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Introduction
It has always been difficult to find decent
quality rough rock here in the UK. I had a few friends and
relatives that also wanted to find material so, back in the
mid-1980's, I started a small, part time business in order to
gain access to wholesalers and importers. Those friends and
relatives became my
first customers and eventually I built up quite a reasonable
customer base. Any profit was used to buy more rock or to
advertise in the now defunct lapidary magazine, GEMS.
Then I had to change jobs and move to
Cambridgeshire. As housing in this area is more expensive
there was no
longer space for a proper workshop or display area and, as
my new job was more demanding, all the rock was more or less
abandoned in a shed that had originally been constructed as my
workshop.
Today
A while ago I began to re-establish the
business and get back into the hobby of lapidary.
The workshop was
tidied, rock sorted and my saw, tumbler and vibro-lap
resurrected. I also began to buy more
material in order to replenish stocks and we are now in a position to welcome visitors
most days.
We
can be found a few miles south of Cambridge but please drop us a
line or call beforehand. Alternatively, contact us by
e-mail with your requirements and we'll do our best to supply
your needs, though we'd much prefer that you paid a visit and
select the material yourself.
The following pages list the rock
that is currently available, and I hope that the descriptions
provide a realistic impression of the quality. The photographs
are of actual pieces in stock at the time that the page was
generated. Apologies if the pictures are not that great, I
don't claim to be a photographer.
We are still in contact with a few of our
original sources and are trying to find new, reliable suppliers, so if there's anything specific that you're
trying to locate we can try to help. As time passes we hope
to be able to offer a wider range of material and at the same
time we'll do our best to keep prices as low as possible.
If
you know of anyone that has retired from the lapidary hobby and
is looking for a home for their left-over material please ask
them to make contact. If it's good quality rough and
is suitable for slabbing we might be interested in making an
offer. This is one way that we've managed to keep prices
down in the past.
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