About Us

Jayde Washuta

Our Founder

Jayde was introduced to the hobby of rockhounding through artifact hunting with her father when she was a child. She spent countless hours walking alongside him, quietly combing land and listening for the signature sound of metal on chert.

Arrowheads were the first artifact in her collection and hold a special place in her heart. While rockhounding is a fun hobby of hers, she has a passion for education.

After graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University with a Bachelor’s in Child and Youth Studies, and disappointed in the education system in Florida, Jayde sought for a way to educate future generations outside the four walls of the classroom. She believes that people learn best when they are able to explore their natural curiosity in a supportive environment and the products she creates and curates for Tales & Treasures embody that belief.

Josh Reynolds

Co-Founder & In-House Lapidary

Josh is an amateur geologist who credits his introduction to rockhounding to a $10 Break Your Own Geode Kit and his first trip to the Smoky Mountains. He began his collection by buying online and from crystal shops locally and on vacations but it never quite satisfied the itch the way he knew finding his own would.

He dove head-first into researching crystal mining and soon had a trip booked to visit his very first mine, Diamond Hill Mine in South Carolina. Since then he has turned his attention closer to home, mining for honey calcite crystals and hunting for fossils in Florida. His fossil-hunting excursions typically involve a long day of digging in the middle of the Peace River or combing land sites that are a part of the Peace River Formation for fossils of prehistoric land and sea animals .He looks forward to one day becoming scuba certified in order to begin off-shore diving for agatized coral and larger fossils.

Josh truly enjoys sharing knowledge and stories with other rockhounders and is always up for a chat if you stop by the store.