Bouquet of turquise
I'm cutting turquoise in the workshop. I cut the shapes and then I mount them on sticks to sand them down and polish them. There is actually nothing you put on a stone to polish it; you simply sand the stone smoother and smoother until the stone is so smooth that it sparkles. I start with 100 grit, then 200, 300, 500, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 and then polish. With each grit I carefully smooth out any imperfections and sand out any lines from the previous grit on every side of the stone. It's a slow process and I find it very meditative. Turquoise has such a lovely colour that my handfull of sticks with half-polished stones looks kind of like a bouquet of turquoise.