Del Air’s February 2018 Calendar
01: General Meeting: 7:30 pm in our
regular meeting room.
14: Valentine’s Day: Don’t forget your
Sweetheart.
15:
Board Meeting: Bob & Maxine Dearborn's Home.
15:
Chinese Lunar New Year: Year of the Brown Earth Dog.
19:
President’s Day: Happy Birthday George & Abe.
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General Meeting: Thursday Feb 01, 2018
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 and events however our annual Holiday Party in December
requires a prepaid reservation in advance.
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February 2018 Program:
"Tips
& Tricks at the Jewelers Bench"
Presented by: Bradford Smith
(Bradford was unable to give
his presentation at our January meeting so he has kindly agreed to re-schedule
for February)
Bradford Smith
is a studio jeweler, lapidary, and jewelry instructor based in Santa Monica,
California. His teaching career started with eight years in the Los Angeles
school system. In 2009, he designed and built a new jewelry facility at Santa
Monica's Adult Education Center where he continues to teach Adult-Ed classes in
beginner to advanced jewelry fabrication
After retiring
and moving to California, Brad discovered rockhounding in the desert and the
lapidary arts. That led him to cutting gemstones, then to silversmithing, etc. He’s
been a happy camper ever since.
Brad is a long-time
member of the Culver City Rock Club, the Metal Arts Society of Southern
California, and the ASPCA. He enjoys photography, rockhounding, scuba diving
and robotics.
His how-to
jewelry book started nearly four years ago as a homework assignment in a social
media class. "Bench Tips for Jewelry Making" is now on Amazon, and has
more than 4700 followers on the Facebook Bench Tips page plus distribution to
213 club newsletters in six countries.
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Support our Hobby.....Attend a Local Show....
|
March
2 - 4: 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
2 - 11, IMPERIAL, CA
Imperial Valley Gem & Mineral Society California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta 200 East Second Street Hours: Weekends noon - 10 pm; Weekdays 4 pm - 10 pm Contact: John Pyle, Jr. (760) 562-3453 Website: www.ivgms.org |
|
March
3 - 4: ARCADIA, CA
Monrovia Rockhounds L. A. County Arboretum & Botanical Garden 301 North Baldwin Avenue Hours: 9:00 - 4:30 daily Contact: Jo Anna Ritchey, (626) 359-1624, Email: joannaritchey@gmail.com Website: www.moroks.com |
March
3 - 4: TORRANCE, CA
South Bay Lapidary & Mineral Society Ken Miller Recreation Center 3341 Torrance Blvd (entrance on Madrona) Hours: Sat. 10 - 5; Sun. 10 - 4 Contact: Nancy Pekarek, (310) 257-8152 Email: pekareks@hotmail.com Website: southbaylapidaryandmineralsociety.com |
|
March 3 - 4: VENTURA, CA
Ventura Gem & Mineral Society Ventura County Fairgrounds 10 West Harbor Blvd. Hours: Sat 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4 Contact: Diane Cook, (805) 312-8467 Email: info@vgms.org Website: www.vgms.org |
March
9 - 11: VICTORVILLE, CA
Victorville Valley Gem & Mineral Society Hwy 15 / Stoddard Wells Road Hours: 9 - 5 daily Contact: Brett Ward or Sandy Skidmore, (760) 617-6001 Email: san2744@aol.com Website: www.vvgmc.org |
|
March
10 - 11: SAN MARINO, CA
Pasadena Lapidary Society San Marino Masonic Center 3130 Huntington Drive Hours: Sat 10 - 6, Sun 10 - 5 Contact: Ellen Ferrell, (727) 512-0381 Email: pasadenalapidary@aol.com Website: www.pasadenalapidarysociety.org |
March
10 - 11: SPRECKELS, CA
Salinas Valley Rock and Gem Club Spreckel's Veteran's Memorial Hall 5th & Llano Streets Hours: 10 - 5 daily Contact: Gary Beck, (831) 679-2896 Email: garybeckpca@yahoo.com Website: http://salinasrockandgem.pagecloud.com |
Go to www.cfmsinc.org for more show information
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GARNET
Garnets are
found worldwide in igneous rocks like granite, rhyolites, and pegmatites; in
sedimentary
rocks like
sandstones; and in metamorphic rocks like amphibolites, limestones, contact
metamorphics,
eclogite,
gneiss, mica and chlorite schists and serpentines.
Garnet is a
group name for a series of some 60
minerals that crystallize in the isometric system and
have a basic
structure unit of SiO4 which possesses four negative charges. Those charges are
satisfied by
calcium, iron,
aluminum, magnesium, manganese and chromium commonly; however, titanium and
vanadium also
may appear. All the garnets have almost identical atomic structure,
conclusively the same
family. Best
known of the common garnets are the deep red pyrope, from the Greek ‘fire-like’, the
magnesium
aluminum silicate, and almandine,
the iron aluminum silicate. Other people prefer the green
demantoid, originally named andradite for the Portuguese
mineralogist D’Andrada, for its diamondlike
brilliance.
Another green is uvarovite,
named for Count Uvarov, a beautiful emerald green but
usually too
tiny to facet.
Few minerals
are so readily adaptable to the cutter’s blade and the collector’s cabinet. The
cutter must
honor garnet’s
sensitivity to heat, its intermixing with sister garnets and matrix and its
easy parting. But
it is worth the
care, being as bright and colorful as any precious gem. It carves and polishes
easily if
protected from
heat and sharp knocks. It is a durable stone but given to parting when rapped.
The collector
easily identifies the almost predictable textbook shape of garnet crystals.
Ninety percent
of all garnets
show a dominant dodecahedron or 12-sided form. The same collector may have
troubles
with garnet’s
intermingling with sister garnets, “isomorphous replacement”, but there are now
six
species, with
varieties, that can supply the collector with every color of the rainbow except
blue.
Accepted
variety names serve to identify variations in garnet species usually by source
or particular site- specific color, e.g. hessonite is ‘the cinnamon stone of Ceylon” and tsavorite is the emerald green
grossular
garnet.
Collectors who
wish to display crystals in matrix specimen frequently find that given a close
trimming,
garnet will pop
out of the matrix, leaving a perfect impression of its crystal faces in the
matrix. The
crystal will
have grown in its matrix, say a biotite schist, by pushing aside the biotite.
Forming out of
other iron and
aluminum bearing minerals being metamorphosed, the garnet’s tremendous power to
form
perfect crystal
faces is the outward manifestation of its complicated but highly symmetrical
internal
structure that
pushes aside minerals with weaker crystallization.
Garnet has a
hardness ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale. This makes them very
useful. When
found in
massive deposits, it is sold and used as an abrasive material. Harder than
quartz and parting
rather than
fracturing, it exceeds quartz sand for grinding material. Garnets have
considerable internal
strain, which
causes them to act like crystals of lesser symmetry and show anomalous
birefringence,
going from
light to dark in an erratic fashion when rotated between crossed polars.
(re-printed from the Jan 2018 Petrograph – Peninsula
Gem & Mineral Society)
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BRUNEAU JASPER Bruneau Jasper is a well-known beautiful stone that
comes from the region near the Bruneau River in western Idaho, about 30 miles
south of the tiny town of Bruneau. It is sometimes referred to as a
porcelain jasper because the cabochons
have such a nice porcelain-like finish. The Bruneau Jasper flow is the most
silica-rich rhyolite flow in the area. It is predominantly red and brown
jasper. The deposit covers several hundred meters and is covered with
unpatented claims. Jasper has a hardness of about 7 on the Moh's scale.
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Mitchell Caverns
Mitchell Caverns is located within the
Providence Mountains State Recreation Area. Tours of the caves are offered
(twice a day Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and on Holiday Mondays) by
reservation only. Reservations can be made only by speaking to a staff member
on Mondays (8AM-5PM, 760-928-2586). The state recreation area is surrounded by
the Mojave National Preserve, which offers campgrounds (Hole-in-the-Wall is the
nearest) and roadside camping. At Hole-in-the-Wall, the Rings Loop Trail,
descending into Banshee Canyon by metal rings set into the rock, is exciting
for kids of all ages. (reprinted
from Delvings – Delvers Gem & Mineral Society)
.
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