I made a little collage of some of the tools I use to take rough rock and turn it into jewelry.

Top left is my setup for shaping and polishing stones. Saw and flat lap hand cabber. Top right are my hand tools for working with wire.  Bottom left are the two types of silver wire that I use. Square in foreground that I sometimes twist by hand, and in the background is halfround wire and it is shaped just as it sounds, it is a half dome. I use this wire for binding my wrapping wires together.  Bottom right are three types of copper wire that I use. In the foreground is halfround, square in the middle and round wire in the background.

I just have to say that anyone wanting to cut and grind rocks needs to be forewarned that they will sacrifice their fingernails and may sometimes draw blood on their fingertips, but do so willingly, as the thrill of cutting open and shining up rocks soon becomes addicting.

If anyone would like to learn how to wirewrap, I would refer you to the person from whom I learned, Randy Emerick.  Randy sells cabochons for wrapping and finished jewelry.  His ETSY shop is here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Rockhobby

Randy produced a pdf tutorial for learning to wire wrap.  I direct every person who tells me they want to learn here.  Start with a basic wrap and then work on it and add your own style.  Here is the tutorial: http://imageevent.com/jemcraft/silversmithing?p=15&n=1&m=16&c=3&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=2