Mar 2016
03:
General Meeting: 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room
13:
Daylight Savings Time Begins: Set those clocks ahead one hour!
17:
Board Meeting: 7:30 pm at the Dearborn’s home.
17:
St Patrick’s Day: Show your Irish pride!
20:
1st Day of Spring: Time to plant those spring bulbs.
27: Easter Sunday: Jelly
Beans & Marshmallow Peeps!
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General Meeting: Thursday March 03, 2016
The meeting begins at 7:30 pm
in our regular meeting room at:
Northridge
United Methodist Church - 9650 Reseda Blvd, Northridge, CA 91324
Guests Are Always Welcome
At Our Meetings & Events.
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March
2016 Program:
The Changing Gemstone and Bead Industries.
Gemstones: New Finds, Fakes, Created, Dyed & Enhanced.
Presented by: Ken Rogers
Presented by: Ken Rogers
Join us for an evening with Ken Rogers
who will speak on the changes in the gemstone and bead industry plus how they
affect jewelers, beaders, lapidary enthusiasts and consumers.
On February 17, 1972 Nixon went to
China, opened trade, and in doing so, woke up the "Sleeping Dragon".
While China expanded its industrial growth it looked to its own natural
resources, including historic and craft industries. China opened and expanded
their mines, including Turquoise and many other gem stones. They retrained
their craftsmen and developed new, modern, bead and gem cutting and carving
facilities. As time went on, the Chinese started designing and manufacturing
new gemstones in their factories. The Chinese went as far as buying up gem
mines in its neighboring countries and territories. Soon, the Chinese were able
to control much of the world’s gem and bead market.
In his illustrated talk, Ken will
discuss what has happened in Asia, where it is going, and how it will affect
us, here in the U.S. Then, Ken will go on to expose and discuss some of the
new, dyed, enhanced and misnamed and factory manufactured gemstones.
Ken
Rogers has been recognized as one of the "go to" people for questions
about gemstone beads. Ken has been a rockhound since he was 10, cut his first
gemstone cabochon at age 15, and learned silversmithing and jewelry making in
his high school art class. Ken had a 30 year career as a photojournalist,
working for the world's top magazines and corporations. When the photographic
world converted from film to digital media, Ken returned to the gem and jewelry
world to manage a Beverly Hills jewelry store and several gem bead companies.
Since then Ken has returned to creating his own gem bead jewelry, consulting,
lecturing, and helping friends with their businesses. Ken has been a member of
the Bead Society L.A. for the past 15 years and the Culver City Rock & Mineral
Club for 10 years.
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Grab
Bag Fill Day Report: Feb 20, 2016
By Chris Ward – Editor
It
was warm and sunny when we arrived at the Dearborn’s home at 9:30 am on
Saturday February 20th to fill grab bags for our upcoming 2016 Education
Outreach season. Bob Knox and Marilyn Murata were my travelling companions and
fellow volunteers that morning and we were met by Bob & Maxine Dearborn,
Jim & Shellie VanWinkle and Michael Tschacher. We started filling bags and
were soon joined by Hiro Matsuo, Dennis Miller, Linda Barrozo, Keri Dearborn
and Michael Lawshe with Bodie the dog. Within 2 hours we had filled over 700
bags with high quality rock, petrified wood and fossil corals among other
things. The kids are going to be really pleased this year! Afterwards, Maxine
put on a luncheon feast for all thirteen of us consisting of a green salad with
every topping imaginable and a variety of dressings followed by boneless
chicken and rice in a delicious cream sauce. We had ice tea, fresh lemonade and
coffee. Dessert consisted of a huge platter of homemade brownies and a big bowl
of freshly sliced fruit. We talked and laughed and shared rockhounding stories
and had a really good time. The board sends out a huge thank you to the
thirteen volunteers for their time and positive enthusiasm in getting this
seemingly monumental task completed in such a short amount of time. A special
thank you goes out to Bob & Maxine for their extraordinary hospitality
during this club event.
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Alternative Field Trip Opportunity
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71st
Annual Santa Barbara International Orchid Show
Fri,
Sat, & Sun March 4 thru 6 2016 from 9 am to 5 pm daily
Earl
Warren Showgrounds located in Santa Barbara at Highway 101 and Las Positas
Road. General admission is $14; seniors, students with ID and advance group
sales (min 25) are $12; children 12 and under are free with an adult.
If you have never attended
this show, do yourself a favor and go. It will knock your socks off! Pack a
picnic lunch and make a day of it. I guarantee you will not regret it.
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Support Our Hobby....Attend A Local Show.....
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March 4 - 6: NEWARK, CA
Mineral
& Gem Society of Castro Valley
Newark
Pavilion
6430
Thornton Avenue
Hours:
Fri & Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 5
Contact:
Cathy Miller, (510) 887-9007
Email:
showchair@mgscv.org
Website:
www.mgscv.org
|
March 5 - 6: ARCADIA, CA
Monrovia
Rockhounds
Los
Angeles Arboretum-Ayres Hall
301
Baldwin Avenue
Hours:
9:00 - 4:30 daily
Contact:
Jo Anna Ritchey, (626) 358-1624,
Email:
joannaritchey@gmail.com
Website:
www.Moroks.com
|
|
March 5 - 6: VENTURA, CA
Ventura
Gem & Mineral Society
Ventura
County Fairgrounds
10
West Harbor Blvd.
Hours:
Sat 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4
Contact:
Show Chair, (805) 312-8467
Email:
info@VGMS.org
Website:
www.vgms.or
|
March 12 - 13: SAN
MARINO, CA
Pasadena
Lapidary Society
San
Marino Masonic Center
3130
Huntington Drive
Hours:
Sat 10 - 6, Sun 10 - 5
Contact:
Marcia Goetz, (626) 260-7239
Email:
joenmar1@verizon.net
Website:
www.pasadenalapidarysociety.org
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March 12 - 13:
SPRECKELS, CA,
Spreckel's
Veterans Hall
5th
& Llano Streets
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contact:
Karin Salomon, (831) 375-5233
Email:
kcbakes27@yahoo.com
Website:
www.salinasrockandgem.com
|
March 12 - 13: TURLOCK,
CA
Mother
Lode Mineral Society, Modesto
Stanislaus
County Fairgrounds
900
North Broadway
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contacts:
Bud & Terry McMillin, (209) 524-3494
Website:
www.motherlodemineralsociety.com
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|
March 19 - 20: LEMOORE, CA
Lemoore
Gem & Mineral Society
Lemoore
Trinity Hall
470
Champion Street
Hours:
Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 4
Contact:
Christopher Wertinberger, (559) 309-3433
Email:
kim-morrell@hotmail.com
|
March 26 - 27: ANGELS
CAMP, CA
Calaveras
Gem & Mineral Society
Calaveras
County Fairgrounds
101
Frogtown Road
Hours:
Sat 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4
Contact:
Dave Muster
Email:
mustersgems@yahoo.com
Website:
www.calaverasgemandmineral.org
|
March
2016 Something of the Month: “A Brief History of Gemstone Cutting”
Prehistoric
Stonecutting: It’s no mystery that people have been transforming stone since
prehistoric times. This was the age where man learned how to make different
tools out of stone. The difference here is they didn’t have the fancy stone
cutting tools lapidaries rely on today. Instead, they would use one stone to
fashion the other stone into whatever they wanted to create. They began to make
observations about stone hardness and other properties that affected how easily
they could be shaped. By about 3,000 BC, man was able to take drab green
serpentine rocks and transform them into cylinders. No matter which ancient
civilization you choose, you’ll find stone cutting within all of their recorded
histories. Pictures abound in history books of amulets, beads, scarabs, and
other items fashioned from stone, but when did faceting begin? While the
practice seems to have started in the 1300s, it didn’t get in full swing until
the 1400s. This is when a variety of tools were developed to aid in the process
– grinding wheels, polishing techniques, and even the experimentation with
cutting the stones into different shapes.
The Profession
Takes Off: It was in the late 1400s when gem cutting became a sought after
skill. And back then, the place to be was Idar-Oberstein, Germany, then
considered the gem cutting capital of the world. Historians believe that
although history books say this is when it all started in this tiny town, gem
cutting was occurring here well before it was actually documented. Miners close
to Idar and Oberstein were finding agates, taking them to be cut into
sculptures and cabochons. Mining with assistance from machines began in this
area in the late 1400s, which is what led to the title of gem cutting capital
of the world. So many more stones were being mined that they needed many more
gem cutters. And they came! By the beginning of the 18th century
approximately 15 gem cutting shops were located in Idar-Oberstein alone! By the
start of the 19th century, that number doubled – this coincided with
Germans heading to Brazil and finding substantial agate deposits which they
then returned to town with in order for it all to be cut. At the end of the
1800s, the 15 gem cutting shops had increased to over 150!
Where Was The
Inspiration? It really isn’t known how someone discovered the art of faceting
to make a gemstone appear more beautiful. However, some believe it was those
crystals found in nature possessing natural facets. Perhaps someone picked up a
crystal like this and thought, “Wow, that’s really pretty and sparkly. I wonder
if I can recreate this on my own.” Jewelry in Europe during the late 13th
and early 14th centuries increasingly featured faceted gemstones.
But once the horizontally turning cutting wheel was invented, faceting started
becoming more precise and elaborate. This is when gem cutters started
harnessing the power of light, playing with different ideas and coming up with
extraordinary shapes and geometric patterns. And we’d already displayed a
fascination with patterns – Euclid’s principles of mathematics and even the
geometric architectural patterns of the medieval times are quite similar to the
faceting patterns of those gemstones during the Renaissance. No matter how
complex a faceting pattern appears, it is always symmetrical. The challenge for
these early gem cutters, charged with faceting a symmetrical pattern (a
challenge in and of itself), was working with the refractive properties of any
given mineral. Certain faceting can actually make a stone less brilliant, so
they needed to be very careful.
Conclusion: We could delve into the details about each cut and
who created it, but that is a lengthy history for sure. Since the beginning of
time, man has been fascinated with fashioning stones found within the earth
into different objects. What started as a purposeful tool transformed into a
decorative embellishment that sparkled and shined. Without the lapidary, this
just would not be possible. They are constantly trying to come up with new
shapes and ideas each and every day, innovating the industry even more.
(courtesy of www.sathersjewelers.com)
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“STRIKE
GOLD”
77th
CFMS Show & Convention
September
16-18, 2016
Placerville,
CA
Location:
El Dorado County Fairgrounds
100 Placerville Drive
Placerville, CA
Hours: Fri - Sun 10 - 5
Website coming soon! ****************************************************
