About Gary

Gary Wilson's rockhounding nature kicked in at the age of four when his parents, both teachers, took the family camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Here on the beaches of the Keewenaw Peninsula he found his first agates, jaspers, thompsonites, and other fascinating pebbles. On the massive rock piles left behind after 75 years of hard rock mining, he found minerals like native copper and copper ore. All year he saved up his allowance to add to his growing rock and mineral collection, paying frequent visits to the mom and pop rock shops dotting Michigan. By the time Gary was 8, his parents had realized his rock hounding was no passing fancy. They bought him an 18 inch diamond saw and cabochon making equipment. Learning the art of lapidary from an old-timer in his mid-Michigan Rock Hound Club, he began making pendants and rings from his stones--malachite, rhodocrosite, petosky stones, Lake Superior agates-- and from age 10 sold them to friends and family members. After high school, Gary attended the University of Michigan for 2 years, where he met his wife Kathryn, then left school to pursue his love of lapidary full-time. He bought a van and took off for Florida where outdoor art fairs were plentiful. Kathryn joined him after finishing her degree. She made silver and gold jewelry incorporating his stones, and soon they were exhibiting at dozens of art shows a year. After nearly 30 years of art fairs, Gary took an opportunity to exhibit as a lapidarist in 1998 at the renowned Gem and Jewelry Exchange show in Tucson, sharing a small booth with another stone cutter. Kathy stayed home in Florida with their daughters, Lauren and Jesse. Now, Kathy is fully immersed in the Wilson Lapidary business,and the two have relocated to Tucson, AZ. Gary's cabochons and focal point beads are cut from materials ranging from the classic-- picture jaspers, agates and drusy, to unusual fossils and petrified wood, dinosaur bone, and shell, to the unexpected: antique glass, metal, and china,old coke bottles, "Fordite", and vintage billiard balls. His stone and non-stone cabs, carvings, and beads are all hand-cut and hand-finished to the highest specifications with superior polishes. As a result of his long affiliation with artists and metalsmiths, Gary's goal is to maximize the potential of the materials and to create shapes that are pleasing to the eye and that demand creative use by the artist. The resulting product will excite the novice and inspire the most demanding designer or collector. Any visitor to one of Gary's booths will see that he enjoys hunting for, cutting, and polishing the fine materials he's collected tirelessly for the past 45 years.

--Copyright Gary Wilson Stones--