Self-taught stone artist Kim Strand creates exciting jewelry using rocks she plucks off the ground around Yellowknife and other nearby communities.

Kim Strand designs one-of-a-kind geological jewelry through her part-time home-based business, Earthstone Creations. She is displaying her most recent work during the Geoscience forum in Yellowknife this month. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

"I'm not a geologist. I have no experience other than a love of the rock," she said.

As a child growing up in Northlands, Strand used to play on the rock on which Stanton Hospital now sits. Her child's-eye view of the land inspired her lasting appreciation for the natural beauty of stone.

"I fell in love with the rock," she recalled. "Everyone goes on and on about the diamonds, and they're beautiful, but I wanted to show everyone that we have some of the most beautiful rocks in the world here."

Today she and her daughters Jesslyn, Chrissy and Breanna plan to hunt for pretty rocks along the Ingraham Trail to use as jewelry centrepieces. Her friends collect different-looking stones whenever they visit Wrigley, Fort Simpson and other Northern communities.

Using a small diamond saw, Strand slices interesting rocks open to expose the colours, striations and grains inside. Hard rocks two-inches wide take about an hour to cut through. Softer minerals can split in 15 minutes or less, she said.

After cutting the rock, Strand shapes the stone into squares, tear drops, domes, ovals or one-of-a-kind designs. She finishes with an eight-step hand-polishing process.

"Sometimes my fingertips get a little ground away, but hey, it's all in the name of love," she said.

The rocks around town offer lots of elegant pink and salmon shades as well as blacks and deep purples. When polished, the smooth, coloured surfaces make startling centrepieces for beaded pendants, earrings and other Northern wearable art. A few semi-precious stones can be found locally, as well.

Around Enterprise, fossils are abundant, Strand said. Once sliced, the ancient formations offer a tiny universe of textures and contrasts. Horn Coral is particularly popular, she said, with its slivers and circles of calcified coral and mud.

Strand said she plans to create a full-time, home-based business from her passion for pebbles. In the meantime her jewelry is on exhibit at craft sales in the lead-up to the holidays under the label Earthstone Creations.