Author: Liz Weston

Pasadena Lapidary Society members are continually picking up rocks, wondering what might be inside if cut. More often than not, as one might guess, the inside of a rock can be very similar to the outside.  Every now and then, however, we’re happily surprised to find a sparkling cluster of crystals, bursts of unexpected colors or even images inside a rock.  These images can be eerily realistic, or perhaps resemble an impressionist painting of beach scenes, faces, landscapes, etc.  Ken Rogers of the Culver City Rock & Mineral Club, will be the featured speaker at our Tuesday, January 21st meeting when he discusses “Pictures in Rocks”.  Attendees of the meeting are encouraged to bring their own favorite picture rocks to share on the Display Table.

Our January Rock of the Month talk will be presented by PLS member David Lacy with a focus on Feldspar.  Did you know that Moonstone and Labradorite are feldspars? Come to the meeting to find out more about this luminescent mineral.

The Tuesday, January 21st meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium of the Pasadena Main Library at 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101.  Open to the public. FREE.  Come join us for some rock fun!

We will be holding our annual Christmas Party instead of the December program meeting. The members of Pasadena Lapidary Society wish you a lovely and memorable Holiday Season.

Pasadena Lapidary Society’s November meeting is being held one week early — on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Have you heard the legend of the river of gold in the Kokoweef Caves of the Mojave Desert? Several versions of the story are out there, involving three Paiute brothers, George, Buck and Oliver Peysert, who discovered a limestone cave with a huge crystal stalactite and an underground river containing gold.

Pasadena Lapidary Society member Carolyn Duncan, who visited the Kokoweef Caves some 30 years ago and brought back specimens of cave onyx, will provide a presentation on this legendary part of the Mojave Desert. She will be displaying some of the specimens at the meeting.

Junior PLS member, Alyson Nishimura, will discuss rocks and minerals of the Yermo, CA area for the November Rock of the Month Talk.

Our meeting will be held in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium of the Pasadena Central Library at 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101. Tuesday, November 12, 6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.

With the snow-capped Sierras in the very distant background, our little meteorite and Golden Bear pose for the Earth to Sky Calculus camera.

The Pasadena Lapidary Society (PLS) just sent a meteorite slice back to space!! PLS members engaged the Earth to Sky Calculus Club to launch a helium balloon carrying a pallasite meteorite slice from a launch site near Bishop, CA, up 95,000 feet into the stratosphere, often called “the edge of space”. A pallasite meteorite is a rare type of stony-iron meteorite containing olivine crystals of peridot in an iron-nickel matrix. The meteorite weighs 9.75 grams and was found originally in the Republic of Belarus. The balloon traveled over the snowy Sierra Nevada of central California on February 23, 2019. After the balloon popped, the meteorite was parachuted back to Earth, landing on the eastern edge of Death Valley National Park, where it was recovered the next day.  The meteorite will be on display at the upcoming California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS) Gem and Mineral Show, March 8-10, 2019 at Fairplex, Expo Hall 6, in Pomona. An image of the meteorite will be viewable in the days to come by way of spaceweather.com.  It will be back-dropped against the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth, in a frame announcing the CFMS Show, along with a ‘Golden Bear’ figure (unofficial mascot of the CFMS).

PLS, a non-profit organization, is co-hosting the CFMS show, entitled California’s Natural Treasures. The show features many exciting things to experience: a Kid’s area with fun games about rocks, minerals and fossils; grab bags containing rocks, crystals, and minerals; special exhibits such as the aforementioned meteorite, display cases where members of different rock and gem societies in the CFMS show off their talents and compete for awards; gold-panning for real gold; wonderful, highly-coveted raffle prizes made and donated by PLS members; a silent auction with colorful rock slabs, collectible mineral specimens and other items; live demonstrations of jewelry making and other lapidary skills; dealers with meteorites, gems, minerals, jewelry, fossils, tools, equipment, books, maps, and many other unique items. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for teens 12-17, seniors (60+) and active military; Free for kids under 12, accompanied by paying adult. Hours are 10-5 Friday and Saturday, and 10-4 Sunday.

Please visit this page for important information regarding the CFMS Show next month:

https://pasadenalapidary.org/pls-members-corner-2/

Please click on the following link to view information about the February program meeting:
https://pasadenalapidary.org/pls-members-corner/

PLS member extraordinaire Janie Duncan will present ‘A Brief History of Beads’ at our first program meeting of 2019. Practically everyone knows what beads are but for those who’ve been hiding under or looking at rocks too long, a bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under 1 millimetre (0.039 in) to over 1 centimetre (0.39 in) in diameter.

PLS VP Mona Ross will present the Rock of the Month talk on Psilomelane. A group name for hard black manganese oxides including hollandite and romanechite, psilomelane consists of hydrous manganese oxide with variable amounts of barium and potassium. Psilomelane is erroneously, and uncommonly, known as black hematite, despite not being related to true hematite, which is an iron oxide.

Come to learn and make new friends; open to the public, free admission. Tuesday, January 15 at 6:30 p.m., in the Donald Wright Auditorium of the Pasadena Central Library at 285 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, 91101.