You Rock #1

YouRock#1
Originally uploaded by jmliss

Well this makes blogging very convenient. Over the past several weeks I have been posting my beach stones on my etsy site. I have been making my beach stones for 4 years now. The very first set I made were gifts to friends at my 39th birthday. I was caught up in "The Lord of the Rings" fever, so I followed the hobbit tradition of giving gifts away on your birthday. I also made up a bunch of labyrinth and word stones, something I had been wanting to try for a while. Several stores in Dover carry them & they have been quite a hit.

The beach stones range in size from 1"- 8". Each stone is hand picked from the NH, ME or MA seacoast. Most recently I have been making my beach stones out of stones collected at an incredible beach in Rockport, MA. Appropriately named Pebble Beach, it is loaded with tons of well worn beach stones. The colors of the stones are quite amazing, ranging from white, to butterscotch, to blue gray granite. The images I use transverse a variety of spiritual symbols including: labyrinths, Celtic motifs, Egyptian icons, Ohm & various uplifting & meaningful words. I have added some new words (words that were suggested by my tweeters) and images including animal totems and some new labyrinth shapes and will be posting them soon. I let each stone tell me what it want's to be decorated with. When finished it is then covered with 2 layers of environmentally friendly varnish to protect the image. The most minimal amount of varnish is put on the body of the stone to maintain its natural qualities.

I love making my beach stones. They are fun to create and people really just love them! I have me many individuals that have bought my stones and was always pleased to hear they went to good homes or locations. Anyway, I posted a slide show of what I have listed on etsy so far. I hope you enjoy it. More to come.