Hi and welcome to my\/your rock shop. \u00a0Let me start out by saying that I\u2019m a certified rock licker, in this sense, does not mean that some august body said that I am a great rock licker and that I have the paper to prove it. \u00a0Certified, in my case, means much the same as when one says that someone is certifiably insane. \u00a0Not particularly official but the possibilities remain open to interpretation.<\/p>\n
I like rocks. \u00a0I like looking at them, touching them, smashing them with hammers, slicing them with diamond bladed saws, grinding them to dust on diamond studded wheels (and incidentally forming cabochons). \u00a0I like buying some and selling some. \u00a0I like talking and writing about them. \u00a0But, I still don\u2019t know much about them. \u00a0Each day with them is a learning experience.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Lee Parker and I started really liking rocks fairly late in life, like in my 60\u2019s. \u00a0You should be glad. \u00a0If I started earlier I probably would have written books about them and would know so much about them that I would not talk to anyone about them because I would know that I was so much smarter than \u201cyou\u201d. \u00a0Not the case here\u2026About all I know is that if I lick a rock and it stays shiny for a while, I can polish it.<\/p>\n
Now that I segued into the polishing idea. \u00a0You can buy highly polished rock just about anywhere. \u00a0Where I shine(?) is that I don\u2019t impose my will on every rock I get my hands on. \u00a0I let the rock dictate what it wants to be with minimum enhancement on my part (polishing is an enhancement). \u00a0When I get done with a rock, it will be perfect\u2026as it will be what it will be. \u00a0There may be what we would call imperfections in it such as pits. \u00a0That\u2019s natural. \u00a0They may not have a mirror shine\u2026mirror shines are not natural.\u00a0 (I wrote the above a while back.\u00a0 In my dotage, I decided to not work so much and I buy all my cabochons.)<\/p>\n
So be aware. \u00a0If you are looking for human perfections, there are other sites to visit and thanks for reading this far. \u00a0If you are looking for natural perfection, keep browsing!<\/p>\n
The internet has to be worth something besides being a time waster. \u00a0I get most of my rock stock from friends on the internet, specifically from people I know on the Rock Tumbling Hobby<\/a> website. \u00a0If you go there, read a whole bunch of stuff then scroll down to the message board link. \u00a0There are a lot of people there that actually know what they are talking about when they are talking rock. \u00a0You can get lost there so don\u2019t forget to come back here by closing that window.<\/p>\n I also get a portion of my stock from various sellers on Ebay, Facebook, wholesalers, and a small amount from actually going out in the field and digging my own\u2026whoooaa\u2026that is real rock hounding! \u00a0You see, I live in an area that has, well, not much in the line of polishable rock. \u00a0There is a lot of shale and sandstone with a little granite and schist that was kindly transported from Canada by a series of glaciers. \u00a0All other rock that can be polished is a drive or a flight away. \u00a0I don\u2019t sell enough so far to make more than one trip a year to dig my own. \u00a0A few years ago, I went to Quartzsite, AZ\u2026bought a bunch of stuff and had a chance to go out in the hills to pick up some jaspers and chrysocolla.<\/p>\n Most of the cabochons will be free-form, designer cabs, one of a kind. I keep getting asked if I have a store besides doing shows and I have been saying that the only store I have is online.\u00a0 Well, no more!\u00a0 I recently bought a shed to store rocks and make my wife happy (by getting rocks out of the house).\u00a0 It will be open by appointment only.\u00a0 \u00a0Keep up with my Face Book<\/a> page to be up to date on what is happening here with the Rock Dude.<\/p>\n So, look around, have fun, talk to me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi and welcome to my\/your rock shop. \u00a0Let me start out by saying that I\u2019m a certified rock licker, in this sense, does not mean that some august body said that I am a great rock licker and that I have the paper to prove it. \u00a0Certified, in my case, means much the same as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockdudestore.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpecimens will be what they are. \u00a0I describe them to the best of my ability.<\/p>\n