Category: Program Meeting

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PLS Member Paolo Sanchez Discusses Tourmaline King Mine, Tuesday, Nov. 21st at 7:00 pm

Pasadena Lapidary Society’s Tuesday, November 21, 2023 program meeting will feature member Paolo Sanchez, who will present on the Tourmaline King Mine in the Pala Mining District of San Diego County. New pockets have been uncovered with the first discovered in January 2022, the first major find at the mine in more than 100 years, and the first in Southern California since the “Big Kahuna” pocket at the Oceanview mine in 2010. This is exciting news and we are looking forward to hearing what Paolo has to share with us about one of our favorite areas in Southern California to go gem hunting.

Tourmaline found in San Diego County, cut and set into the pendant and earrings shown here. Photo courtesy of PLS member E. Weston.

November’s Rock of the Month talk will be about our Educational Program for schools and the community. Have you ever wondered how you can help? This month’s talk will illustrate how even the newest members can participate.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.

Come join us! Doors open at 6:30, admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. We hope to see you there!

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Amethyst Deposits of Thunder Bay, Ontario Subject of October 17th Program Meeting

The largest commercial deposits of amethyst in North America occur near the Canadian border in Southern Ontario.  Unlike the more common Brazilian amethyst, this material is unique due to inclusions of red hematite in the outermost layers of the crystals. Our guest speaker for October, Dick Weber, first visited these deposits in the 1970s while studying for his graduate degree in Geology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. 

Geologists Dick and Mary Pat Weber have returned to these deposits several times over the years and on two recent visits were given special access to the workings of the deposit by the mine owners.  As part of this presentation they will display some of this highly prized amethyst from their personal collections. 

This program meeting takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007, on Tuesday, October 17, 2023.

Come join us! Doors open at 6:30, admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. Buy a raffle ticket for a few bucks and try your luck at winning a cool rock specimen, slab, or otherwise. We hope to see you there!

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Abalone King Featured at Tuesday, Sept. 19 Program Meeting

Pasadena Lapidary Society is excited to announce that Louis Hernandez of Abalone King will be our featured presenter for the September 19 program meeting. Louis has considerable knowledge of abalone, many years of experience in buying and selling, as well as creating gorgeous jewelry from abalone. Abalone are large gastropod mollusks that inhabit the cold waters along the California coast. While other abalone species can be found elsewhere in the world, there are seven abalone species in California: green, pink, black, white, red, pinto, and flat abalone. These highly sought-after mollusks have been ingrained in California culture for centuries.

This program meeting takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007, on Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

Come join us! Doors open at 6:30, admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. Buy a raffle ticket for a few bucks and try your luck at winning a cool rock specimen, slab, or otherwise. We hope to see you there!

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August 15 Program Meeting, 7:00 pm

Our Tuesday, August 15 program meeting will include a presentation by several junior members who were participants (and winners) in award competitions related to our rockhounding and lapidary hobbies. (We love how our young members inspire other kids to follow suit.)

This program meeting will also include a slide presentation related to our upcoming annual gem and mineral show, presented by PLS member Marcia Goetz.

Doors open at 6:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall at the Santa Anita Church located at 226 West Colorado Boulevard in Arcadia, CA 91007. Program starts at 7:00 pm. Free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. Come join us and see what we’re all about!

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PLS’ Paolo Sanchez Discusses ‘Rocks and Minerals of Ancient Rome’ — June 20th Program Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Pasadena Lapidary Society member Paolo Sanchez will be the featured speaker at the Tuesday, June 20th Program Meeting. Paolo is currently a graduate student at Caltech’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.

The Roman Empire lasted for about 500 years, from its founding in 27 BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Throughout this time, the famed ancient civilization incurred a vast amount of mineral wealth that included numerous mines of industrial and precious metals in Europe and the Mediterranean, some of which are still mined today. Additionally, the trade and status of gemstones — from Baltic amber to European agates — have had a profound impact on the lapidary world. This talk will combine history, geology and lore as the mineral world greatly impacted the Roman world as it does to our world today.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.

Take a step back into antiquity with us. Admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. Hope to see you there!

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May 16 Program Meeting Explores Pareidolia – The Wonderful World of India Dendritic Agates with Speaker Tarun Adlakha

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 7:00 p.m., Fellowship Hall of the Santa Anita Church

This lovely agate jewelry image was
provided by Tarun Adlakha.

This month, Tarun Adlakha (who is from India), will speak about pareidolia and the wonderful world of Indian Dendritic agates. Tarun is known to have the finest
hoard of natural dendritic agate in the world with over 300,000 cabochons and specimens, some of which have been displayed at prestigious gem shows and museums around the globe and used by some leading designers. Tarun has accumulated a large number of stones with unusual patterns mimicking birds, animals, landscapes and mythical characters in a sort of fantasy wonderland in agate. His talk will focus on the history, mining, and cutting of these agates followed by a descriptive slide show of the unusual stones from his collection.

What do pearls and the desert have in common? Find out when PLS member Sue Pang provides the May Rock of the Month Talk, and explains how to identify cultured pearls from fake pearls, give some pointers on wearing a pearl necklace, and advise as to the best season to buy pearls. Before Sue Pang earned her engineering degree and worked in the Aerospace industry, she worked for one of the largest pearl companies in California.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.

Join us for what promises to be a very interesting evening! Admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. See you there!

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April 18 Program Meeting Focuses on Rock Collecting in the Mojave Trails National Monument

7:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 18, 2023

What do the Cady Mountains and the Marble Mountain Fossil Beds have in common? These are sample sites Pasadena Lapidary Society (PLS) members and other rockhounds visit to collect rocks including but not limited to chalcedony and agates. The aforementioned sites are also an example of places within the boundaries of the Mojave Trails National Monument (MTNM) in San Bernardino County, California.  PLS members have visited public lands and collected rocks since our Society’s establishment in 1946, while the MTNM was created in February 2016 under the Obama Administration. Some national monuments have banned rockhounding or removed access to rockhounding areas. Currently, rockhounding at the MTNM is still allowed while the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) develops the monument’s management plan. As rockhounds, we need to continue to have road access to collection sites and be able to collect rocks within the MTNM. Gregor Losson, our gem and mineral collecting representative on the MTNM Subgroup of the Desert Advisory Committee (DAC), will be the guest speaker for our April program meeting. Having recently attended the BLM California Desert District Advisory Council meeting, he will illustrate what’s happening and what we need to do to continue enjoying future access to the MTNM.

The April Rock of the Month presentation will be about a junior member’s rock hunting experience. Daniel Nishimura is a PLS junior member. He is eight years old and has been rock hounding since he learned how to walk.

This important and informative program meeting takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007. 

Join us to learn more about the future of rockhounding in one of our favorite locales. Admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. Hope to see you there!

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Mount Baldy Lapis Lazuli Featured for March 21st Program Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Pasadena Lapidary Society member Paolo Sanchez will discuss the elusive Lapis Lazuli from Mount Baldy (aka ‘Old Baldy’ or Mount San Antonio) for our March program meeting. Paolo will cover the science behind lapis, its significance to lapidary, and his adventures in search of one of the only lapis mines in North America. He has been an active member of the Pasadena Lapidary Society since 2011, yet his passions for geology and rockhounding stem from kindergarten. He has written numerous award-winning articles on minerals and has been a guest speaker for various California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS) programs across California. He has received his bachelors in Geology and Geophysics from UC Berkeley and is now pursuing a PhD in geochemistry studying mineralogy and petrology at Caltech.

The March Rock of the Month presentation will be on Septarian Nodules and provided by PLS member Sue Dekany.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.

Come join us! Doors open at 6:30, admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. We hope to see you there!

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Rockhounding in the Mojave with Kris Rowe, Subject of February 21st Program Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Kris Rowe, front and center, surrounded by PLS members from L to R, Liz, Sue, Steve and Shirley.
Photograph provided by Sue Pang.

The February program meeting will feature Kris Rowe, a lifelong rockhound and 40+ year field geologist, who will present a talk on Rockhounding in the Mojave. Kris has led fieldtrips throughout California for decades, with many outings focused in the Clear Creek area and all over the Mojave Desert. Recent trips have been out to the hills of Hinkley, CA to a private turquoise claim, near where the picture at right was taken. During the Thanksgiving 2022 week, Kris led a 9-day long ‘Odyssey’ to numerous sites including the South Cadys, Lavic Siding, Opal Mountain and Boron. He can be found on Facebook as ‘Roadside Rockhound‘.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, February 21st, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.

Come join us! Doors open at 6:30, admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. We hope to see you there!

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January 17th Program Meeting Explores Fluorite – The World’s Most Colorful Mineral

The January 17th, 2023 Pasadena Lapidary Society Program Meeting will feature Dick Weber, who will introduce us to the colorful world of Fluorite.    Due to a spectacular range of colors and well-developed crystals, this mineral is highly sought after by collectors.  Clear and colorless when pure, fluorite can exhibit every color of the spectrum from the deepest purple to bright oranges and reds.   In addition to its aesthetic and scientific value, fluorite is a critical industrial mineral used in the production of thousands of commercial products.

Dick Weber was first introduced to the fluorite deposits of the Mississippi Valley while working on his geology degree.   Actively collecting specimens for the last 15 years, he will bring a display showcasing pieces from famous locales.

PLS member Curtis Schurer will present the second part of his Rock of the Month Talk on Jasper.

This program meeting takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007. 

Join us for an illuminating evening as we begin our 2023 Program Meetings! Admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table; bring a rock specimen you’d like identified. See you there!