About Me and Malin Pebbles

I'm sure that anyone who has ever walked on the pebble beaches in Co. Donegal in Ireland has at least once called out: Oh, could I see those stones polished! Well, that's how it happened to me and how I got the idea.

I came from Germany to live and work in Ireland in 1997. After a Christmas Holiday in Malin Head, Co. Donegal, (which is the most northerly place in Ireland), I decided to move there and set up a workshop to make gifts and jewellery out of those wonderful stones. So the brand name "Malin Pebbles" was born. Since the year 2000 I have been at countless craft fairs, festivals and arts exhibitions and have spent many a cold and breezy day beside the tower on Malin Head's "Bamba's Crown" (where tourists come to see the northernmost point) and sold my handiwork. I live now in Greencastle, a picturesque small fishing village on the eastern shores of the Inishowen Peninsula.

Although cutting stones is a very specialized job, actually anybody could start doing it. You need a bit feeling in your fingers and a HUGE amount of patience. I had the knowledge of 15 years collecting minerals behind, that helped a lot in knowing what the rocks are made of and what their properties are. Harder Stones take longer to grind but are easier to polish than softer ones, others might split or are too porous or brittle.

It is a lot of work for small things like jewelry, and it takes yet a lot more to make a clock or a candleholder. But it is such an exciting moment when the finished shining beauty that came out of a rough greyish looking pebble, lies there in a velvety box or adorns someones neck, that all the pain is forgotten. Mostly.