Even earlier than beginning kindergarten, Stuart Mercer had a full bookcase in his room. Filled with rocks, that’s. “I used to be born with a proclivity towards rocks,” says the sixty-nine-year-old lapidarist. “By the point I used to be in grade college, I knew I wished to be a geologist.”

At the moment, that lifelong fascination manifests as Elk Run Mining Co., a gem store tucked away on a aspect road within the faculty city of Harrisonburg, Virginia. Strolling previous, window buyers are slowed by the colourful array of pendants on show, but it surely’s the small signal stating, “I personally mine, lower, and polish Virginia gems and create sterling settings for every,” that intrigues sufficient to attract them inside.

Amygdaloidal basalt collected from Warren Nation, Virginia.

Certainly, Mercer is a jack-of-all-lapidary-arts whose work begins not in his tidy storefront however deep within the close by hills and forests. Using a data of geology honed at James Madison College, he hunts two dozen completely different semi-precious gems from semi-secret locales throughout Virginia.

He acquires a couple of from subterranean websites, just like the prized, turquoise-like amazonite unearthed on the small Morefield Mine close to Richmond. On his personal, although, Mercer stalks “rock bars” the place mountain streams deposit nice aggregates of geologic variety. “The Appalachians are a few of the oldest mountains on this planet; they’ve been via hell and again,” he says. “I study deposits from previous books and data and work downstream from there, as a result of the whole lot strikes downstream. Probably the most enjoyable factor I do is locate the rocks.”

Mercer in Virginia’s Morefield Mine.

The untrained probably wouldn’t be fairly so entertained, because the rocks usually current themselves as…rocks. “Most individuals received’t spot them,” he states. “Your eyes and mind should clue in collectively.”

The insides, chipped open with a hammer, are a complete completely different, lovely story. A rock collected alongside a Web page County stream may reveal the deep crimson whorl of heliotrope, a.okay.a. bloodstone, whereas one other from a Bedford County rock bar glows with the icy yellow of citrine quartz. And although Fluvanna County’s dendritic rhodonite may endure from a wonky identify, it captivates with its contrasting internet of pink and black. Mercer’s personal favourite? “No matter I discovered most not too long ago,” he says with a wink.

Pendants on show at Elk Run Mining Co.

He usually hauls a number of five-gallon buckets stuffed with rocks again to his store to carry out his second-favorite job, wielding an influence noticed to chop them into quarter-inch slices that additional disclose in the event that they include voids or different compromising defects. Subsequent, he makes use of a grinder to form, then a belt-driven finisher to easy and polish, what’s referred to as cabochons—thumb-sized oval or spherical gems with domed tops and flat bottoms, a form effectively suited to pendant necklaces. (Mercer generally additionally creates rings and earrings.) At this level, it ought to come as no shock that he additionally crafts the settings, usually sterling silver, for his stones. What is hanging is the rareness of his mine-to-mount course of. “There are a couple of folks like me out west, however nobody else is doing this in Virginia,” he says. “I’m a lone wolf.”

All in all, it takes Mercer a few day to rework a previously peculiar rock right into a one-of-kind pendant. You should purchase one for round $195 at his store or web site. The story behind its creation, nonetheless, is priceless.