Rockhound’s Paradise

So, I like rocks a lot. There are so many different kinds. Kinds that sparkle, glow, shimmer, flavor, stink, and poison. Some even used to be things that were alive a long time ago. Some are just poop… Freakin’ Dinosaur Poop!

Look at this thing! It’s a ruby from the local mines.

That’s a UV laser that looks blue to the eye. It makes rubies glow red.

And this is a blue sapphire on a flashlight.

On a whim, we pulled into a Craft/Flea Market. I ended up spending most of my time at Lane’s Jewelry talking to Jay and Debbie about rocks and a million other things. They both seem to deeply love what they do.

We went through their whole display of cool rocks talking about what makes them so unique. Debbie kept pulling out different stones and explaining them to us, showing us how they behave differently under UV and everything.

Jay, as it turns out, is a Certified Diamontologist and answered some questions we had about moissanite. He also does the stone grinding and polishing. We got a demonstration about how he uses his 6-wheel lapidary grinder. After that he explained how he makes jewelry fittings using lost-wax casting and how his electroplating system works. He’s got all these cool tools and clearly loves working with them.

These are some really nice people and willing to take time to talk to kids and adults about all the cool things that rocks can be. If you are planning on coming through here, you should stop in and ask Jay about the “toilet-plunger device” he told me about.