It’s officially wet season on Vancouver Island and I managed to get a couple good trips in to my favourite rockhounding locations.
Rainy day hounding on Vancouver Island
Tag: ocean
Tumbling away, short hound at the beach, defining “high grade”
Our special British Columbian rocks have been travelling all over the United States lately, and between that and my own tumbling, I felt justified doing a quick rockhound on the weekend.
Dallasite and Flowerstone cabochons and slabs
I received an early Christmas present from Tommy Lay, this fantastic lapidarist I connected with on a rock tumbling website. He was ridiculously generous. I opened the box with my mom and grandma and we were all oohing over every piece. I had inquired about getting some of my Dallasite and Flowerstone cabbed and slabbed…
Late summer beach hounding
Between sending some rocks away and tumbling, I’ve actually managed to reduce my stockpile a little bit, unfortunately forcing me to rockhound more. I went to a local Vancouver Island beach for Dallasite and Flowerstone again, though I found much of the former and little of the latter.
Dallasite and Flowerstone cabochons!
We’re breaking new ground at BC Rockhound. I sent some Dallasite and Flowerstone to Tommy Lay, the best cabochon maker I’ve seen on the internet.
Dallasite rockhounding video
I stuck a GoPro on my head on a recent kayak trip to a local Vancouver Island beach. My girlfriend and I hunted for Dallasite while the dogs swam, puked and played on the beach. There’s a giant Flowerstone we found on the beach near here that we will come back to later to haul…
Beach rockhound with a deer
I went on a quick trip to my favourite Vancouver Island beach as the sun came up one recent morning. This is the beach I found my first piece of Dallasite on. It still yields more than enough beautiful rocks for me and anyone else who would be interested.
Setting the tumblers, need more!
I’m badly in need of more rock tumblers. I set both of my rotary tumblers last night and had my vibe going the whole weekend. But it’s not enough. My rockhounding hobby is dwarfing my production capacity. I am looking for a warehouse of some sort and operations headquarters.
Sorting the rocks that are ready for round 2
Here’s a collection of all the rocks that have survived coarse grit in my rotary rock tumblers and are now ready to go in the vibe. They’re split up into groups of Dallasite, quartz, speckled opal, greenstone (some of it jasper), a few porphyries and Flowerstone, and a pile of river rock/gneiss/quartz/petrified wood.
Glad to be a lonely rockhound
I went back to a local beach in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, this morning for a quick rockhound before the heat got too serious. I wasn’t the only one out there, and not even the only one after rocks.