THE LORE: THE SHIFT CHANGE AND THE 3400 RPM BEAST

In the early days of Rockhound Studio, the heavy machinery was set up, but the shop hadn't fully come alive yet. While I was at my day job, Janyce decided she wasn't going to wait around.

She had to overcome her fear of ruining the piece, but she trusted herself to tackle it completely alone. She threw on a pair of baggy latex gloves to protect her long manicured nails from that beast of a machine, fired up the equipment, grabbed a piece of raw serpentine, and went straight to the 3400 RPM wheels.

The 3D Marquise & The Hellstone

She didn't start with a simple oval or something easy. With absolutely zero oversight, she independently cut, shaped, and polished a highly complex 3D marquise out of that raw serpentine. She pushed it all the way through the grueling grinding steps until it hit her signature glass-like finish.

When I walked into the house, looked at the bench, and saw that perfectly finished stone sitting there, the reality of this shop was permanently set: Janyce is an absolute force on the wheels.

🪨 The Rescue Loop: See the stones born from her exact grit on the wheels. No factory shapes. Just pure, rescued Relics.

The Flat Lap & The Dining Room Drill Press

Cabbing the dome is only half the battle. When the flat lap was added to the shop floor, Janyce was on it right away. Running the lap requires a completely different feel—grinding it perfectly flush against a spinning horizontal disc while fighting the suction and the grit. She locks the backs of these stones down until they are dead-flat.

The final, highest-risk step in the shop is the hardware. Drilling stone is not like drilling wood or metal. Miss your angle by a fraction of a millimeter, and you shatter hours of flawless polishing into dust. Janyce commands the drill press right there on the dining room table, sinking the holes and setting the bails with dead-center precision.

The Universal Rescue

That 3D marquise serpentine celebrates the absolute reality of this shop: we are a two-person army. We both do it all—the hunting, the cutting, the lapping, the drilling, the kissing, and the hugging. But Janyce is the one who really commands the wheels, the lap, and the press.

Every stone tells a story of survival. Whether it is raw serpentine or a high-risk drill angle, we take the leftover can'ts and grind them into something beautiful.

When you bypass the mass-produced factory lines and adopt a Relic off our site, you aren't just making a purchase. You are taking home a piece of a 33-year partnership. No fluff, no factory settings. Whether it's Wearable Art, a decorative display, or a permanent memorial stone, every piece is completely OOAK (One Of A Kind) and handcrafted by pure grit and dedication. You are the final step in the rescue. Everything needs a home, and everything can be rescued if you care enough to put in the work.

Keep Exploring

🪨 Adopt a Rescue: Our shop is full of rescued, one-of-a-kind stones waiting for their next chapter. Browse All Collections →

📖 Read the Logbook: From the first solo cut to 58-pound boulders, read the raw history behind the Rockhound Studio bench. Read the Logbook →

Handcrafted by Bob and Janyce — Inspired by the shift change. 💪