Cabochon comes from the French meaning "the bald head". Technically, a cabochon is any stone that is cut with a convex shape. Artisans in ancient Persia and China were cutting cabochons more than 4,000 years ago, and great artisans are still producing extraordinary pieces today.
Common shapes for cabochons include round, oval and pear, but hearts, crosses and freeforms are also very popular. If you have only seen the bland, boring, cookie-cutter stones that are cut by the thousand in overseas factories, then you have not seen cabochons. Cutting cabochons is a wild, amazing art with very few limits for the creative mind.
Here are two simple, but fun, cabochons cut from Blue Lace agate. Notice that
the cutter has formed the shape of the stone using the pattern in the stone itself.
The stone on the right was deliberately cut to look like an easter egg. It will
eventually be set as a silver pendant.
Here are two beautiful cabs both made from fossilized palm tree. The black area in the cabochon on the right was probably the heartwood of the palm.
Two dramatic cabachons. The stone on the left is a freeform with radial symettry cut from a material called Covellite. This material is challenging to cut and fairly expensive. The stone on the right is cut from a material called apache gold. The gold coloring in this stone is actually pyrite.
Two classic cabochons. The stone on the right is cut from a type of jasper famous
for its patterns that look like mesas in the American west. The piece on the right
is cut from a type of agate called Montana Moss, famous for its abstract patterns.
A beautiful fan shaped cab cut from from Lace agate. When set in silver, this will made a beautiful broach or clasp for a woman's cloak or scarf.
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