TumbleStone Calendar 2026

For the last few years, I have produced calendars on stone-related themes for family and friends, essentially an amateur effort to share some of the often-gorgeous beach stones I have found. I have made a few copies of the Calendars available for sale as well – at the end of this Post are price details for the 2026 Calendar. For recent past versions, see the 2023 Calendar, 2024 Calendar and 2025 Calendar.

The 2026 TumbleStone Calendar features groupings of beach stones I have collected during recent South Island fossicking trips. Each month features four, five or six photos of stones of a particular type. The stones are rough (unpolished), though they are quite smooth beach stones, and they are wet so that the details of their colours and patterns show clearly. Here are the stones on the Cover, one from each month in the Calendar:

In total, for the 12 months, there are 56 stones featured in the Calendar.

I use Diamond Photo, an Auckland-based company, to produce the Calendars. They provide a means online to place photos in a format for each month. There are a number of other companies with websites that do the same thing.

The printed product is very good but it is difficult initially to know how accurately it will reproduce what you see on your computer screen. Photos can turn out to be darker or lighter, for instance, and appropriate text size is hard to judge. I always get a draft of the Calendar sent to me to allow me to see how it turns out and to make any adjustments before finalising it, and I often do a second draft as well.

The Calendar photo page for each month is A4 size, with an A4 set of dates below that. Spiral binding keeps everything together. In the 2026 Calendar, January features five green-hued stones, February has five banded argillites, March presents six pink stones, and April has four poppy jaspers (photos of the final Calendar version below – they are not always accurate, the Calendar itself is generally clearer and the colour more balanced):

Five differently coloured quartzites from Kakanui feature in May, June presents six black and white igneous stones, five trace fossil stones are in July, and August has six yellow stones:

In September there are photos of five unidentified stones, October has five more Kakanui quartzites, November presents four breccia, and December features five hydrogrossular garnets:

The following Posts provide more details on each month’s stones: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August,September, October, November and December.

These 2026 Calendars are for sale, with postage within New Zealand included, for $35 non-rural, $40 rural. Two Calendars to the same address cost $60 non-rural, $65 rural. Three Calendars to the same address cost $85 non-rural, $90 rural. Email me at john.tumblestone@gmail.com.