Featured Artist: Jake Rankin

For the 2020 Holiday Season, The Gem Shop is proud to feature lapidary artists who create extraordinary art that highlight and celebrate the beauty of the mineral world.

Growing up in Oregon, Jake always had a strong attraction to the wilderness. As he says, “The legacy of the Northwest puts the geology right in your psyche no matter your passions. The mountains have a calling and I feel proud to be where I am from and to have such amazing rocks so close.”

His love of rocks and the outdoors started with hiking and eventually expanded into trail hiking and rockhounding. He also grew up collecting the agates he found in the surrounding rivers. Growing up Jake was also crafty and began working at Falk ACE Hardware. When he was fifteen, his boss gave him a Buck knife as a gift. Jake was interested in upgrading this sentimental gift, because it was so special, and he felt combining it with his love of stone matched perfectly. The result of inlaying his first knife turned out so well, Jake kept at it. Since then he has been working full-time in the lapidary for nine years! Jake continues to stun with his high-end stone inlaid knives and also cuts beautiful cabochons.

Check out his work on his Instagram page @nwrockdogs.