What Happens After Rockhounding (Not All Rocks Make It into the Shop) — Pt. 3

The part that nobody sees after the buckets come home …

In our last two blogs, we started answering a question a jujujemster asked after one of our social media posts: “What exactly do you do when you go on these rockhounding trips?”

In the first blog, we talked about everything that goes into getting to a location — the planning, the packing, the driving, the hiking, and all the things that make you question your life choices before you even pick up a rock.

juju Jim pondering some choices

In the second post, we got into what it’s really like once we actually start finding material, and why the part that looks easy in photos is usually the part that takes the most effort.

This third post is about what happens after the trip, when the buckets finally make it home and reality sets in … because just because we found something out in the field doesn’t mean it’s going into the shop.

The trip isn’t over when we pull into the driveway

When we get home from one of these trips, the adventure doesn’t end — it just changes shape. The truck and rig are full, and we’re brimming with confidence about all the incredible things we think we found. Buckets, bags, boxes, backpacks — everything comes out, and each rock has to be looked at again … and usually a lot more “agains.”

Bags and bags, but yet, there's more!

The first step is cleaning, and that alone can take longer than most people expect. Some may need a rinse and maybe some scrubbing. Some need soaking, scrubbing, picking, scraping, and a level of patience that depends heavily on how much coffee we’ve had that day.

Lather, rinse, repeat!

Sometimes you need to bring in the big guns

Sorting is where the real decisions start

Once it’s all clean enough to actually see what came home, the sorting begins, and this is where things get interesting. We make piles, and there are always more piles than we thought there would be.

There’s the definitely pile.

The maybe pile.

The not-so-sure-need-to-think-about-it-more pile.

The needs-more-cleaning-to-know pile.

And the consternating “Did you pick this up?” “No, you picked it up!” pile.

Here a pile, there a pile, everywhere a pile!

Seriously, in the field, it’s easy to convince yourself that a certain stone has potential. You’re standing there in the blazing sun, dust everywhere, water almost gone, and every stone you pick up seems like it might be The One, but …

You’re tired. You’ve walked a long way on that mountain goat trail, you’ve pushed through thorny bushes, avoided jumping cactuses, almost fell into a crevasse, and wondered more than once whose idea this trip was in the first place — so you certainly want it to have been worth it.

Mountain goat-worthy trail

Later on, standing at the table with better light and a clearer head, sometimes the honest answer is that the rock you were excited about out there is just … a rock … but it’s now your rock.

And some pieces don’t have the color or intrigue we thought they did. Some looked great when wet but not so great once they dried — even with a polish. Others are interesting, but not enough to put our name on, and that part is harder than people think. After you’ve hauled a rock out of the wild, you really, really, want it to be awesome.

We’re picky on purpose

We bring home a lot more material than we ever list on the site for many reasons. We’ve always been persnickety about what jujujems offers, and rockhounding only compounds it. After you’ve looked at enough rocks — in the field, at shows, and spread out all over the table at home — you begin to notice things you never paid attention to before.

You also know how hard it is to find a nice piece, so the details matter a lot more — the color, shape, nuance, and size. Sometimes it’s the way a stone feels in your hand or a gut feeling that says, “Yep, this one’s good,” even if you can’t explain why just yet.

And the opposite happens too. Sometimes it turns into a story about how far we carried a rock we should have stepped over — especially if there was pain or bleeding involved in getting it.

That means a lot never make it past the sorting table, and we’re fine with that. After all that

goes into these trips, the last thing we want to do is list an item that hasn’t earned its spot.

Will these earn a spot at jujujems.com?

Doing the work changes how you see every stone

One of the reasons we like doing these trips ourselves is that it keeps us connected to where all of this comes from. Every gemstone, agate, and chunk of quartz started out as part of the earth long before anyone polished it, cut it, or put it under bright lights on a display table.

The rocks we find have been sitting in the ground for thousands or millions of years, waiting to be spotted. When you’re the one brushing the dirt off for the first time, you have a whole new kind of respect for what you’re holding. You realize that the finished stones you see in stores didn’t just appear out of nowhere. We’re still blown away by the endless variations and combinations we come across.

Ah, fresh rock

Once you’ve gone through the digging, cleaning, sorting, and deciding, you begin to look at rocks differently. You notice the quality faster, but the flaws too. Two pieces might look the same at first glance, but one has better color, form, or just more character, and after a while, you can’t help but see those nuances.

That’s true whether we found the stone ourselves or bought it from someone who spent just as much time out there as we did. Either way, there’s a lot that happens between finding something in the ground and seeing it sitting on a shelf looking perfect. There’s work behind each piece and recognizing that makes it a lot harder to be casual about what is brought home.

We can't wait to go back out!

By the time we wind down, the trip can feel like it lasted twice as long as it actually did. We’re exhausted, a little sore, and wondering how we managed — yet again — to collect so many rocks.

Ragnar, our Supreme Leader, is taking a much-needed cat nap

But if the weather looks good and the map looks promising, we’ll load Beastie up and head out again. Because as much work as these trips can be, there’s nothing like the anticipation of what we may find, along with picking something up with our own hands, bringing it home, and knowing exactly where it came from.

This wraps up our little three-part series. Hopefully, this gave you a better idea of what goes into rockhounding, from planning to sorting and everything in between.

If you ever have questions about anything we do, how we choose pieces, or where some of these stones come from, feel free to ask. Chances are, there’s a story behind it … and we’re always happy to tell it!

Stay Sparkly!  ✨

The jujujems Team