Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - Sam Kivi is one of those people who has a day job and a passion. Her day job is with the government, but in her free time she makes fine jewelry out of polished stones and fossils.

Sam Kivi sits at her rock polisher preparing a new piece of art. Kivi supplements her income by creating jewelry out of polished stones and fossils. Her works are hot sellers at the Norman Wells Historical Centre. - Brodie Thomas/NNSL photo

Lucky for her it is a lucrative hobby. Her works are hot sellers at the Norman Wells Historical Centre gift shop. Kivi said she spends hours in her workshop, polishing and mounting stones.

"It could be full-time if I wanted," said Kivi.

The Mackenzie Valley is rich in fossils, rare minerals and stones. To the untrained eye they are just rocks, but Kivi knows where to look and what too look for.

"I have friends who bring me interesting stones all the time," she said.

Her yard is littered with unusual rocks and fossils that either await her inspection, or have been rejected for aesthetic purposes.

Inside her home, only the best pieces are on display. Beautiful samples of petrified wood, huge trilobite fossils, and unusual pieces of coral and shells fill several display shelves and a specially modified coffee table.

She and her husband often take trips up to Fossil Canyon, a fossil-rich area in the hills east of Norman Wells. She also recently discovered another fossil cache, although she is not yet ready to reveal that location.

Her workshop is a small room at the back of the house. It is meticulously organized. Her rock polisher is in the centre of her workshop.

She reaches into a drawer and pulls out a nondescript piece of rock. Then she fires up her polisher.

The polisher looks like a typical workshop grinder except there are six sanding stones instead of one. Each sanding stone is a different grit. She moves the rocks from the rough polishers to the fine, getting a finer polish each time.

"Look inside, see how it is so different? "she asks without looking up from the polisher.

As the grinder wears away the gray outside, a beautiful red translucent inside is revealed.

Kivi takes common trilobite fossils and creates jewelry out of them. Earrings, broaches, and cuff links can all be made by mounting the stones into pre-made pieces of jewelry called 'findings.' She even makes belt buckles and clocks.

"It just started out as something to fool around with..." says Kivi as she looks around the workshop.

Now it has grown into something a bit more.