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!
Bring the kids to the Barnhart School Carnival this Saturday, have some fun with the carnival games, enjoy food and drinks, check out the vendors, and stop by the Pasadena Lapidary Society booth while you’re at it.
We’ll be featuring do-it-yourself ‘My Rock Collection’ kits. Youngsters (and adults as well) can choose from an assortment of mineral specimens that we’ll have on hand and compile their own kits. This makes a fun first step toward a future interest in rock collecting as a hobby and/or Earth Sciences as a vocation. These rock collection kits were a huge hit at our August gem and mineral show this year.
The Carnival will take place on the Barnhart School property at 240 West Colorado Boulevard in Arcadia. CA 91007. barnhartschool.org
A beautiful pendant of Ethiopian Opal designed by Gabriel Mosesson.
If you’re an Opal or Emerald lover and find yourself purchasing these gorgeous gemstones on their own, as well as set in jewelry pieces, perhaps you’ve met Gabriel Mosesson, a gem cutter and jewelry artist who offers his beautiful treasures for sale at many bead/gem/jewelry shows in Southern California. He was most recently at our annual Tournament of Gems, which ran just two weekends ago (8/20-21).
Wow, what a striking piece! Emerald pendant by Gabriel Mosesson.
Gabriel travels to Ethiopia to hand-select the highest quality rough opals and emeralds directly from the mines, then he brings them back to his Los Angeles studio to cut or hand-carve the gemstones, designing them into one-of-a-kind settings. He just recently returned from one of those trips and will tell us about it and the beautiful emeralds and opals found in Ethiopia for our September meeting presentation.
This program meeting takes place on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of The Santa Anita Church, 226 W. Colorado Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91007.
Join us and prepare to be dazzled! 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 August general meeting will feature a talk by member Paolo Sanchez who will focus on large-scale landscape geology. The presentation should be helpful for understanding Earth science, and to an extent, minerals, from the viewpoint of the window seat of a plane. While flying across the state and the country, Paolo took many pictures of geologic landscapes. He plans to talk about prominent geologic features such as the San Andreas Fault, Cascade Volcanoes, and the Colorado Plateau. We hope to see you there!
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.
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.
