More from Craig…
I recently moved and am still in the process of setting up and cataloguing 1000+ specimens. These photos were taken very quickly at the request of a friend. Better photos and descriptions to come. Click here to view his folder of specimens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjflex/163753971/in/set-72157594160823741/

Thanks Craig!

This is from a reader who submitted his fav specimen and a little story about it. Enjoy!

Wow, favourite? Next to impossible. My favourite mineral is Epidote, followed by Crocoite and Stibnite. But my one favourite specimen would have to be “Baby”: www.flickr.com/photos/tjflex/224994271/in/set-72157594160823741/ .

A friend of mine is a mineral dealer and went to Tuscon earlier in the year. He brought back, let’s say “a large amount of minerals”. One of the show stoppers was this Agate, which he had sitting on his kitchen table. After spending hundreds of dollars (at “good” prices) I left.

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I am always open to new and interesting things and this is definitely new for me. I was checking out lapidary pictures when I came across Lisa Morgan. She is an artist that does digital drawings of minerals and I asked her a bit about what she does and she said I could post her drawings on here. Check out these creative drawings…And thanks Lisa for sharing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisamorgan/sets/72157594155452583/

i’ve had a passion for gems since I was a little girl and felt attracted to stones ever since. I have a small collection and drew the ones i couldn’t afford and wrote small explanations on each in english to describe their physical particularities (sapphires aqua marines diamonds opals…) Most of my drawing are also for sale just in case some body would like one…)

Thank you very much for paying attention and your nice word .

Lisamorgan

So posting my rockhound pics at Flickr, I have met a lot of interesting people interested in taking pictures of Lapidary, gems, and rockhounding. They have allowed me to use their pictures on my blog and many thanks to them for that! I will be posting some of their pictures for us to view along with a link that can be clicked on to see all their pics. Check out their albums as there are great pictures there!

This picture is from Kate from New Zealand, and this is how she ended up taking it-

Helped take the 2nd year geology students on their second fieldtrip for the year. The trip is 7 days long on the West Coast out of Westport and we look at the sedimentary sequence, granites and metamorphic rocks associated with the rifting of New Zealand from Gondwana.
Thanks Kate! View all the pics from that week by clicking th elink below…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38381877@N00/sets/72157594269155733/

Here’s a couple of pictures of my kids at the Hiddenite gem mine. The first one is of my son Jonah age 6 and my son Caleb age 3 at the riverbed searching for stones. I think Jonah has two tourmalines over his eyes. He’s a bit nutty. The second shot is of Caleb at the sluice brushing the mud through the screen looking for stones. They always have fun when we go. We go two-three times a year.
(I fixed the pictures, just click on them now to view full size!)

Here are some pictures of the Foggy Mountain Gem mine in Boone, NC. Boone is home to Appalachain State University and was actually settled by Daniel Boone many many years ago. The third shot is of the sign at the Foggy Mountain gem mine. The fourth shot is of amethyst….so beautiful!!!! And it happens to be the birthstone of both of my sons.

And 3 more pics…

Good morning!You’re really going to laugh – but I’m just an amateur rock hound with two little boys who love to go gem mining. The only true mining we’ve done is in Hiddenite, NC. Do a google search of Hiddenite – pretty awesome story. Its the only place you can find this precious gem. They have a sluice or you can go to the river and search for gems/stones in the river. Its tons of fun and not expensive at all.Mostly I take my kids to *touristy* gem mines…..silly I know. But its educational and my 6 year old is becoming quite good at recognizing gems in their natural state. We enjoy going to the Foggy Mountain Gem mine in Boone, NC and the Foscoe Gem mine in Foscoe, NC.

Thanks for your interest in my photos.

Take care,
Wendi

THanks Wendi, this story is exactley what I want to post on here, pictures of rockhounds having fun and finding great stuff!! Come on people, submit your pics, stories and places to rockhound in your area. Just email me and I will post what you send gary@rockhoundblog.com