You've decided to make jewelry from your own stone. Simple, right?
Not so fast. After decades of collecting, cutting, and polishing stones, I’ve learned that picking the right one is often the hardest part—and sometimes, the hardest part is choosing only one!
At Waystone, we specialize in turning your personal rocks into meaningful, custom jewelry. Over the years, we’ve cut into almost every type of stone imaginable: sandstone, turquoise, marble, quartzite, cement, limestone, even brick. Nearly any stone that’s solid enough to shape and polish can be made into something beautiful.
Still, not every rock is equally suited for jewelry-making. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a stone for the Waystone process, or any project that involves polishing natural stone.
Table of Contents
- Make It Meangingful
- The Perfect Size for Jewelry Making
- Texture and Structure: What to Look For
- Understanding Particle Size (and Why It Matters)
- What Materials Can Be Made Into Jewelry
- Collect Responsibly
- Turning Your Stone Into Jewelry
Make It Meaningful
When people ask me how to pick a stone for jewelry, I always start with this: choose one that means something to you.
Most of the stones our customers send in are little time capsules. They picked them up during a walk on the beach, a mountain hike, or a moment that meant something. Sometimes that memory includes another person, but sometimes it’s about rediscovering yourself—the moment you felt grounded, peaceful, or strong, and pocketed a stone so you’d never forget it.
And the rest of the time? It’s just a rock that caught your eye because it sparkled in the sunlight or glowed when wet. That’s meaning enough.
Pro tip: Wet your stone to see its true color. When polished, that deeper shade will shine through beautifully.
The Perfect Size for Jewelry Making
Most Waystone jewelry pieces need a stone that’s at least 2" x 3", though we can often work with smaller ones. Since polishing removes some of the outer material, your stone should be slightly larger than the finished jewelry dimensions.
We recommend stones that are about 1/16" larger than the the jewelry you want to make. When in doubt, a palm-sized stone gives us plenty of room to work with.
Not sure if your stone is large enough? Use our printable Stone Size Guide PDF to compare your rock to the dimensions of our most popular pendants, earrings, cufflinks, and rings.
When in Doubt, Go Bigger
Choosing a larger stone also gives you the option to make multiple matching pieces from the same rock. We've even had customers decide to have more jewelry made from their rock after they get their first order in the mail. Unless you check the box asking for your leftover material to be returned, we’ll keep your stone remnant safely stored in case you ever want to make a matching set.
Texture and Structure: What to Look For
If you’re wondering what kind of rocks can be made into jewelry, start by looking for one that feels solid. A stone that crumbles, flakes, or has visible cracks might not survive the shaping process. That said, don’t count out unconventional materials like brick or cement—they’re actually quite stable!
If your stone feels a bit soft but has sentimental value, reach out before sending it in. We can often stabilize delicate stones to make them workable.
Geodes are a fun case. From the outside, they look like ordinary rocks (imagine a rough baseball), but the inside can hold surprises—sometimes solid, sometimes hollow.
When we cut a geode open, we never know what we’ll find:
- A solid geode, perfect for polishing to a high shine.
- A hollow geode, ideal for a more natural, textured look like our natural finish
Understanding Particle Size (and Why It Matters)
One of the most fascinating parts of turning your own stone into jewelry is seeing how the texture changes after polishing. Much of that transformation comes down to particle size—the size and tightness of the mineral grains that make up the rock.
In general:
- Fine-grained rocks (like quartzite or basalt) usually take a smooth, glossy polish.
- Coarse-grained rocks (like sandstone or conglomerate) often result in a softer, matte finish.
For example, sandstone has fine grains but they aren’t tightly compacted, so it tends to polish to a soft, velvety matte. Granite, on the other hand, has large, tightly fused particles and polishes to a glassy shine.
No matter the outcome, each stone’s texture has its own beauty—it’s part of what makes jewelry from your own rock so unique.
What Materials Can Be Made Into Jewelry
We’ve made jewelry from some unexpected materials—cement, brick, petrified wood, and even fossilized bone. The key is that we need to be able to safely shape and polish the material.
Many people ask if we can shape their shells, teeth, and other materials. While we can use some unusual materials, the Waystone process works best with some and not others. For the ones that won't Waystone, you can work with our jewelers to come up with a custom design by special request. Just send us a message.
| Yes, It Will Waystone | No, It's a Special Request |
|---|---|
| Crystals | Pre-Made Cabochons |
| Rocks |
Shells |
| Cement | Coral |
| Brick |
Plastics |
| Mineralized or Embedded Fossils | Cast Fossils |
| Resins |
Pearls |
| Petrified Wood | Non-Petrified Wood |
| Elk Ivory | Most Teeth |
Almost any rock will work! If we refuse a rock, it's usually because it's too soft. See the texture and structure section above for more details.
Special Exceptions for Fossils
Fossils get a bit tricky. Solid fossils (like dinosaur bone, coprolite, or embedded shells) make beautiful jewelry. If we have any doubts about the fossil's history, we confirm first with local resources like the Denver Museum of Nature & Science that it's no longer valuable to science before cutting into it.
Cast fossils, however—rocks that are formed by minerals filling in spaces left by organisms—aren't the best candidates for the Waystone process. They're best when used whole to preserve their shape.
Collect Responsibly
Last but not least, always collect stones ethically.
Avoid removing rocks from protected areas like national parks, historical sites, or private property without permission. It’s always best to double-check before collecting—you don’t want to be the last person to pick up a rare stone from a place that’s meant to stay untouched.
Fortunately, there are many places where collecting is welcome and even encouraged.
👉 Read about the best places to find stones for Waystone jewelry.
Turning Your Stone Into Jewelry
Whether your stone holds a memory, reminds you of adventure, or simply has coloring you love, I hope these tips help you find one that feels just right. When you’re ready to transform it into jewelry, we’ll handle the rest.
Have questions? Email us anytime at hello@mywaystone.com.
Happy hunting—and happy collecting!
