How it started

My name is Kyle. I grew up in the NW – Mainly Oregon.

I’ve been a rock hound since before I was able to remember…started out picking cool rocks out of peoples rocky driveways. Most of that I don’t remember but it’s how I was told how the obsession started.

I do remember 3rd grade while living in McMinnville…I had gotten into trouble from the teachers for trying to sell rough and polished rocks to fellow students out of a tackle box. Little entrepreneur me! I didn’t make much since I was selling rocks for like 10 cents to a quarter…between that and being shut down by the teachers!

In 2012, I think it was, I took my first lapidary class and I was HOOKED. My very first rock I worked was a weathered down type of thunderegg. I cut it in half and polished one side while keeping the other side unworked to show the difference. It was really neat! But the challenge that I wanted to take on was learning how to polish obsidian.

You see, before I took the class…there was a shop that I would frequent and I had bought some Davis Creek blue obsidian and paid to have them cut and polish it. Well, they called and said that they tried several times and just couldn’t get a polish on it. So, I took on the challenge and I learned how to do it myself.

After a while of volunteering at a local rock shop, I would begin to help teach lapidary classes to help out the shop owner while earning some extra hobby money on the side. It was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions with the new artists that were learning to work stone. Eventually I went my own way and started to slowly gather rough stone material through various estates and sales along with equipment that I needed to continue to do what I loved.

However, there was a snag…I didn’t have the space for any of it as we lived in a small apartment!

So thousands of pounds of material sat in storage while I stored the equipment in the smallest room in our apartment.

One day in 2018 we got the opportunity to upgrade our living situation…to home that had a fenced in back yard and a garage!

The garage was a sight for sore eyes BUT it had so much potential and over the course of a couple years, I spent time learning various skills in order to turn the garage in the work space that I have today. Luckily I did it before the price of lumber went up! *phew* Talk about a close call!

Only when the shop was completed did I start producing online content to help share knowledge on anything rockhounding/lapidary related. I wish I had started creating content much sooner but I think things happen for a reason and at the time, I was not ready to produce said content. I’m here now and that’s all that matters! 

With all the material and equipment investments that I have made and the space that I have built – My goal is to offer lapidary services to the community, sell rock both rough and finished, and get back into teaching classes.

My dream is to do this for a living because everyone should have the opportunity to do what they love.