From the ground up — literally.
A working lapidary studio and jewelry bench in Carson City, Nevada, built on a lifelong love of stones.
A rock hound, a bench, and a lot of patience.
Rupert's Precision Gemcutting grew out of a simple weekend habit — getting out into the Nevada desert to hunt for rocks. Owner Tobin Rupert fell for the hunt first, then for the slow craft of lapidary that follows it — and in 2011 he opened the shop to do it full time.
Put the hunt and the craft together and you get what we do today: stones straight from the earth, cut and polished by hand, and set into jewelry and art you won't find anywhere else. Each piece is made with care and built to last a lifetime.
Tobin's cutting draws on family roots that run deep in Nevada — Washoe and Paiute traditions that shape how each stone is read and honored — paired with modern precision faceting.
We're not a big-box store. We're a small family shop where the person who cut your stone is the person behind the counter. Look for the wooden tipi out front; you can't miss it.
How a stone becomes a keepsake.
Find
It starts in the field. We hunt our own rough across the high desert — agate, jasper, and the surprises the ground gives up.
Cut
Back at the bench, every stone is faceted or polished by hand. No two come out the same, and that's the point.
Create
The finished stone becomes jewelry or art — designed around the material, made to be worn and handed down.
Visit the shop“They're cut mathematically perfect, so when light goes in, all it can do is bounce around and come back out the top. It makes you look good and feel good.”