Tag: gems

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Stone Stories — Rocks and the Legends Associated With Them

PLS member Janie Duncan is featured speaker for the April 16th Program Meeting; 7:00 pm

A chunk of Actinolite collected from a memorable
visit to Wrightwood. Photo courtesy E. Weston

Every stone has a story. Maybe it is how it was formed or why it has a specific shape or color. Sometimes a rock tells a story that is sentimental. Do you remember the day you found a rock or perhaps someone gave one to you as a gift? Some stones have ancient fables or myths passed down for hundreds of years attached to them. Almost everyone owns a few rocks that are special to them in some way. PLS member Janie Duncan will be our featured presenter as she discusses stones and the stories they tell.

This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007. Admission is free; open to the public. Enjoy refreshments while checking out the display table. Bring a rock specimen you’d like identified – or maybe you have a special memory attached to one that you can share while you’re at the meeting. Hope to see you there!

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Meteorites Subject of March 19 Program Meeting with Dr. Nick Gessler

Pasadena Lapidary Society’s March 19, 2024 Program Meeting will feature Dr. Nicholas Gessler who will present his Meteorite program. In 2002 Dr. Gessler was honored by the designation of Mainbelt Asteroid “113355 Gessler.” 15 years later, at Duke’s Kunshan,
China campus, he hosted ‘Meteorites China’, the first international conference and exhibition of meteoritics in that country. That was emulated in 2018 by a similar conference in Jilin, China. He has discovered 13 named meteorites in California and Nevada and recovered over 1,400 fragments. Dr. Gessler continues to build a comprehensive private teaching collection, and has recently been involved in documenting the newly discovered ninth largest meteorite on Earth, named EL ALI, from Somalia. It weighs in at 15.15 tonnes and is characterized as a “IA iron.” Most likely no other meteorite has been so intimately connected with the life and fate of so many people as ‘EL ALI.” Although the meteorite is now for sale in China, with the help of colleagues at Almaas University of Mogadishu, 16 videos of it are being analyzed and there is a plan to do exploratory archaeology of its impact site near the Ethiopian border. https://people..duke.edu/”ng46/EL-Ali

PLS member Chris Kyte will provide this month’s Rock of the Month talk about Elestial, also known as Window Quartz, with a specific pattern of terminations that flow throughout the face and body of the crystal.

PLS member Nancy Robb will continue her talk on PLS’ history, this being our 75th Anniversary year. The 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, March 19, 2024. 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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QUARTZSITE Here We Come!


Pasadena Lapidary Society members will once again be joining the ranks of rockhounds and lapidarists across the nation – and beyond – in an annual sojourn to our ‘mecca’ of rocks – Quartzsite, Arizona. While this isn’t a fieldtrip that requires a rock hammer, shovel or other tools, it’s a great opportunity to see what wonderful gems and minerals exist in our world – all in one place. There are several gem and mineral shows which are held between December and late February in this town, which swells to over a million visitors in the month of January from a paltry 3,714 +/- residents the rest of the year. One of our favorite shows to check out is the QIA Pow Wow, which takes place from January 17 – 21, 2024, with free admission and free parking and way more than a day’s worth of treasures to see. It’s like a giant open air swap meet held under the beautiful blue sky with giant puffy white clouds floating overhead – which sometimes open up with a quick light rain or a heavy shower – then dissipates as quickly as it starts. Quartzsite is just 18 miles east of the California border, along Interstate 10. One can make it a full day trip, or if you’re able to secure lodging in Quartzsite, AZ or Blythe, CA, turn your visit into more than one day so you can visit the other shows taking place as well, such as Tyson Wells or Desert Gardens. If you prefer to take an RV and camp, there’s plenty of open space just on the outskirts of town. How to get there? Take I-10 East until you get to Quartzsite, about a four hour drive from Pasadena when traffic isn’t bad. We often make a quick stop at Chiriaco Summit either on the way to or from AZ, where one can fuel up and stop for a bite or snacks.

And the rockhound fun doesn’t stop with Quartzsite… read further about the big Tucson Show (the 2023 event is the subject of our January 16 Program Meeting) coming February 8-11, 2024.

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January 2024 Program Meeting: 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.  The 2023 show theme was “Silica, Agates & Opal & Quartz, Oh My!”

The 2024 show is slated for February 8-11, 2024. 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.

For Pasadena Lapidary Society’s Tuesday, January 16, 2024 Program Meeting, our friend Mary Pat Weber will provide us with a visual treat of the highlights of the 2023 Tucson show, and why it rocks!

Rose Quartz and Garnet will be the topics of January’s Rock of the Month talk, provided by PLS Vice President Barna Laszlo.

This program meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007. Come to learn and make new friends; open to the public, free admission. 

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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!