I’ve mentioned before in this post how much I’ve learned from John P, and his Tumblestoneblog. John is very generous with sharing his fossick finds. He also willingly shares his vast knowledge of the tumbling stones process and knowledge of stone types. John is a member of the Facebook Group New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals and Fossils. I am a “lurker” member of this group.
In previous posts on his blog John has mentioned staying in Riverton. Riverton is about a 35-40min drive from my place. He comes down here regularly to fossick on Gemstone Beach. I love to fossick on Gemstone Beach too. I don’t do it as often as I would like given how close I live. A lovely lady from Stewart Island had stayed with us early last year and was also a fossicker. She told me she thought our Papatotara beach stones were just as interesting as the stones on Gemstone Beach.
When John mentioned in a FB post that he’d been fossicking at Gemstone Beach and was staying down South for a while I thought I’d be cheeky and invite him out to The Cliffs, Papatotara to fossick our beach with me. I got a reply back almost straight away and on the 18 March John (or JP as I like to call him) arrived at The Cliffs to fossick the beach with me! How cool is that? JP blogs about our first fossicking adventure here.
We spent some of our time together drinking coffee, ooo-ing and ahh-ing over polished stones, and me picking JP’s brains over various tumbling techniques plus asking his opinion on grits and polish. I learned so much from our conversations but most of all it was really enjoyable to fossick with someone as experienced as JP! Ohla the dog kept us company on the beach doing her own fossicking amongst the driftwood too.
Fossick Finds
As per usual I came away with a load of stones! JP is a very discerning fossicker whereas I seem to be a ‘grab-everything’ kinda girl, almost afraid that I’m going to “miss” that special stone or “throw away” some kind of beauty that I’ve failed to recognise. I’m thinking that I need to be a little more discerning in what I walk away from the beach with. I think I also have to let go of the “FOMO” I have. It is ok to pick up the stones that are “beauties” to me regardless of whether they are actually “precious” stones or not. If I like the look of it and I’m willing to put in the time and effort to tumble and polish it, then it does belong in my stone bag.
The majority of these stones have ended up in Batch 18 (in 3lb Tumbler 2) but I did revisit ‘my haul of stones’ from my first fossick with JP and removed quite a few that I’m happy to have sitting in my garden pots. When it rains I can still enjoy their colours and patterns without needing to put them through the tumbling process. And I’m ok with that.
Interesting Finds
A couple of close-ups from Fossick #1 with JP – I’m especially interested in how the first stone on the left turns out – I’ve not picked up a stone that looks like that before.
Such a great blog
Very interesting reading.