On the 6 July I was lucky enough to spend the morning at ILT Stadium on the rock wall with some Year 9 students. On the way home we stopped off at Gemstone Beach to collect some stones to run through my tumblers. I thought the students might be interested in the tumbling stones process. It was also a great excuse to call into Orepuki and stretch the legs!
We didn’t travel far past the car park and we didn’t cross the Taunoa Stream. It was quite deep plus no one had gumboots. Several students were more interested in climbing the cliffs and throwing bits of driftwood! A few students picked up stones that caught their eye. Thank goodness I thought to capture an image of each of their collected stones before starting the tumbling process. Although, in hindsight, I think I still managed to mix up who’s stones were whose!
I have used up the supplies that came with 4lb Lortone Tumbler. I’m now getting my tumbling supplies from Colin and the very helpful team at Rock and Gemstone Shop, Rotorua. I used the grit and polish from here for the first time for these stones.
| Stage | Number of Stones + Details | Grit | Weight In |
| 1 | 88 (Includes 25 stones collected by me from Gemstone Beach on 12th June, 2022 and also added in 2 stones collected from Herbertville Beach (North Island) in April 2022.) | 80/100 (7Tbspns) | 1690g |
So that I could show the students the progress of their stones, I captured them all separately and also captured a separate image of my stones that were added to make up the batch.
The stones spent the next 8 days in the 4lb tumbler. Continued in Part 2.
Batch 3 | Gemstone Beach; Herbertville; | 6 July 2022 – 12 August 2022
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