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Bill Burt Rocks

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Bill Burt Rocks

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Handcrafted polished stones and jewelry and rough and tumbled rocks. Can be seen at the Muskegon Farmers Market.

10/22/2026

Hello all. Las Palmas community is having a patio sale from 8 am to 12 noon this Saturday October 24. Bill Burt Rocks will be selling at unit 54. Even though your GPS may take you to Sun Valley side of the park, the entrance is actually on Power Road. The address is 215 Power Road, Mesa, AZ. We are at the opposite side of the park from the main gate. Just tell the guard you are here for the patio sale.

09/05/2026

On September 5 I will be selling at the Apache Junction Rock club . The sale is from 9 am to 4 pm. I hope to see you there.

I was surprised on Tuesday to find out that i had won the Apache Junction rock club raffle. I won many beuatiful things and some odd things as well, ( a vase and a gong).

08/27/2026

It has been a long time since I posted. I hope you are all well. It is a comfortable 100 degrees at 9:30 am today in Mesa, Arizona.

About all I have been doing rock related is tumbling rocks at the Apache Junction rock club. However, this week I formed 11 cabochons. I have 17 more to do before I removed scratches and do polishing. One of the cabs is hematite that Jennifer Stanton gave me when she visited me a couple of weeks ago. The flea market a block from me starts in November.

Selling season is almost upon us. Apache Junction Rock Club sales are scheduled from September through November. The annual Apache Junction Rock Club show is December 5-6. I also want to try selling at the Thieves Flea Market in eastern Mesa. They have the same sales dates as the Apache Junction Rock Club. Next post I will list the dates of the shows and which ones I will probably be selling at.

In September items that I had bene shown to kids and adults at the Muskegon Farmers Market will be the artisan display at Las Palmas community.

I do get Facebook post from the two rock clubs in Michigan that I used to belong to and also the Muskegon Farmers Market, I miss all of them. You cannot get farm fresh boxes of blueberries in July.

07/29/2026

I have not posted for a while because I have not been doing a lot with rocks. All I have doing is tumbling rocks at apache Junction Rock club. For weeks we were only allowed one tumbler barrel on the tumbler. The temperature has not been conducive to collecting rocks.

I did see something online where someone used a cholla catus skeleton to make a cabochon. The holes were filled with small, turquoise-colored rocks. I think I will try this soon with other tumbled rocks. The cholla skeleton has diamond shaped holes. Talking about catus skeletons, Saguaro skeletons a round straight vertical ribs, If you eer get to the JJ Ranch steak house, there was and may still be a lamp made from Saguaro skeleton ribs near the inside entrance to the steak house.

06/08/2026

I got a call from a guy in in Michigan who said he had boxes and boxes of slabs he cut in Arizona. He does not know if he has good stuff or not. I told him I was in Arizona full time now and to try to contact Clark Page and the 3 rock clubs (Tulip city, Indian Mounds, and White River). I also said that if worse comes to worse, he could donate the slabs to rock clubs. If there is any interest from a single person or group, contact me and I will ask if he wants to show people his at his house. He is a snowbird and I will try to get together with him next fall here in Arizona.

My rock and slabs in one cabinet were not organized. I have rocks but not slabs in part of 2 more cabinets. You could not see all of the slabs and rocks in the cabinet. I took everything from the shelves, straighten the slabs, put them in containers, and put them back in the cabinet. I kept the 2 boxes on the bottom in the same place. Now I can go through them and decide which ones to keep, ones I to sell, and ones to give away. I can also organize the slabs to put similar cabs together, for example all tiger eyes in one row. The after picture is on the left. Yesterday I cut some slabs from rocks. Today I took several slabs glued to 2x4s off the wood.

I figure there are over 300 slabs but most likely under 400. If I only make one cab from each slab, and do 5 cabs per week, then it will take me over 6 years to get through all the cabs. I will be at least 83. That assumes that I do not buy or collect rocks and make more slabs.

06/08/2026

the pumpkin is on the east side of the house. Note the 3 slits near the top. No ants yet or other critters around the pumpkin. The sides are still hard. If critters come around, I will toss it.

05/12/2026

Salt Shack has released some longer interesting and understandable educational videos. The one on Pearls was very good.

04/30/2026

Here are the cabs that i finished yesterday. However, 2 of them had cracks and broke apart in the next step of removing dop wax from the backs. Also, I recounted the Apache tears and there were only 221. See the last pic. I need to figure out how to get the pictures from my phone so the come out better.

I am thinking about selling cabs on Facebook and maybe Facebook Marketplace. This would be a change in my policy. I need to increase my following in Arizona first with a couple of ads on Facebook.

On Tuesday, I helped the Apache Junction Rock Club set up and tear down at an elementary school for a STEM night. There were lots of kids.

Have a great weekend.

04/26/2026

Today I went to Superior Arizona to collect Apache Tears. The temperature was very pleasant in Superior. Not too hot or too cold. The number of participants allowed was limited, so a contest to determine who goes was developed. You had to guess which of 10 minerals was the one the trip leader picked. I guessed Amethyst. As one of the winners I could take another person. I picked my son-in-law Tim Hardy. Tim offered to drive so I let him. At our meeting point there was a change in procedures for the liability waver. Rather than signing the form like we have done in past, we check a box on the sign in sheet saying we have read it. It covers lots of items including if you are eaten by a mountain lion, you will not sue the rock club or its officers. Since another club was collecting in the mine, we spent about 2 hours collecting in perlite plant stockpile area. I used several techniques including just bending over and picking up the rocks, using my Geoscoop, using a shovel and a screen, using a rock hammer to break up rocks trying to get Apache Tears in matrix. The shovel was the least effective.

Then we got word that we could go to the mine. To get to the mine we had to cross over 4 lanes (2 each way) of US 60.

We get to the mine entrance and the gate was closed. About 10 minutes of waiting, a man in a white truck opened it. The open pit mine had changed since the last time I was in the mine 4 years ago. the level where we had collected then was entirely gone.

Between the two locations I collected 260 (not counting 5 rocks with tears in them. Apache tears ranged in size from smaller that a pea to one slightly smaller than a pig pong ball. About 9 were larger than a grape. Just using a bucket with water and my hands I washed off all the dust. Some small amount of perlite was still attached to many of the tears. I think Tim may have had more of the bigger tears than myself.

One feature of Apache tears is that you can shine a light through them. Of the few tears that I shown a light through, I did not see the brown color you sometimes see in in the Apache tears. All were clearish.

In my next post I will try to include a picture of all 260.

04/14/2026

Hello all,

The Indian Mounds show looked like a very good one from Facebook posts.

There are 20 cabs done with the 400 grit. Next step 600 grit. All are really nice. I have about 15 more on sticks to start the shaping process over. again. I will show the cabs when they are done. One cab will be the first Mookaite I have attempted.

I am done selling for the season. I have given the Apache Junction Rock Club some suggestions on meeting programs and possible places to hold their annual show.

Jennifer of the White River Rock Club has requested some Arizona rocks for their summer picnic. The rocks have been sent.

On April 25 I will be going on a collecting trip to Superior Arizonia to collect Apache tears in a perlite mine.

Address

Mesa, AZ
85205

Telephone

+12317403706

Website

facebook.com

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