The Del Air Rockhounds Club Welcomes You!!

www.Facebook.com/DelAirRockhounds

The Del-Air Rockhounds Club was founded in 1954 with members mostly residing in the San Fernando Valley area of California. Our club is a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing knowledge of the lapidary arts and techniques, geology, mineralogy and related fields. We own our own lapidary equipment with members available to teach and demonstrate lapidary techniques to other members. Our members enjoy lapidary related programs, demonstrations, exhibitions, displays and lectures. We also take monthly field trips to our local deserts & mountains for exploration and the study and collection of lapidary and mineral specimens.

Member of the California & American Federation of Mineralogical Societies

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 7618, Van Nuys, CA 91409 

Del-Air Rockhounds August 2024 Calendar of Events

Thursday August 1: General Meeting 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at Northridge United Methodist Church

Saturday August 10: 3rd Quarter Shop Day

Thursday August 15th: Board Meeting

1916 to 2024 

Sunday August 25: 108th Anniversary of the Nat'l Park Service

*********************************************************

August 2024 Program:

'Ice Cream, Bingo & Summer Finds Social'

It's that time of the year where we once again return after a hot, hot, hot July and enjoy an evening of delicious ice cream and play exciting Bingo games for fabulous prizes. 

Plus… bring in and share with the group all your fabulous finds whether self collected or bought at a show or while on vacation. This is the time to show off the newest additions to your collections.

*********************************************************

Education Corner:

This month's Education Corner will be brought to you by our very own Bob Dearborn. He's going to demonstrate how to oxidize sterling silver to give it that unique antique look without having to use any caustic chemicals

******************************************************

September Field Trip Teaser:  Field Trip is for Paid Members Only!                                                        Sunday September 8, 2024 - 11:00 am   

Club friend & owner of Nevada Mineral & Book Company, Walt Lombardo, has invited the Del-Air Rockhounds on a field trip to his bookstore & natural history gallery located at 342 S. Tustin St., Orange, CA 92866. Not normally open on Sundays, Walt has agreed to exclusively take the Del-Airs on a personal tour of his shop and museum & will be on hand to answer your questions and inquiries. Carpooling is recommended so if you are interested in riding with others or having others ride with you, please let President Jeff Dengrove know as soon as possible so he can possibly help facilitate this.

Nevada Mineral & Book Company (NMBC) was established in 1985, when they started selling mineral specimens and out-of-print publications at gem & mineral shows and through mail order. In 1989 they acquired the inventory of the Mineralogical Record Book Dept., and incorporated in-print books and journals into their offerings. Over the past 30 years, they have evolved to offer the researcher, educator and collector a wide variety of publications and specimens in a "one-stop" shopping environment. In 2001 they opened their first retail location in Henderson, Nevada. In August, 2009 they relocated and opened their new store and gallery in Orange, California. They offer a wide variety of new, used and out-of-print publications, as well as mineral & fossil specimens, lapidary & decorator items, mining stock certificates & other ephemera. They have one of the largest inventories of earth science-related publications in North America, so plan on attending this extraordinary field trip. You will not be disappointed.

******************************************************

REPORT ON OUR QUARTERLY CLUB CLASS - AMBER:

 

June had us at Jeff Dengrove’s house for a club workshop on WORKING AND POLISHING AMBER, hosted by member Jon Meredith. We had a full class & Jon had a piece of rough amber for each one of us, plus a kit of many different grits of wet/dry sand paper to finish the project. There was also a container to hold water while working the amber & this stored your kit to take home with you. 

John gave simple instructions and said how easy it was to work this fossil tree resin. He also gave ideas on how we could speed up the process with chemicals, but suggested that we just use the sandpaper, as instructed, for a nice finished specimen. So, we got busy dipping our amber and sandpaper in water and sanding. The class ended 2 1/2 hours later and everyone took home a finished & polished piece of amber. And those who chose to, glued a pendant backing on their piece and took a really nice pendant home. 

Those who didn’t sign up for this special class really missed out on working with a new hobby material. Some even had bugs in the amber! These quarterly workshop classes are special events, just for our membership and you are really missing out on a learning experience by not joining in for the fun. Members attending this workshop were: Dan Farber, Martina & Rudy Rodriguez, Dr Oh, Anita Lichtman, Bob & Maxine Dearborn, and Kyle Morris. Again, many thanks to club member Jon for teaching us this fun new skill!

*********************************************************

 

Del Air Rockhounds July 2024 Calendar of Events

Thursday July 4th: Independence Day

NO GENERAL MEETING IN JULY – WE ARE DARK                                                                           

Thursday July 18th: Board Meeting - 7:30 pm at the Dearborn's home

******************************************

July's Teaser for Our August Program: 'Ice Cream & Bingo Social' 

 

It's that time of the year where we once again return after a hot hot hot July and enjoy an evening of delicious ice cream and play exciting Bingo games for fabulous prizes. Watch your August bulletin for more details.

**********************************************

Revised Club By-Laws:

All adult club members 18 years of age and older are kindly asked to read the newly revised club By-Laws that will appear in the August 2024 edition of our monthly bulletin. This is very important as the membership will be asked to vote on acceptance of these new By-Laws at our September general meeting and will require a two-thirds majority to pass. All members are encouraged to attend the September meeting so everyone's vote can be counted regarding this important matter.

********************************************

RIP Bob Jones:

For those of you who have been long time rockhounds, Bob Jones, a very long time friend of the mineral collecting community, passed away on May 31st. He was in his 90's. Bob's enthusiasm and unstoppable optimism along with his appreciation for mineral collecting and his passion for introducing people to the joy of mineral collecting could not be ignored. He was editor of Rock & Gem Magazine for decades and his many articles where he wrote about collecting localities will never be replicated. Bob was a generous and enthusiastic man who knew no strangers and he will be sorely missed by many.

***********************************************

Photos From Our Amber Workshop on Saturday June 22

  

   

     

**************************************************

WE DID IT:                                                                                                                                                                               

The Del Air Education Outreach Program ended its half way mark for 2024 with a BANG!!! Just before the school break we had two events going at the same time. One a school we have not been to before and the huge CFMS/AMFS Show! On a Thursday evening, we had a booth at a school STEAM NIGHT. Members, Shellie Van Winkle, Pam Abbott, Diana Durfee, Bob & Maxine Dearborn, Jon Meredith, Steven & Coriolis Koch were setting up, running and taking down the booth for a few hours. Our first time at this school and they were happy to talk to us about rocks. On this same Thursday, Jeff Dengrove and Bob Knox were at the Ventura Fairgrounds, setting up our club display case and educational booth. They did this for hours too! Now the CFMS/AFMS Show was a BIG weekend for our club. Besides the setting up and taking down our display case and educational booth, we had many members attend the show to run our booth. Members Jeff Dengrove, Bob Knox, Pam Abbott, Maxine & Bob Dearborn, Diana Durfee, Jon Meredith, Michael Lawshe, Keri Dearborn, Dan Farber were all there on and off for the Fri., Sat., Sun show and spent many hours at our booth talking to lots of people interested in our booth and rocks and minerals. Also two of our members were special speakers for the show. Keri Dearborn - Geology of the Coastal Islands and Maxine Dearborn - Amber. Both of their talks had a well attended audience. We also had a member, Emmy Silverman, who had a dealer booth at this show. You can see our club was very busy at the end of this booth/talk season and many members were involved with these events. We hope you all can take a break now - take a vacation somewhere - and rest up for the second part of the year coming up! 

****************************************************

June 2024 Del Air Monthly Calendar of Events

Thursday June 6: General Meeting 7:30 pm at Northridge United Methodist Church

Saturday June 15: Delvers G & M Society Parking Lot Sale

Sunday June 16: Father's Day 

Thursday June 20: Board Meeting 7:30 pm at Shellie Van Winkle's home

Saturday June 22: Working & Polishing Amber Class 

*******************************************************

June's General Meeting Program:                                                                                                          'Bonsai Trees & Rocks, Melding the Two Together'                                                                          Presented by Dan Durfee

Come join us at our June meeting where club member Dan Durfee will show us how he creates his beautiful bonsai trees and how he incorporates colorful rocks and minerals to help showcase his masterpieces. It's sure to be an informative and creative experience for all.

**************************************************

June 2024 Workshop 

Working & Polishing Amber

Presented by Jon Meredith

Club member and amber enthusiast, Jon Meredith, will be hosting a class on working and polishing amber at Jeff Dengroves house. Amber is fossilized tree resin and can be found in a select few locations around the globe. There will be space for ten (10) participants and a sign up sheet will be available at the June general meeting. Jon will be providing all necessary materials. The slab saws and a genie will also  be available on this day for those who wish to take advantage of them. Don't miss out… get your name on that sign up sheet at the June meeting. 

***************************************************

************************************************

Have you ever wondered about the MOHS hardness scale? Here are some facts about it!

• The MOHS scale is a system used to identify the hardness of rocks and minerals.
• There are many things that people use to help describe or discover a rock’s identification, but the MOHS scale is a good, efficient one to identify types of minerals.
• The MOHS process suggests scratching two minerals together in order to find the hardness of the two minerals.
• Who? The person who invented the MOHS scale was Friedrich E. Mohs.
• When? The MOHS scale was created in the year 1812. How? Observing the mineral’s surface when it is scratched by a substance of known or defined hardness.
• When? The scale was found in the early 1800's in one of Friedrich’s books.
• What? The MOHS hardness scale means Scale of Mineral Hardness.

**********************************

***************************************************************

Del Air Club Annual Wrightwood Field Trip Report:

Thanks to member Shellie Van Winkle, we met again at her house in Wrightwood, CA for our annual field trip. There were breakfast snack items on the table when we all got there and fresh coffee. Boy, what a way to start collecting rock! Our members trooped off, about 2 city blocks, to the collecting area and had a great time filling their bags. Some had large rocks too big for their bags. After about 2 hours of collecting, we all headed back to the house for a huge pot-luck lunch of warm food, salads, finger food and rich desserts. Every field trip should be like this one! Members present were: Shellie Van Winkle, Bernadette Friedman, Jeff Dengrove, Dan & Diana Durfee, Aileen Beckers, Michael Tschacher, Louise Ratliff, Bob & Maxine Dearborn and Peggy Donner. Again, Thank You Shellie for a great, easy and fun way to have a field trip.

**************************************************

May 2024 Del Air Calendar of Events

Thursday May 2: General Meeting  7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at NUMC

Sunday May 5: Cinco de Mayo

Thursday May 9: Board Meeting

Sunday May 12: Mother's Day

Thursday May 16: Patrick Henry Middle School STEM Night

Saturday May 18: Annual Wrightwood Potluck & Field Trip

Friday, Saturday, Sunday May 24-26: AFMS/CFMS/VGMS Show

Monday May 27: Memorial Day

******************************************

May's General Meeting Program: 'Southern California Tourmalines'                                                Presented by Walt Lombardo

Come join us at our May general meeting where Walt Lombardo will be discussing Southern California Tourmalines. Walt is a geologist with over 35 years experience related to mining and mineral exploration. For 16 years, he managed the Las Vegas Office for the Nevada Division of Minerals. He has also worked for Desert Research Institute (part of the University of Nevada system) and served as a consultant for several mining and exploration companies.  Walt has lectured nationwide on topics relating to geology, mineralogy, gemology, mineral resources and mining fraud. 

Nevada Mineral & Book Company (NMBC) was established in 1985, when Walt started selling mineral specimens and out-of-print publications at gem & mineral shows and through mail order. In 1989 he acquired the inventory of the Mineralogical Record Book Department, and incorporated in-print books and journals into his offerings. Over the past 30 years, we have evolved to offer the researcher, educator and collector a wide variety of publications and specimens in a "one-stop" shopping environment. In 2001 we opened our first retail location in Henderson, Nevada. In August, 2009 we relocated and opened our new store and gallery at 342 S. Tustin St. Orange, CA 92866. They offer a wide variety of new, used and out-of-print publications, as well as mineral and fossil specimens, lapidary and decorator items, and mining stock certificates and other ephemera. They have one of the largest inventories of earth science-related publications in North America, so plan on staying a while if you come to visit his store. You will not be disappointed.

*******************************************

Report on Del Air Shop Day - Sat. April 13:             

On Saturday, April 13th we had our Spring workshop.  Four members attended; Dan Farber, Kyle Morris, Steven and Coriolis Koch. We had a successful day, prior to the rain. We used both grinding and polishing units, the 18 inch and 10 inch saws, the flat lap and the drill press.  We cut and polished a variety of stones. We encourage ALL members to take part in these shop days. Our next shop day will be sometime in July, August or September. Keep an eye on your upcoming monthly bulletins for more details.

*******************************************

Club Display Case @ AFMS/CFMS/VGMS Annual Show in May: 

The Del Air club will be installing a display case at the annual show and convention at the Ventura Fairgrounds May 24th thru the 26th. It will be a non competitive entry showcasing our club and the lapidary items we have created at our various shop days, wire wrapping and chain-mail classes, etc. We are asking all members to loan a lapidary item or two that you created, cut, polished or assembled while a member of the club to the board for possible inclusion in the case. We are looking for 12 to 14 items for inclusion in the case depending on size. It could be a polished specimen, a jewelry item or any type of rock related handicraft.  Please bring your loan items to our May 2024 meeting labeled with a brief explanation of the item and your name & phone number. All items will be returned to members at our June meeting. This is great exposure for our club to AFMS/CFMS members from around our state and the entire country.

*******************************************

Agatized Coral - Tampa Bay, Florida:

The photos above are of the world famous Tampa Bay Agatized Coral. They are from an ancient coral bed that encompassed much of the state of Florida approximately 38 to 40 million years ago when Florida was underwater. I acquired this specimen at a rock sale held by my Florida rock club, The Withlacoochee Rockhounds of Hernando, Florida. It measures 7 inches from left to right and 2 ¾ inches from top to bottom. Specimens of this size and quality go for upwards of $85 or more on eBay but I was able to snatch up this beauty for only $20. A steal of a bargain, for sure!

******************************************

****************************************