Ashley Akers and Victoria Takahashi are two metalsmiths who utilize pebbles in their jewelry designs. Each artist drills holes in their pebbles, both as a means of connecting the pebble to their metalwork, and as an integral part of their designs.
Ashley and Victoria use similar, but slightly varied pebble drilling techniques, which they will share with you here.
Both artists use a few basic tools.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrC6o5lyb3_zEgIHyeZ5k_slPdUpm82KUDQQ9AcGpvSxS85C8PAIksJqP8FXeeqvL2LqUOgp-oCrLyyEjanKxqnknPZZZrWF_uhsVDYkpPxpAO8y-H5C3SKWjyQqcBLwliREbSEA2oz0Y/s280/blog1.jpg)
Diamond Coated Drill Bits: Ashley uses hollow core bits and Victoria uses cylinder bits.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlJy8L838CcGCAi0W2fxAr9fLSbEPbQpFMX8pLZeTa5iFJSGFMIYI3egtYZZyDmnfMc4gcgQacGxWyD6E8W-beBpN2l1HsZ7AzQLoU8HWMcLECKdN05hXNHC931Ps-W9Lg9qrvWnQUX8/s280/blog2.jpg)
The key factors in drilling pebbles are:
Drill under water
Go slowly
Back your drill bit out often.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTIfG4720N10kPmrGxkGpGL_TZidPJxc0aBXPutszVUAyfwZOG3JNnt9QZPwbXBS_2BWa6YBG4cfUZv2JiPyg2lgBlu69UQMgN_6m-91Cab07SMI2TodNaoHGbyrbL8CCLJDqneBrdsfQ/s280/blog3.jpg)
Backing your drill bit out of the pebble allows the water to flush out the slag, or debris, that builds up in the hole. Don’t push down too hard, but rather allow the drill bit to do the work. Be patient! As Victoria points out, “if you go to hard or fast you will completely overheat and melt off the tips and they go "squeeeeeeeeee" really loud, oopsy, $ cha-ching!”
Ashley finds it helpful to start out with a small pilot hole that you can drill outside of the water. This helps because the water quickly clouds up and you can’t see your hole, but have to go by feel. The pilot hole will be very shallow, just enough so that your drill bit doesn’t move around on the pebble.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxIhQ_YEM4uWYpZLs2aEqB4IOuX4fObSRZaYNst5Qdv7xUdsrRZ-NR58_KrmGfGe_NsYDEix_W6bHPvratdhfVekbpzbbOst7w3Gl33DoC3RzWrFGfSLhVDnvEVi7J_JIujZ5PKd9ANLk/s280/blog4.jpg)
Don’t get impatient and push through the pebble on the back side. This will cause a fractured look where the bit breaks out a bigger section of the pebble. Sometimes even if you are patient this can still happen. Trial and error as well as patience are essential parts of this process.
You can expect to go through a lot of the diamond coated drill bits in the beginning. They can break and the coating can wear off, but this lessens with practice. It takes a while to get the feel of drilling pebbles. The denser the pebble the harder drilling will be, and longer it will take.
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Have fun, and happy drilling!
Here are some Pebble Jewelry Designs by these two artists.
Victoria Takahashi
Ashley Akers
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIgGfB7KB3gFs6J-Usr_zRUqRkZTFrJLx9Tp3VdHi60_KUJvey1_TOOBX58Y1Zu4_Ne7NupPUxNUQ_y-QM1ujLnUA4zFvPx-b-pbTF0GJrzqDJwJzx84XAt7mUXzPG3uT8-X3SNLScno/s280/MultiPebbleCuff.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis6ObA8lRyBCEHVgTVgMG7OqAPmFN9DqO4QWVMhzjTMhBB74h0osz1NaTX8lijhSUtBnRJtsoQYQHSBBZK2KMhMM6keFOiG9X1Rb_8mCurr13mkQStOrlM2TAkosE8i2h8TH9l4qBEqdI/s280/2882226721_642fd6b97b.jpg)
Your work is amazing!! Thanks for sharing this information with everyone, it's refreshing to see artists sharing techniques!
ReplyDeletelove your work, very smooth and beautiful. thansk for the tip on drilling, always wanted to know how it was done. great photography too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information, awesome work!
ReplyDeleteSeems like a high degree of patience is required here. But the results are very good. Thank you for sharing. 😁
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and clean looking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. Need to find a supplier for bits, I received a drill press for Christmas last year, can't wait to use.
Many blessings.
Thank you for the info. Just starting to look into this art!!
ReplyDelete