Saturday, 20 November 2010

Flint for jewellery

As a kid, I used to collect flintstones. We don't have that much flint on our land, but the clay soil further South are packed with them. That meant I could find so many lovely stones when visiting my grandparents in Vejby. Often, when going home, I'd filled the floor of the car beneath my seat with chunky stones. My granddad once ploughed up a flint axe, which he gave to me as I was so fond of flint. After that he found half an axe, which I also got. Can you imagine what a treasure a stone age flint axe is to a small child?

These last few years, I've taken up flint collecting again. Now I do it with a vague idea to use the pebbles and shards in my jewellery. I no longer look to find the biggest chunks, now I prefer smaller pieces more suitable for pendants and I'm also pickier, discarding stones that don't have an interesting shape or colour. Luckily, fields that are ideal for potatoes are also rich in flint around here. So we -- my sis and I -- simply search for pretty stones during the breaks while we set or pick potatoes.

The stones above are some that I singled out from my new and old collection as my sis planned to tumble a new lot. Ever since the first lot, we've said the next one (after the glass tumbling) wouold be flint. So right now these stones and tumbling in a rubber drum along with a bunch of flints my sis has found.

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Wondering what the first lot of tumbled stones look like? I haven't got any pics yet, eventhough it was weeks ago since they were finished. The reason is mostly that we've done other things and then it's been about deciding which beads we want to keep matte and which ones we want to give more of a high polish. Besides, it was our first try so the stones aren't perfect in any way.

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PS! The flint pendant you found in this post isn't made by me or anything like that. The flint does however come from my grandparents' fields and has been cut and polished by a lapidary hobbyist nearby.

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