Drilled river rocks!

May 27, 2010

Drilled river rock rocks!

Our latest special find (May 2010) is drilled river rock beads. (Riverstone. Beach rock. River rock. Beach stone…)

We noticed what enthusiastic reactions this stone was getting…because it makes really cute, teeny little beads:

…and we loved the feel of donut beads with organically irregular, water-smoothed edges:

…plus the fact that drilled river rock taps into a fashion tip going back to the Stone Age:

…you can’t go wrong with petite tip-drilled pendants!

I made a necklace with these and showed it off at our bead shows, to nice reactions…

Go with the flow, check out beautiful riverstone beads made in the USA (by Mother Nature). They’re a limited-stock find!

Extra bonus: enjoy R&T’s Bead Shapes Glossary page, where you’ll learn the difference between tip-drilled and corner-drilled, nibblets and tiles, rings and donuts.

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10 Comments

  • Reply Cristina June 9, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    Hey! These look good!
    I made some pieces with river rocks too but I polished mine. Check it out, the stones look even better after polishing!
    kisses

  • Reply Dave Robertson June 11, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Very nice, I read that ‘river stones’ article in your blog and was entertained as well as impressed. (Thanks for writing in two languages there – – I got some much-needed practice at Portuguese!)
    Have you tried drilling any of your river rocks?
    –Dave

  • Reply Cristina June 13, 2010 at 2:42 am

    Hi, Dave!
    Actually, no I haven’t tried drilling them. I don’t have the necessary tools… yet! (grin) And I really like the wrapped look too.
    Thanks for checking my blog out. Writing in both languages is more work to me but it’s worth it to have all my friends understand what I’m writing about. 🙂
    kisses

  • Reply irene July 25, 2010 at 10:55 pm

    not looking for a blog but to purchase these beads; can’t see where on your site? can you help? thanks!

    • Reply Dave Robertson July 26, 2010 at 7:43 am

      Hi irene,
      Just click on the links above — “river rock beads” takes you to these beads in our online store.
      Thank you for asking!
      -=-Dave

  • Reply Beverly November 11, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    Dave,
    I love to use drilled riverstones to make organic jewelry. I’m looking for gray river stones that are about 1/2 to 1 inch long and drilled at both ends. I want to link these in a chain-like fashion to make a bracelet. Know where I can find these or how to do the drilled. I’ve tried a diamond tip drill bit, but broke both the bit and the stone. Would appreciate any leads you can give me. Thanks!

  • Reply Russ Nobbs November 11, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    The right way is with an untrasonic drill but few of us have them sitting around.
    Back in the old Bead &Button forum there was an excellent thread about drilling sea glass, drilling beach glass, drilling stones, drilling glass, and drilling rocks that will answer most ( if not all) of your questions. It’s archived at http://cs.beadandbutton.com/beadingforumarchive/forums/p/24096/238794.aspx#238794
    Some other advice is in a newer thread at http://cs.artjewelrymag.com/artcs/forums/t/1843.aspx
    Other resource are http://lapidaryjournal.com/stepbystep/mar04.cfm and http://www.rocks4u.com/drillrock.htm
    Over in starving Artists forum they’ve mentioned some other resources about drilling sea glass.
    Here is a great resource provided by Gail Rhyno a sea glass jewelry artist from Canada:
    http://www.ehow.com/video_4470069_drill-sea-glass.html
    Lisl Armstrong, from Out Of The Blue Seaglass Jewelry has a section about drilling sea glass on her website at http://www.naturalseaglass.com/drillingseaglass.html
    Also a couple of videos at you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RaHRyuBIwI
    Drilling stone and glass takes some practice and you do eat up a lot of diamond bits. “Tripple Ripple” is the suggested drill bit from, I think, Crystalite. I hope this helps.

  • Reply Dave Robertson November 16, 2010 at 7:53 am

    Hey everyone, we’ll have the double-drilled riverstone “links” in a couple of weeks, to be sold by the pair. Thanks for asking…and stay tuned!
    – – Dave at Rings & Things

  • Reply angelswann November 25, 2018 at 9:15 am

    Is there a price list I can get?

    • Reply Polly November 26, 2018 at 9:32 am

      Hi,
      I’m afraid we no longer carry the river rocks (which makes me sad, because I loved them!). However, you can find them on etsy and various places on the internet. They are hand-drilled, so be prepared: they are fairly expensive (that’s why we don’t carry them any more).
      However, all of our other items have their prices listed at http://www.rings-things.com

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