Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Rodriguez-Quiroz.
Hi Marco, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My late older brother, Miguel Junior (or “Junior” is what I called him) and I grew up loving dinosaurs and drawing. My brother was autistic and a pure soul as he was the sweetest and kindest person you’d ever meet. During the mid to late 90’s, we would play with our dinosaur toys, enjoyed looking at illustrations in books at the Chula Vista’s library and renting videos (VHS tapes) about paleontologists and archeologists. As time progressed the passion faded as things usually do from a young age to a teenager; however, the passion never really faded away completely. Junior and I grew up being very artistic when it comes to drawing because my mother was an amazing artist. Even until this day I can’t hold a candle to how talented my mother is. I always held parents and brother are the closest thing to me. Like a loyal knight to their kingdom royal family, I would do anything to keep them safe and okay… I mention all of this because it leads to the reason why the shop stayed open till this day… Back in 2018, on Christmas day, my other brother, Adrian, got me my first fossil. It sparked something in me that I hadn’t felt since I was 9 years old (which was back in 1999). I felt that I wanted and needed to collect fossils now. Especially since at that time I could personally afford it with having a day job and all. Shortly after this moment of time my collection grew quickly and vastly but, it didn’t stop at fossils but crystal and minerals too. I also started collecting various shells and ocean artifacts like shark jaws and coral to display and admire the collection as a whole daily. I fell in love hard with collecting things that derived from nature from various time periods and from all over the world. I did this too because it brought back good memories essentially of the common things that Junior and I had from way back when. Junior would always got a kick out of staying in my room during that time and admire the fossils first hand. It was like a miniture museum! It was the highlight for me that I got to have that for him and I to enjoy almost on the daily. Eventually, I had to show some of my collection at my day job.
At this time, in 2019, I worked at a high profiled biotech company where I was a lab technician. I had a nice set up in the company’s breakroom so every Wednesday was “Fossil Wednesday ”. Even had a email roaster and were games won you small unique prizes from my collection and at the same time learned something new. It was here that I got a glimpse of what was to come for the shop. Over time, people started asking about wanting to buy my fossils and asking if I knew how to make jewelry from the crystals. Unfortunately i wasnt selling or making anything at this time.
Apart from the fossils being the biggest fascination, at this point during the mid-year of 2019, I grew a huge fascination for Australian opals from Youtube because I looked up “most beautiful gems on earth” and Australian black opals was one of them. I was stunned and in awe of its beauty and uniqueness. So I started looking up how to obtain them for the collection. I then started getting curious how do I cut them from a “rough” (an uncut gem) to a cut gem. I learned a lot from Justin from his Black Opal Directly Youtube channel. I first bought my dremel and tools to get what I needed to start just cutting opals. Nothing else. Eventually, I opened up the shop on Etsy with some really bad and amateur work of my first batch of jewelry (simple wire wrap stone necklaces, shark tooth necklaces and a few small pendans), fossils, crystals and such. I first wanted toake unique and one-of-a-kind jewelry and sell fossils and crystals that weren’t so common stuff thats overpriced. My motive was to keep it affordable for the custom while deliving something special for them. Every piece I try to understand on how I can make it better, QC it (meaning is it durable to wear if one is careless, comfortable to wear and is it stylish), was factors that were played with my trial and error of making jewelry. I eventually got into learning how to solder sterling silver and bronze. Shortly after teaching myself how to solder decently, on my Etsy page I had perfect ratings and great customer review but the profit margin were so bad because Esty at the time was cutting off too much of the their cut/fees so I left Etsy and I started selling on Instagram, Facebook and vendor locally when I can in Imperial beach, Ca.
Another thing worth noting is why did I start this shop to begin with? Simple. Just prior to the shop, my life had little to do with expressing my artistic side so it felt like my artistic ideas were just getting bundled up. The technician in me (thanks from my father and his father) looking at jewelry and examining and analyzing if I can make it was a factor of mine when I started off. Now my artistic side is now expressed with every piece jewelry for people to enjoy at affordable prices and make them all one-of-a-kind pieces (or “one-offs” as some would say). For the short span of the shop exsisting it had allowed me to make over 300 pieces with over 200 designs and and of course, more to come. The thing I firmly believe in is that everyone deserves something nice and unique at an affordable price.
Moving forward to more recent times, my brother diagnosed with colorectal cancer near my birthday/Thanksgiving back in late November 2021. My family and I were devistated to say the least. The shop had to slowed down almost to a stop because of putting in so much time and effort my time to care for my brother while holding down a daily job. I did what I could to be with him as much as I can until the end when he passed away on July 20th, 2023. I lost my brother and my best friend, it left me depressed, hopeless and alone. I had my family and girlfriend who helped me and supported me to get through this. Personally, I still I’m getting through this barely and I think I will always will be for the rest of my life. The only thing I did was work at my day job and work on my shop privately as means to just keep myself busy and nothing more. I later realized I was doing a disservice to my dear late brother, Junior, by not using my life to continue spreading my art, share the knowledge of the history of these fossils and spread something the things i enjoy doing but also what he enjoyed too. I have now a new dream/goal in life for my shop and thats to push the shop to the next level and be more commited in doing more for the shop in all aspects and eventually have it where I can have a team I can trust to help me push the shop to the next level after and allow the shop to be something worth doing forever and continue to share my art and my brother’s passion for dinosaurs to the world and remind people the amazement of what the world’s natural treasures has to offer even if its coming from a small online shop.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road at all. Pretty much everything I’ve been doing was nothing but trial and errors and adapting from the errors to not just learn from it but to improve on for future situations.
Some examples of this struggle was when my brother was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer and I devoted more time towards him with no regret but at the same time it was when I was doing decently well on Etsy before they decided to cut more into my profit margins. I had to put the shop on hold for a bit while I attended my brother while he was in the hospital for the next few weeks. it was difficult to work on things when you’re worried about the most important person in your life dying from something you can’t do nothing about.
The other example would be getting the right material and equipment that you’ll actually need and putting in the right investments towards things but, again, it goes back to trial and error.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When I sell fossils or when people ask about fossils I hear it all the time that I get very enthusiastic about talking and teaching about it (which is true, I do.) I get that way with most scientific subjects particularly with biology. However, when it comes to my jewelry or my dreamcatchers I try to keep it as unique, authentic, high quality, one of one, stylish to that tribal, boho or beach vibe, and of course, affordable. I specialize in Australian opals, abalone shells, amethyst and sea glass in particular and this is because of its very ocean/sea/beach/boho/tropical/tribal type of style that I shoot for. The style I typically shoot for is elegance, casual and semi-formal in those themes.
The first complex ring that I made was for my mother as tribute and as a birthday/xmas gift. it was a rainbow with dominant green andamooka opal that was cab cut, low dome on a Victorian era inspired bezel on a open split wire wrap ring shank that was all sterling silver, all handmade from scratch. No molds. it was a very difficult ring to make if you have no training or hand’s on experience prior to a ring like that. it took me about 6hrs to do everything and it came out great. It was at that moment too that I realized I might have the chops to make some pretty unique and stylish pieces of art.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I love hearing peoples feedback when they try out my jewelry because I either achieved what I wanted for them or I can learn from what they critique. My simple goal is to have jewelry that is comfortable, stylish, and durable… and of course, affordable.
The other way I think is spreading the word about the shop. Especially if you are about something and you show it off and mention my shop and how they can find it.
I would love to collaborate that would help people out with their business and with my own.
The thing I would love to do is do a charity event for autism, cancer and helping kids with their education. I basically want to do something that would make my brother proud of me and to help people like I’ve always wanted to do.
And lastly, kinda relates to the first one but always looking for people to model out my stuff. Its something I really enjoy doing with people. Its usually pretty fun to collab with people on what clothes will they wear with what piece of jewelry and taking it out to the scene and let the magic happen while having fun with it.
Contact Info:
- Website: sdrocksnstuff@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sdrocksnstuff_?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094262844576&mibextid=ZbWKwL
Image Credits
i took all the images.
