Member of the California & American Federation of Mineralogical Societies
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 7618, Van Nuys, CA 91409 - Phone # 818-439-0217
The Del Air Rockhounds Club, Inc Los Angeles - San Fernando Valley, California, United States - We are a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing knowledge of the lapidary arts and techniques, geology, mineralogy and related fields.
Thursday June 1: General Meeting 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at Northridge U.M. Church
Friday June 2: Vintage Magnet NASA STEAM Night See article
Thursday June 15: Board Meeting 7:30 pm at Shellie Van Winkle's home
Sunday June 18: Father's Day Remember your dad on his special day
Saturday June 24: DWP Earth Day See article
****************************************
A Surprise in Every Rock Presented by Maxine Dearborn, Chris Ward & Bob Knox
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a dinosaur bone cell and a fossil whale bone cell? Or how can you look at petrified wood and decide what kind of tree it might have been when living? There is a secret hidden in many of our rocks and we hope to help you find them. Chris Ward, Bob Knox and Maxine Dearborn will bring their digital microscopes and project a secret or two for you. How about, what is that bug in a piece of amber? They will show you. Please bring a slab or two or an object of your own that is no more than a inch and a half thick to the meeting and you can see the secrets in your rock too!
**********************************************
The Rockhound Dennis Miller Show
Dennis will fill us in on June's birthstones, Moonstone, Pearl & Alexandrite. Dennis also asks all members to bring in something for Show & Tell each month to share with our members and guests. He will debut a new stepping stone of the month and will have collectible editions of Lapidary Journal magazine to give away.
**********************************************
OUR CLUB's SCHOOL EVENTS FOR MAY
The Del Air Club has been very, very busy during the month of May. We have given talks to a couple hundred students and we have gone to two school science events and the Antelope Valley Gem Show. Our booths were very busy at most of these events and we did talk to a lot of people about our club, geology, fossils and rocks. Fun, Fun, Fun.
Members participating in these different events were: Chris Ward, Bob Knox, Shellie VanWinkle, Bernadette Friedman, Marilyn Murata, Jeff Dengrove, LaVere Schmidt, Christine Schmidt and Bob & Maxine Dearborn. These events are not only a great way for us to present our club to the public, but they also help fund our Youth Education Outreach Program and let us purchase needed supplies and new items to show the students at our school talks.
WE STILL HAVE 2 MORE EVENTS COMING UP IN JUNE AND NEED OUR MEMBERSHIPS HELP. LET MAXINE DEARBORN OR CHRIS WARD KNOW WHEN YOU CAN HELP!
**********************************************
Attention All Del Members & Friends
Remember, the Del Air Rockhounds are dark during the month of July. Except for our Field trip to Wrightwood on Saturday July 8th, there are no scheduled meetings and no bulletin issued in July. We will resume regular operations in August with our annual Ice Cream, Bingo & Share Your 'Summer Finds' social event. See you all then.
**********************************************
Del Air Club Rock Sale
The planned Del Air Club rock sale originally planned for Saturday June 10 has been moved to Saturday September 9th due to planning, advertising and logistical issues. We need more time to pull all the details together so please watch this space in our August issue for all the final details. We will need the memberships help so please mark this on your calendars.
**********************************************
Thursday May 4: General Meeting 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at Northridge U.M. Church
Saturday & Sunday May 6 & 7: AV Gem & Mineral Society's Show 10 am to 5 pm each day. Come join us for a fun filled show!
Sunday May 14: Mother's Day Remember your mom on this special day.
Thursday May 25: Board Meeting 7:30 pm at Shellie Van Winkle's home.
Monday May 29: Memorial Day Let summertime begin!
************************************************
May 2023 General Meeting Program: 'Searching for Self Identity' Presented by Ted Garcia
KNOWN FOR HIS WISE WORDS, TED GARCIA IS OFTEN INVITED TO PROVIDE A BLESSING AT FAMILY & COMMUNITY EVENTS. TED HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY HIS FAMILY ELDERS TO BE THE SPOKESMAN FOR HIS CLAN IN THE CHUMASH TRIBE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. FEATURED ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL' S NATIONAL PARKS TV SHOW, TED IS PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR THE FRIENDS OF SATWIWA NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WHERE TED AND HIS TEAM ORGANIZE MONTHLY EVENTS AT SATWIWA NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE CENTER IN NEWBURY PARK, CALIFORNIA. TED ALSO SERVES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR THE OAKBROOK REGIONAL PARK CHUMASH INTERPRETIVE CENTER IN THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA. AS A NATIVE STONE CARVER, TED ALLOWS THE SPIRIT IN THE STONE TO GUIDE HIM AS HE GIVES LIFE TO THE ANIMAL FORM WITHIN . SINCE 1998, TED HAS PRESENTED HIS ARTWORKS ANNUALLY AT THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM'S POPULAR NATIVE
AMERICAN MARKETPLACE EVENT IN LOS ANGELES, WHERE HIS STYLIZED BEARS, DOLPHINS AND SWORDFISH ARE ICONS OF CHUMASH SACRED ANIMALS. AS AN ADVISOR TO THE CHUMASH MARITIME ASSOCIATION, TED WAS HONORED WITH HIS EXTENDED FAMILY WHO WERE AMONG THE FORTUNATE FEW LOCAL NATIVE FAMILIES FERRIED TO SANTA CRUZ ISLAND TO GREET THE FIRST CHUMASH CANOE, A "TOMAL", TO CROSS THE SANTA
BARBARA CHANNEL IN 125 YEARS, ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2001. TED IS A PROUD VETERAN OF THE US ARMY AND SERVED IN VIETNAM FROM 1970 TO 1971."MY TALK WILL BE ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STONE I HAVE WORKED ON IN MY ART THAT STARTED AROUND 20 YEARS AGO, MY CULTURE AND MY LIFE TRAVELS WITHIN MY CULTURE".
*********************************************************
The Rockhound Dennis Miller Show
Dennis will fill us in on May's birthstone, the Emerald. Dennis also asks all members to bring in something for Show & Tell each month to share with our members and guests.
**************************************************
Rockhound Crafts — Let’s Bring More of Them Back! By: Jennifer Haley, AFMS Historian
Part of my job description as a historian is to keep an eye out for ideas from our past that might be beneficial for our societies and club members today. One area I have admired about the history of AFMS affiliated rockhounds is the creativity in the lapidary arts and crafts. The first society I belonged to kept binders full of all the various craft tutorials with photos found in the old lapidary magazines. They did this so their club members could look through the binders to find new things they’d like to make. I loved looking at these. Whenever I am at a society show, I like going through the stacks of these old magazines to see what I might be missing in my personal collection of lapidary craft ideas. I have noticed for quite some time now that it seems like there are not as many people having fun working on the many crafts of our past. These crafts can still be wonderful and inspiring today. I have often wondered why this is. I would love to see the enthusiasm come back for the crafts aspect of our hobby. One of the ways to draw in new members is to show off what you can teach people to make. Bring back those wonderful crafts and display them in exhibits at your shows. Think about creating a program for your society’s library of the various lapidary arts and crafts. You can enter a program like this in your Regional Federation New Programs contest, where it may advance to the AFMS New Programs contest. If all we have are the memories of what we personally have made, and we don’t try to pass our skills to new members and the incoming new generations of rockhounds, our hobby will forget some of those treasured skills. Probably many of your societies have collections of the older craft tutorials from the heyday when the lapidary arts and crafts ideas were bustling. Find them and archive them before the old pages fade away. I recommend making the effort to scan them. Let’s create a new heyday for lapidary arts and crafts. It will be easy to do, and we’ll have a lot of fun too.
********************************************************
In Memoriam: Roy Ridenour April 13, 1930 - March 31, 2023
Roy Ridenour was born on Palm Sunday, 1930 on a farm near Mallard Iowa. His parents were Ted and Nora Ridenour. His full name was Leroy, but he preferred Roy. He graduated from Mallard High school and enrolled in an electronic trade school in Des Moines. He enlisted in the National Guard. It was in a Des Moines church where he met Dorothy. They were married in that very church 73 years ago. After the birth of their two daughters, Elaine and Connie, Roy moved the family to Dayton, Iowa where he worked for Collins Radio. Roy's parents moved to Burbank, California in 1954 and a few years later, Roy decided to transfer to the Collins Radio division in Burbank. There they bought a small one bedroom home which they remodeled themselves over the next 15 years.
Roy and Dorothy shared a hobby - rock hounding, which resulted in a backyard stacked with rocks. Roy designed machines to cut and polish spheres, slabs, and bookends while Dorothy cut and polished cabochons to make into jewelry. That started a new business! They joined a local rock club and sold their spheres, rocks and jewelry at rock shows. Some of their finished products are displayed on their coffee table.
Sunday mornings were always reserved for church attendance. Roy served on many church boards and committees. He was a Sunday school teacher for teenagers for many years and a Sunday school superintendent for several years at First Lutheran Church in Burbank.
Roy is survived by his wife Dorothy, daughter Elaine and her husband Dennis; daughter Connie; granddaughter Katrina and her husband, Jason; grandson Troy and his wife, Kara; grandson Craig and his wife, Laura; two great-grandsons, Alexander and Kenji; brother Orville and his wife Dorothy and sister-in-law, Lisa.
Roy and Dorothy joined the Del Air Rockhounds Club in 1993. After 27 years of faithful and dedicated patronage (over the years, Roy tumbled and polished literally hundreds and hundreds of pounds of rocks for the club's education team) they were both granted honorary lifetime memberships in 2020. Roy, a beloved member of the club, will be sorely missed by all of us.
****************************************************
CFMS SHOW AND CONVENTION JUNE 23-25, 2023 - LODI GRAPE FESTIVAL GROUNDS 413 E LOCKEFORD ST., LODI, CA 95240 Hours: Friday & Saturday 10 AM – 5 PM, Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM Educational Exhibits, Speakers - Adults $6, Kids 12 & under FREE Free admission to MILITARY Active, Veterans, Dependents with valid Military ID card. For information: rocksbob@sbcglobal.net - Dealer information: slchaisson@yahoo.com
This year will be a no-host show meaning there is no individual club or society hosting the show along with the CFMS. The CFMS is therefore asking for any members from any club or society within the CFMS to volunteer and help set up and run the show as well as take down the show once it is over. For more information and for anyone interested in helping out the CFMS can contact Bob Rush, show chair, at rocksbob@sbcglobal.net.
****************************************************
Thursday March 2: General Meeting 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at Northridge United Methodist Church
Sunday March 12: Daylight Savings Time Begins Set those clocks ahead one hour.
Thursday March 16: Board Meeting At Bernadette Friedman's Home
Friday March 17: St Patrick's Day Wear your green or you'll get pinched
Saturday March 25: Shop Day at Jeff Dengrove's Home
******************************
General Meeting Thursday March 2, 2023 - 7:30 pm
TGMS – Not Your Typical Rock Show.
The Tucson Gem and Mineral Society knows how to put on a great show. This society was the first to bring together the hobby enthusiast, the curator/professionals and the general public for this annual four day event. After 68 years, it is the largest, oldest and most prestigious gem and mineral show in the world. This year the theme was “Silica, Agates & Opal & Quartz, Oh My!”
Located at the Tucson Convention Center, attendees will find approximately 250 dealers selling a variety of minerals, fossils, jewelry, and lapidary. Throughout the show there are lectures and symposiums. Jaw-dropping world class exhibits from private collections, major universities and museums are on display. Other exhibit cases, (both competitive and non-competitive) round out this mix.
This month Mary Pat Weber will provide us with a visual treat of the highlights of this recent event and why this show rocks!
******************************
The Rockhound Dennis Miller Show
Dennis will fill us in on March's birthstone; Aquamarine, and will also provide Quartzsite report part 2. Dennis asks all members to bring in something for Show & Tell each month to share with our members and guests.
*****************************
West Hills 13th Annual Spring Fest
Saturday April 1, 2023 - 10:00 am to 2:00 pm Shadow Ranch Recreation Center 22633 Vanowen St., West Hills CA 91307
The Del Air Rockhounds have been invited to participate as a vendor in the 13th annual West Hills Spring Fest. This is a first time event for us. We will have two (2) 10 x 10 pop-ups. One will strictly be an educational booth with our kids games, touch and feel and our dino/ice age reproductions. The other will feature our boutique items, spin-a-wheel, grab bags, jewelry and other items for sale. Set-up for the booth will be at 8:30 am and the event runs from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. As always, we are seeking club members to volunteer their time to help run the booth. Please see Chris Ward, the Dearborns or Shellie Van Winkle
****************************
The Ventura Club will be hosting their annual show on Saturday and Sunday, March 4 & 5, 2023. This is always a great show at a super great location, the Ventura County Fairgrounds, right on the beach!
As in the past, The Del Air Rockhounds will have our educational booth at the show for the entire weekend featuring our famous Volcano, Igneous and Sedimentary Rock displays with touch and feel rocks and educational games for kids and adults alike. Please find the time to attend this fun event and see what we do outside our regular monthly meetings. Looking forward to seeing you all there.
****************************
“Pyrite Decay” is one of the biggest problems for mineral collectors. Minerals that are made of iron and sulfur can have this problem. The two most common minerals are pyrite and marcasite. For reasons that scientists have not been able to fully understand, the sulfur and iron in these minerals combine with oxygen and hydrogen. The sulfur reacts to become sulfuric acid and the stinky gas called hydrogen sulfide. “Hydrogen sulfide” smells like rotten eggs. If you have pyrite or marcasite in your collections and it is decaying, you will be able to smell the sulfur! Open a drawer with pyrite in it and sniff. When this chemical reaction happens, the pyrite and marcasite specimens will first turn dark and lose their shiny metallic luster. Over time you will begin to see yellow and white crusts form. The crusts will be crumbly and will rub off very easily. In the worst case, the specimen will actually fall apart! As the specimens deteriorate, the acids created will attack your specimen labels, too. The paper will turn brown and very brittle. Scientists don’t know how to stop or even control pyrite decay. There are two things that are known that can help you:
1. When one pyrite or marcasite specimen deteriorates, it can cause other specimens nearby to deteriorate, too. If you have a number of pyrite and marcasite pieces, keep them separated from one another. If you have a specimen that is beginning to deteriorate, remove it from the collection immediately.
2. Remember that one of the chemicals created by pyrite decay is the gas called hydrogen sulfide. Keep your specimens in a place where the fumes can’t build up. On an open shelf is a good option. In other words, good air circulation helps.
Many mineral collectors report that pyrite specimens that are more of a darker greenish color are much more likely to change and fall apart from pyrite disease. Avoiding adding pyrite specimens that are darker in color is smart. Bright, brassy, metallic pyrite crystals are much less likely to have pyrite disease. There are some pyrite specimens, like the great cubes and groups of cubes from Spain, that don’t seem to get pyrite disease. The bright, shiny, metallic pyrite specimens from Peru also seem to not break down with this disease.
Used with permission. Diamond Dan Publications. Mini-Miner Monthly, June 2022, via The Strata Data, 2/2023. Courtesy AFMS March 2023 Newsletter
****************************
HOW TO CLEAN SILVER ARTICLES - YOU NEED:
1 - LITER WATER TO BOIL
1 - TABLESPOON BORAX POWDER (can be found in supermarket laundry aisle) If you can not find the borax you can use baking soda.
1 - TABLESPOON SALT
1 - PIECE OF ALUMINUM FOIL
DIRECTIONS:
Bring water to boil, pour into a glass bowl or container, add borax, salt and dissolve. Place aluminum foil in water. Place your silver article in water - it must touch the foil. Tarnish will be gone in 10 seconds or so. Heavy tarnish may take one or two times in the water. Heavy tarnish may look like it has not been cleaned. Remove from water and rub with a soft cloth and it should wipe off the tarnish.
NOTES:
What is silver tarnish? It is silver sulfide and comes from sulfur gasses in the air over time. Sterling silver contains 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. This copper makes the sterling silver tarnish faster than pure silver. Remember, every time you remove tarnish, you are also removing a bit of the silver. Silver plate items have a very thin layer of silver and can wear away over time. Another type of home made silver polish is cream of tartar or baking soda and water. Make into a paste and rub on the silver. Use an old toothbrush for grooves. Rinse clean and wipe dry. Commercial silver polishes may have a tarnish retardant in it? Check the label.
****************************