Rocks.

I'm tumbling rocks to make jewelry out of them. Really simple jewelry, the kind I'd wear since I made it myself, but I wouldn't buy because I could just make it myself. Mostly just brooches.

Rock tumbling is a simple process which simulates the conditions under which a rock will normally erode over hundreds of years to become smooth and shiny. Instead of tumbling through a river, chipping against other rocks and slowly wearing down, it's a somewhat faster method where the rocks are put inside a spinning machine with water and grit.

The first step does most of the hard work. You tumble the rocks with coarse grit (this is like iron filings) for at least 2 days, longer depending. By the time step one is done, the rocks should be totally smooth. All the sharp edges are gone first, and then it might take longer to wear down all the various gouges and uneven bits.

Here's a photo of my first batch of rocks, after 2 days of tumbling with coarse grit. They're pretty smooth but they need to be tumbled a little longer still.



I like the brown rectangular one the most, as it has lots of shiny gold flecks in it which weren't visible previous to tumbling.

Step two is the longest step. You tumble them in fresh water with medium grit for about two weeks. This sands them down even smoother, on an invisible but important level, smoothing out the microscopic scratches made from the coarse grit.

When that is done, you need to clean the rocks and the machine very thoroughly, and then you put the rocks in with new water again, and this time put polish in there too. I haven't done this yet, obviously, so I'm not sure what the polish looks like or how long it needs to tumble with the polish. Furthermore, my tumbling machine only came with one usage of each (coarse grit, medium grit and polish) so hopefully I'll be able to find more of these things at a craft store or something.

So you know that analogy of how humans are rocks and we go through the trials in life in order to become smoothed down and polished? I'm not so sure this is working out for me. I'm definitely getting worn down (and rounder!) but it doesn't seem to be making me any better of a person. Worse, really. I'm beginning to suspect that I'm not actually a rock, but a very hard dirt clod. I'm eroding all right, but not becoming perfected. Instead I am just slowly dissolving. At the end of it I won't be a shiny stone, but a soggy lump of sand with lost deposits all along the river bed.

I definitely feel like I'm dissolving, no matter how much you want to convince me otherwise.