Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

Good boi do good pose with good boi posture (and a good girl doing a somewhat good job taking da photos)

Hahaha, Good job on the photos!

I had to work a 12 hour shift today with no lunch....my eyes think that stone looks like a big piece of bread.

[BeansTheDerp]

lol! it's a geode that we got last year. he took a liking to it after finding it in one of my drawers while exploring and crawled up on it so I decided to put it in his terrarium and he has dubbed it his favorite rock. so I thought "hey why not take a picture of him and his rock for the forum!" hope u get lots of sleep! and food!
by the way I had to use black paper for the background because I have no dark black area in my room. I think it worked better than expected though.

[Lord Sorril]

The "kid in me" still loves rocks & I usually go to a gem & mineral show every year, & of course, come home with some too.

I always see celebrities buying fancy cars with their wealth. If I was super rich I would be going to these gem shows and hauling back some 'large' pieces. Not exactly Nicholas Cage level of spending (e.g. 15 Million dollars on a Dinosaur skull), but, I would still bring back a few nice display pieces.

[BeansTheDerp]

I always see celebrities buying fancy cars with their wealth. If I was super rich I would be going to these gem shows and hauling back some 'large' pieces. Not exactly Nicholas Cage level of spending (e.g. 150 Million dollars on a Dinosaur skull), but, I would still bring back a few nice display pieces.

then u could take all da photos

[Lord Sorril]

then u could take all da photos

If I bought all the stones already finished there would be no challenge and no sense of accomplishment.

[BeansTheDerp]

true true, but u could always try to recreate ur photos

[nikkubus]

I miss going to gem shows. It's been forever. I wouldn't know the first place to look where to even find a schedule or anything. So much stuff at those that I would have never thought existed before seeing it. I fondly remember being absolutely blown away with watermelon tourmaline. I had no idea at the time that they could grow like that with different colors vs multi-colored stones that you see more commonly where it's several little layers or speckles of color. Since then, I have become quite fond of fluorite with the huge variety of purples and greens, every one looking unique. I've got a small collection of tumbled stones and pieces of crystals but probably nothing like you have! And I have never tried to polish or cut anything myself. I have enough hobbies as it is

[Bogertophis]

I miss going to gem shows. It's been forever. I wouldn't know the first place to look where to even find a schedule or anything. So much stuff at those that I would have never thought existed before seeing it. I fondly remember being absolutely blown away with watermelon tourmaline. I had no idea at the time that they could grow like that with different colors vs multi-colored stones that you see more commonly where it's several little layers or speckles of color. Since then, I have become quite fond of fluorite with the huge variety of purples and greens, every one looking unique. I've got a small collection of tumbled stones and pieces of crystals but probably nothing like you have! And I have never tried to polish or cut anything myself. I have enough hobbies as it is

There's one that comes to my town every year for 2 days (over a weekend), except with this pandemic, it's probably off again. But I'm a devotee, as is a friend of mine who makes & sells jewelry.

When I previously lived in the So Cal desert, we had one every year there too, & the house I owned there was built & occupied before me by "rock tumblers" & they left piles of geodes in the yard.

I probably shouldn't have moved...it was a very special place, & I never got around to breaking open any of the rocks they left. There was snowflake obsidian & "Apache tears" laying around, & all sorts of things. And don't get me started on the cactus plants. In addition, they built huge red-rock terraces in the hill that the house sat atop. They freaked out though with the big earthquake we had (Landers quake of '92), moved out of state & put this house up for sale that they built & had planned to stay in forever. No one else was buying houses for a while after that...it sat there waiting for me to come along & fall in love with it. Yeah, I probably should have stayed, part of me is still there with the coyotes & the rattlesnakes, but life gets complicated, doesn't it?

[nikkubus]

There's one that comes to my town every year for 2 days (over a weekend), except with this pandemic, it's probably off again. But I'm a devotee, as is a friend of mine who makes & sells jewelry.

When I previously lived in the So Cal desert, we had one every year there too, & the house I owned there was built & occupied before me by "rock tumblers" & they left piles of geodes in the yard.

I probably shouldn't have moved...it was a very special place, & I never got around to breaking open any of the rocks they left. There was snowflake obsidian & "Apache tears" laying around, & all sorts of things. And don't bet me started on the cactus plants. In addition, they built huge red-rock terraces in the hill that the house sat atop. They freaked out though with the big earthquake we had (Landers quake of '92), moved out of state & put this house up for sale that they built & had planned to stay in forever. No one else was buying houses for a while after that...it sat there waiting for me to come along & fall in love with it. Yeah, I probably should have stayed, part of me is still there with the coyotes & the rattlesnakes, but life gets complicated, doesn't it?

That place sounds so cool. It sure does get complicated and things change so much so fast. Who knows what is going to happen, or when we will be able to have big conventions again in some of these states where it's banned right now.

[Lord Sorril]

Since then, I have become quite fond of fluorite with the huge variety of purples and greens, every one looking unique.

I like fluorite as well. It is a challenging material to work with though because it is relatively soft...to cut/polish effectively specialized tools would be required (which I don't have). There are many different 'varieties' of fluorite from different locales. Photo #6 is Mexican fluorite in a Quartz matrix. Quartz is substantially harder than the fluorite so it wears down slower and the fluorite grinds away in the tumbler and creates uneven pieces. I know a lot of people who tumble rocks will avoid fluorite completely, the hobby itself tests ones patience, and soft material compounds the level of difficulty/aggravation. I do find rock tumbling is significantly less taxing on my patience based than double-triple recessive ball python morph projects.