About us

We here at The Gemstone Studio have been creating unique award-winning one-of-a-
kind artworks since 2023, but The Gemstone Studio goes back much further than 2023.
Let’s start with the original gemstone studio founding member, my mother Diane
Hosterman. While living in Raleigh NC in the 80s and 90s we became aware of the
state’s abundant gems and minerals, so almost every weekend we would head west to
the ever beautiful mountains of western North Carolina where this journey of gemstone
prospecting begins. After a season of prospecting and finding North Carolina garnets,
emeralds, amethysts, quartz and many other precious and semi-precious gemstones,
we started to tumble and polish these stones. After gaining a great collection of facet
grade gemstones, we reached out to a master stone cutter, Earl Hines from Raleigh NC,
who began the process of teaching us how to cut and facet gemstones into stunning
pieces of jewelry. Well, I Joshua Daly, being a teenager at this time definitely lost
interest in the gemstone life. But thank God my mother never did so in 2022 I asked her
to teach me how to facet gemstones. While I was learning to facet gemstones I came to
realize how many gemstones cannot be faceted with only a small percentage made into
a piece of jewelry. However, all of the gemstones that are not clean and clear can be
polished and tumbled and we have accumulated a lot of those gemstones over the past
35 years of sluicing. So I said wouldn’t it be great if we could create some art out of all
these wonderful gemstones that we have. So that’s how The Gemstone Studio began.
Our first piece was The Bigfoot Calypso. He is an 8 inch by 8 inch stylized moose and
we knew that we needed a way to preserve him. That’s when we discovered two-part
epoxy. And just like anything that is worth doing, it takes some time and willingness to
learn and experiment with various techniques. Not every piece in the beginning was a
best in show piece, we definitely had a learning curve, but now almost everyone in our
family is an epoxy master from my wife Rebecca to my sister Kristina, even my kids are
working with UV resin in their little art projects.

Here are the steps to begin building what we always hope to be a best in show piece. It
begins with an idea. For example, our Mama Bear Mountain started with the idea of
creating a mountain scene with bears. I first selected Kambaba Jasper for the
mountains and White Howlite for the snow caps, Moonstone and White Howlite for the
moon and then my favorite gemstone to work with, Golden Tiger Eye for our bears.
Then our house artist, my wife Rebecca (Mama Bear to my children) begins drawing our
idea to bring our concept to life. Once drawn onto the wood it will either be carved out
of a solid piece of hardwood or drawn into a frame that I have built from solid
hardwoods. After we have the design carved out or transferred to a frame, we begin to
handset each gemstone into place. Many hours later we are ready for the epoxy pour.
Pouring 2 part epoxy can be lots of fun, but also very, very challenging. We have
learned that the best epoxy is a little more costly but well worth using because we do not want it to fail or yellow or be full of bubbles while trying to create an award-winning
piece of art that we hope you and your family will enjoy for many lifetimes.
Please feel free to contact me at e-mail thegemstonestudio1@gmail.com or call or
message my phone at 814-470-0825 looking forward to working with you sincerely
Joshua at The Gemstone Studio.