New Pebbles Website Now Up!

After a lot of hard work, my new online pebble shop is now open! Click the link below to see the selection of wonderful pebbles available now, and I will be adding more daily..check it out!

Beautiful Beach Pebbles

How To Drill Beach Pebbles

If you need high quality beach pebbles for creating jewelry and crafts click here.


Drilling beach pebbles is a great way to create interesting jewelry and craft projects. To do this you will need:

1 x handheld mains powered drill (I use Dremel 3000).

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1 x Dremel chuck (if using Dremel drill)

1 x Dremel multifunction extension (optional)

1 x shallow plastic bowl (about 2 inches high)
1 x thin square piece of wood to fit inside your plastic bowl
1 x diamond tipped drill bit (I use hollow drill bits, they go through the stone faster)

Make sure the pebbles you wish to drill are not too hard, so sedimentary stone is best, avoid harder stones, simply speaking, stones that are flatter and absorb water when it is placed on them will be softer, more porous, and easier to drill.

Also, water and electricity do not mix, so you can buy an extension for your Dremel drill that keeps the actual drill away from water, that is not to say you cannot drill direct with the drill in your hand, you can, I have drilled many beach pebbles this way; but there is a small risk associated with doing it.

Method

1 Place the piece of wood in your plastic bowl, the wood needs to be thin enough to allow you to pour enough water into the bowl to enable you to slightly submerge the stone you wish to drill when placed on top.

2 Fill your bowl with water until it covers the wood when submerged and leaves enough water on top to also cover the stone slightly; a few millimetres is enough.

3 Turn your drill on to a low rpm setting (I use the second speed on my Dremel), a low rpm setting is much better for drilling beach pebbles. Hold the stone steady in one hand submerged in the water and put your rotating drill tip at a 45 degree angle, and gently make a little starting 'nick' in the stone where you wish the hole to be.

4 Once this is done, drill slightly more at this angle, and then move the drill to a vertical 90 degree angle in a smooth motion. This takes practice, so try it on a few stones you do not mind possibly messing up first!

5 Once at 90 degrees, you are ready to start drilling through your pebble. Without pressing down on your drill, allow the drill to start going through your stone. Notice that a cloud of debris will start spiralling away from the stone. This is perfect, and tells you the stone is soft enough to drill through.

6 Keep the drill vertical and allow the drillbit to do the work, and go down through your pebble, periodically remove the drill bit from the pebble to allow water into the hole you are making.

7 When you have drilled right the way through your beach pebble, you will feel the drill bit pop out of the bottom of the stone, and into the wood below.

8 You have drilled your first pebble!

TIps

Thinner drill bits go through stone faster, so if you do not have hollow drill bits you can use a 1.5mm drill bit first and then redrill with a 2.5mm bit, or 3mm bit, this is much quicker than initially trying to drill the pebble with a wider drill bit.

Hollow drill bits work quicker, and a lot of the time, if you have a hollow bit, you can go right ahead and drill straight through with the hole size you wish to create.

Drill bits get blunt quickly, so do not be alarmed if your drill bit only makes holes in ten to fiteen pebbles before becoming blunt; this is normal!

Empty the water from your bowl after drilling 3 or 4 stones, you need clear water to see what you are doing, and also to see the stone debris spiralling away from the stone, so you know that the drill is doing its job correctly.

That is all there is to it, it does take practice to get used to the feel of doing the steps above, but once you are used to it, you can expect to drill through a dozen stones in an hour depending on thickness, if they are thin (under 5mm) then this figure will be higher.

Pebbles At Therma Beach

The pebbles found at Therma beach here in Ikaria, are a stone collectors dream! The small bay collects and holds these wonderful little gems, so that they can be found when beach combing.

The colours and textures are something to behold, and the variety of stones found I have not seen anywhere else. Quartz, banded agates, granite, jasper, and many more are found here.

The stones come from the sea of course, and also they get washed down from the mountain range on the island, if you go and look at the cliff faces near the beach you can see these very stones jutting out from the mud and rock; fascinating!

Greek Beach Treasures

A mix of wonderful beach finds from Therma beach in Ikaria, sea glass, pebble candy; and a sea shell!

If you look along the tidelines, this is what you can find..

Ice Resin Beach Pebbles

One of the ways you can create truly stunning looking beach pebbles is to paint them with Ice Resin. Tumbling stones of course makes them very smooth and shiny, but you lose the natural shape, and contours of the pebble. It is also very time consuming, and uses a fair bit of electricity.

Ice resin is a two part epoxy resin, dries to the touch in about 12 hours, and is fully set in 3 days. You mix equal amounts of the two resin liquids, one is a hardener (part A), the other is the resin (part B). Once mixed you have around 30-40 minutes application time before the mixture goes off and becomes too hard to use.

Here is one of the pebbles I have painted with Ice resin:

The best way to finish pebbles with ice resin is to do one half of the pebble, let it touch dry for at least 24 hours, and then do the other side; the results are well worth the wait!

If you would like more information on Ice Resin and painting beach pebbles, or any question; then get in touch. I will be writing a post soon with a more in depth explanation about Ice Resin, and the realities of using it on a daily basis, along with some tips!

Another beautiful beach pebble, painted with Ice Resin:

You can see more of these pebbles in my Etsy shop: 

www.etsy.com/shop/thermalstonedesign

Beachcombing Tips!

Since I started beachcombing for colourful pebbles, sea glass, terracotta pottery and other surf tumbled delights, I learnt a few techniques that might help a beginner to this wonderful past time; and thought I would share them with you..

1 The best time to go beach combing is after a storm, where the waves have pounded the beach and littered the sand with stones, sea glass and other delights.

2 Whether you have recently had a storm or not, the best time to go to the beach is at low tide. This simply means that more of the beach is exposed and more interesting objects will have been left behind.

3 Stand at the start of the beach you wish to explore, and look for the high tide line mark, and also lower tide marks created by the natural shape of the beach. Here, at these points you will find most sea glass, left there by the receding tide.

4 If you are looking for stones, and maybe certain kinds of stones, be it size, colour, texture, or shape, notice that if you look at the beach closely, certain types of stones tend to clump together. In one area you will find flat stones, another area will hold more rounded, spherical stones, and another will have more square, rhomboid, and angular stones. By observing the beach closely this will identify these areas and make your search more fruitful when looking for certain pebbles.

5 Take a plastic spray bottle with you. This is invaluable for when there has been no recent rain because it allows you to spray the stones and see their wet colouring, and therefore it is easier to find what you need.

6 When looking for sea glass along the tide lines, get down on your hands and knees and make your way along the line, you will be amazed at how many more pieces of glass you will find that you would otherwise miss by simply walking and standing.

7 Take a flat piece of wood with you about a foot long and 4 or 5 inches high, and use it to move the pebbles around on the top of the sand, you will find all sorts of extra sea glass and pebbles you othwerwise would have missed by doing this.

8 Take a break every 30 minutes or so when beach combing. You might think this is wasting time, but in actual fact you will find way more by doing this, as your mind will remain sharp to the task.

9 Take a notebook so that you can write down helpful reminders about your visit to the beach, including stone formations, amount of stones at low tide, types of stones, how much sea glass there is; and give the beach an overall score for each item.

10 Take food and water with you, a thirsty or hungry beach comber is not very effective!

Thanks for reading, and do post your own beach combing tips..

Beach Stones!

A lovely selection of substantial sized beach stones I found whilst out beach combing on the north coast of Ikaria a couple of days ago..

The colours are amazing.