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!
Members of Pasadena Lapidary Society, along with most serious rockhounds, wait anxiously all year to make the 3-1/2 hour trek to Quartzsite, AZ in January. Some stay there into February, camping nearby in order to go rockhounding at their leisure, and others check in to the few motels in town or travel the 22 miles back/forth to Blythe, CA for lodging.
Some sizable chunks of beautiful Lapis Lazuli, at vendor booth of a past year’s QIA PowWow in Quartzsite.
One of the biggest draws in Quartzsite is the QIA POWWOW, always held the third week in January. This year the POWWOW runs from January 18-22. If you’ve never been, the POWWOW is like a huge swap meet focused on gems, minerals, rocks and everything related. Admission is free and so is parking.
Self-professed as “The Rock Capital of the World”, Quartzsite is a town in La Paz County of +/- 2,000 inhabitants that swells to a couple of million in January and February each year. Situated 125 miles west of Phoenix at the junction of Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 95, it enjoys a close association with the Colorado River, just 18 miles to the west.
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!
For our November Program Meeting, we’re delighted that Renée Newman will be our speaker, providing images and information in her presentation on Diamonds that includes, among other things, the most significant discoveries of rough diamond crystals, five basic diamond crystal types and their relative value from highest priced to lowest priced, where to find diamonds in the U.S., and what American diamonds look like in the rough in order to help you spot them while prospecting and rockhounding.
Renée has a book out entitled Diamonds: Their History, Sources, Qualities and Benefits and much of her presentation is reflected in her book.
Renée Newman developed her interest in gems while conducting tours to Asia, South America and the South Pacific. Her passengers wanted information about the gems that were displayed in hotels and stores so she signed up for a colored stone grading course at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in order to be able to answer their questions. The teachers there inspired her to complete the GIA colored stones and diamonds program.
After receiving a graduate gemologist diploma from the GIA, Renee was hired as a gemologist at a diamond wholesale firm in downtown Los Angeles. It provided hands-on experience grading diamonds and selecting colored gems and pearls for their jewelry. Armed with trade experience and gemological credentials, Renée decided to create books that showed readers how to visually evaluate the quality of gems. Her first book, the Diamond Ring Buying Guide, was published in 1989. Since that time, she has written thirteen more books on gems and jewelry, including the Diamond Handbook geared to trade professionals and her new large-format book Diamonds: Their History, Sources, Qualities and Benefits. Information about it is available at http://www.reneenewman.com/diamonds.htm
Renée’s books are used as consumer guides, gemology course textbooks, sales training tools and appraisal references and are listed at www.reneenewman.com/books.htm. Renée will be selling her books at a discount and autographing them before and after her presentation. Bring cash or a check if you would like to purchase copies of them.
PLS member Curtis Schurer will discuss Jasper for the Rock of the Month presentation. Jasper is an opaque, impure variety of silica, comes in several colors, and is often found in the Mojave Desert.
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.
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. See you there!
Linda’s Pearl Jewelry Designs feature both the classic and the unusual, reflecting her relentless pursuit of the magical and timeless beauty of Pearls.
Mine direct minerals and specimens from the Himalayas and Nepal. Rocks and minerals from Nepal including Chlorite Quartz, Aquamarine, Sapphire, and Ruby.
The story of the Sweet Home Mine from its beginnings as a modest 1870’s silver mine to its rebirth as a world-renowned source of beautiful red rhodochrosite crystals will be featured in this month’s program. We will view Part 1 of a video illustrating the accidental discovery of one of our nation’s most impressive sources of this beautiful gemstone.
This program meeting is at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 17 and will be held IN PERSON. Check out our Meetings page to get directions and further info about the location.
We are having our first in-person program meeting in over a year! PLS member Janie Duncan will provide a presentation on the History of Beads Tuesday night, April 19, and members are looking forward to seeing each other in the flesh for a change, instead of virtually. Check out our Meetings page to get directions and further info about the location. We are VERY excited!
ZoomMeeting starts at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Walt Lombardo, Owner & Founder of Nevada Mineral & Book Co., located in Orange, Calif.
Southern California is known worldwide for the production of gemstones and mineral specimens from the granite pegmatites in San Diego, Riverside & San Bernardino counties. Some of the more well-known gem minerals are Tourmaline, Garnet, Aquamarine, Morganite, Kunzite, Quartz, Topaz and Lepidolite. Most notable are the Pala and Mesa Grande mining districts, which supplied beautiful tourmalines to the last Dowager Empress of China in the early 1900’s, and continue to produce world-class gems and mineral specimens today. Our program speaker this month is Walt Lombardo, a geologist with over 35 years experience related to mining and mineral exploration. Walt’s talk will include discussion of the regional geology which made these deposits possible, history of mining in Southern California, some of the more important mines, and the gem minerals that they produced.
Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. If you’d like to join us, write marcia.pls.emails [at] gmail [dot] com to request a Zoom link.
Pictured above: Actinolite, Quartz point, Axinite. Can you identify the other four? Photo credit: PLS member Elizabeth Weston
Our Tuesday, January 18, 2022 Program Meeting will be held via Zoom. PLS member David Lacy will provide the evening’s presentation as an overview of Crystals and Crystal Forms. We will look at the differences between geometrical (ideal) crystal forms and some of the crystal habits in nature, where geometric forms meet the real world. We will check on just what are the characteristics of a crystal, what is a crystal habit, symmetry in crystals, and the seven crystal systems met in nature. Some mineral specimens will be visually shared to demonstrate real-world crystal habits. Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. If you’d like to join us, write marcia.pls.emails [at] gmail [dot] com to request a Zoom link.
