-wrapping by hand.
Argentium Silver is even more pure than Sterling Silver and resists tarnishing.
Custom orders are welcome. Prices vary according to the size and quality of the stones, the style of the mounting, and the price of silver.
For more information, or to place an order for customized Sterling Silver Wire-Wrapped jewelry, please email lapidarygary2@gmail.com or call 307-764-3777. We screen for robo calls, so please be prepared to leave your name and a message. We will get back to you quickly.
Lapidary Gary's "Special Touch"
Gary Olson, of Powell, Wyoming, has been totally blind since infancy. He enjoys grinding and polishing semi-precious stones, all by touch. Gary's wife, Ilene, mounts the stones into jewelry.
It takes nine steps to tranform a piece of rough rock to a beautifully polished cabochon. Although Gary can't see the cabochons he creates, he loves the transformation the rock goes through, and the feel of the wonderfully smooth surface of the polished stones.
Gary was featured in a Wyoming PBS episode of Wyoming Chronicle in December 2020. In the program, he talks about his love of lapidary work (rock grinding and polishing) and how he uses his other senses to tell when a stone cabochon is polished to perfection. To view the program on YouTube, visit tinyurl.com/wyopbsGaryOlson/.
Jewelry Stone Sizes
For reference, 25 millimeters equal 1 inch. Therefore:
• An 8x10 mm stone is 0.32 inches by 0.4 inches
• A 10x12 mm stone is 0.4 inches by 0.5 inches
• A 10x14 mm stone is 0.4 inches by 0.6 inces
• A 13x18 mm stone is 0.5 inches by 0.7 inches
• An 18x25 stone is 0.7 inches by 1 inch
• A 22 x30 mm stone is 0.9 inches by 1.2 inches
• A 30x40 mm stone is 1.2 inches by 1.6 inches.
• The mounting adds to the overall size of the jewelry.