They're just random shots as I sit here looking at rocks and thought you guys might be interested. A lot of them are feel so smooth and shiny (It's a Crater lake in the caldera of Taupō volcano). 🥰

Isn't it a beauty?

My most recent lovelies!

Found in Utah.

Found this beautiful blue-green botryoidal chalcedony from Indonesia and decided to turn it into a teardrop cabochon.
I wasn’t sure how much of that bubbly texture would survive the cutting and shaping, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Would you have cut it or kept it natural?

Hi everyone I was wondering if anyone has any advice on good locations to hunt around the Carmarthenshire region of Wales?

NOT FOR SALE

This one is sadly not from my own gem claim, or any I currently work myself. and is from a more northern locale, THO I DID DIG IT MYSELF! This was back in I think 2020 or 2021

Not only is it amazingly gemmy and absolutely amazing color! I cannot believe these grow here in San Diego!
It has an amazing termination! Especially considering all the mica growth around it (this usually eats at crystal faces) a

It was a a small “floating” pocket with just this and a few other small feldspar and quartz…. It was mainly surrounded by a large amount of decomposed mica!

I have also seen aquamarine of even deeper color further north in the pegmatites near Palm Springs

Hey y'all. Anyone know of any good SoCal beaches for some rockhounding? Been to/around the Palos Verdes area before and I'm looking for some places further south-ish.

Excited to see what they look like when they are all shined up.

My childhood friend is getting married and I want to get her a cool rock or mineral. She started collecting them this year and has really enjoyed it, so I want to expand her collection. However, I’ve never seen what she has and all I know is likes sparkly ones and she thinks the naturally cubic ones are fun too. Is there anything that comes to mind that is a little more unique that she likely won’t already have?

Thanks in advance!

Hi yall, I’m a new rock hound and am searching for a rock pick. I’ve heard estwing is THE brand but their new generation picks are low quality / not built for beating up rocks. I just ordered the 22 ounce one and saw the label saying it’s not recommended for rocks and u should only be using it for wood! Is there another brand you guys recommend? I’m afraid if the metal in the hammer shattering / splintering and flying into me

I just acquired a macro lens with the intent of taking detailed and slightly abstracted photos of rocks. It's manual focus and I'm still figuring out my setup, but here are some finds from the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. Most are super unglamorous chert nodules from Saint John and quartzite from Saint Martin's, with a lepidodendron fossil and some kind of a unakite-type thing thrown in.

I nearly passed up this piece. It was mostly dirt encrusted, and I could only see the tip of the back side (the rest was buried). To boot, most rocks in my area are often encrusted in a thin to tough-ish layer of ferruginous coating.

I was first thinking it was a knobby quartzite cobble (all over the dang place where I was looking) - but I'm always drawn to dimpled textured pieces, just in case! Thought I saw the possibility of chalcedony, so l brought it along.

Was pleased when I got home and gave it a bit of a wash and preliminary cleaning!

Found this lovely..she’s a big one!! Not my favorite but she’s not going anywhere! Central wi.

My poor husband i could spend hours here

Definitely could have let them tumble/polish for longer but im impatient lol

I was passing through the Cedar Valley Iowa area last week, had a little extra time so I looked for a couple spots where I could walk and stomp along on a warm fall day - BUT the rivers are all super high right now and up on the banks, so all the gravel bars are well underwater . I found a couple places where I could walk along the edge but that water was WAY too cold to spend a lot of time in.

Found a couple fun rocks, a small maybe chunk of an agate, some quartz and bits of jasper, and a pretty river tumbled bit of glass.

It was an absolutely ideal day to be outside, so it was a win.

Shredder

Petrified wood from Indonesia. I liked the mix of fossilized wood structure and translucent areas, so I decided to cut this section.