Artist turns rocks and stone into unique jewelry designs.

Randy Arndt is a silversmith from Benzonia, Michigan, who literally creates his jewelry from the ground up. He shapes small stones or rock into cabochons, then builds a one of a kind Sterling silver setting to place them in. “I mainly make the cabs from rocks we find or slabs we buy,” he said, explaining, “Everything is pretty much made by hand, using both hand and power tools to build unique looking pendants and rings.”

“I think my favorite task is when someone contacts me and has a stone or rock which holds a special meaning to them, and would like to have it made into a pendant. I recently made a one out of a fossil a young lady found at the beach on the day of her wedding. I love that!”

While he tries to fulfill the customer’s request, Arndt said some stones are not well suited to polish.  “I get a lot of people asking about Petoskey here in Northern Michigan,” he said. “Sometimes it is either porous or otherwise unable to take on a good shine. But it never hurts to ask and I’m always willing to give it a shot. After all, the memories hold a bit more precedence over quality.”

Aside from working on his own designs, Arndt will also do custom orders. “If you see a setting style you like on my website or at a show, and would like something similar with a different type or color of stone, let me know. I have all kinds of slabs to work from.” A slab, he explains, is a quarter inch slice of rock that he purchases from rock shows or shops. “The list of rocks on earth is too vast to have everything, but my collection is building and I am always willing to discuss the possibilities. It all starts with a short conversation, and they can do that by emailing me at randy@ran-de.com.”