Washing pebbles

wolram

I have been stuck for some thing to do so i opted to wash the pebbles that cover my drive,
it is a slow job, i can only do a bucket full at one time, but it is a rewarding task each pebble looks different and has its own characteristics, when washed it seems a shame to re lay them or even walk on them, i was thinking would it be best to arrange them in rows or just scatter them in a random fashion?

Moonbear

WOW!!! You're REALLY bored!

Chi Meson

Do you do your gardening with tweezers?

wolram

Well no, it is a job that needed doing, and when one thinks that each pebble took millions of years to form they should be treated with some respect, i have been ruthless and put the chipped ones aside, may be i will have a special wounded pebble area.

Evo

ooh, I have really cool pebbles in a hedge bed in front of my place. I was looking for some to place in potted plants to cover the holes in the bottom and became fascinated by how beautiful some were. The ones that where cracked open were the best, some had charcoal gray outside, but creamy white with colored striations inside. I showed them to the Evo Child and she gave me a look like I was crazy.

Wolram, when we get old, we can compare pebbles and fossils.

tribdog

the other day I was shampooing my shag carpet one strand at a time...

JasonRox

That made me laugh!

I did something similar once. I sat at my table once and separated the colored rocks I had because they got all mixed up. They are very small rocks. Took only like 45 minutes though.

lisab

You should arrange them in rows since, apparently, you have some time on your hands. Just don't get carried away, like these guys...



If you don't like how it comes out, go crazy with a rake!

wolram

I have some that sparkle in the light may be i should do as Lisab suggests and make some pattern with my pebbles, trouble is i am not much of an artist.

Focus

Wait, aren't you in England? Does it not rain every two days? Why would you want to wash pebbles when the rain will do it for you?

PS. You really must be bored.

BobG

It's a little known fact, but hypatia collects rocks and imprisons them in her closet, sort of like how Ursula collected people's souls in polyps in the The Little Mermaid.

Except hypatia promises that someday she'll free her imprisoned rocks on unsuspecting pedestrians.

I've always tried my best to never offend hypatia.

wolram

It is raining now but rain does not clean the deep grime from the pebbles, i am using a mix of bleach and washing up liquid and a nailbrush.

JasonRox

You're damaging the environment to clean rocks... oh god. Sorry, but that's just dumb.

I thought you were scrubbing them and cleaning them with water.

wolram

Well i have only used a cup full of bleach to a bucket full of water and a squeeze of washing liquid, heck i use more than that to clean the loo every week.

turbo

Some of my rocks sparkle, too, Woolie.



I have sold dozens to high-end jewelry stores and have given away many more. The top row contains a synthetic color-change material in a trillion cut (since it's synthetic I was never tempted to sell it or give it away, and could keep it as a demo for the stores), a large topaz, a CZ in a cosmos cut (also a synthetic to use for a store demo) and rutilated quartz. The quartz is clear, but I oriented the rutile fibers so that the reflections would produce that color. Second row is African spinel, Tanzanite, toumaline and rhodolite garnet. The third row is all sapphires - the first one (oval) has a subtle but nice color-change when going from artificial to natural light. These are left-overs, really. The jewelry stores snapped up all the native Maine stones as soon as I displayed them, and a lot of the rare African materials too, and Yogo Gulch Sapphires. All my female cousins, and the wives of my male cousins, and their daughters, and my aunts, sisters, and nieces each have at least one of my stones. Between digging and/or buying faceting rough, buying faceting supplies, and gold findings and tools, I really haven't made any money at this hobby. Made some ladies happy, though.

wolram

Wow, awesome Turbo, some of those cuts are amazing.

Defennder

I'm pretty sure he was joking.