Upcoming Programs
September 8, 2008
Program TBD. Of course, we'll also be making final preparations for our Annual Show coming up on September 20-21. Members are also reminded to please bring any donations for the Annual Show Raffle (see Rob Fox) or Silent Auction (see Peter Adams).
October 20, 2008
Brian Thurston will give a slide presentation on some of his summer 2008 travel and field collecting experiences in Montana (sapphires and quartz), and Utah (various minerals in the Thomas Range and at Gold Hill). If time permits he will also give an overview of a spring 2008 collecting trip in Southern California (tourmaline and associated minerals at the Himalaya and Cryo-Genie).
November 17, 2008
Dr. Neil Marshall of Menlo College will give a presentation on Volcanoes.
December 12, 2008
The annual club holiday party for members and their guests will be held. There will be no regular meeting in December.
Recent Past Programs
August 18, 2008
Club President John Dabney gave a show-and-tell presentation recounting his experiences visiting the Merelani Hills of Tanzania, an area renowned for its production of the beautiful gemstone Tanzanite.
July 12, 2008
The annual club picnic for members and their guests was once again held at the Binghams' home. Members enjoyed great fellowship, plentiful food (including of course the Binghams' home-made ice cream), a well-stocked silent auction to raise funds for the lapidary shop, and a grand prize drawing. Katrin also had her portable photography setup on hand to take pictures of members prized lapidary and mineral specimens for the 2009 calendar. There was no regular Monday night meeting in July.
June 16, 2008
The Renos provided commentary to accompany a Federation slide show on Crystal Cave.
May 19, 2008
Bill Atkinson dazzled the club with a presentation on his remarkable book "Within the Stone." He accompanied pictures from the book with stories about how he found and selected the materials, and he reviewed the path-breaking photographic and printing techniques he developed to be able to capture on paper the details and exact colors of those stunning mineral specimens. Bill also brought with him copies of the book, which members could purchase and have autographed. These will soon be true collectors' items as Bill's supply is running low, and he has no plans for a second printing. Bill also displayed an example of the large gallery-type prints on canvas which he is now creating.
April 21, 2008
Len Pisciotta, who is a member of the San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society and the Bay Area Mineralogists, gave a fascinating presentation on his travels and collecting activities in the mineral-rich African country of Namibia. Len's journey through the deserts of Namibia took him to such famous localities as Erongo (aquamarine etc), Brandberg (amethyst), and Kaokoveld (dioptase, plancheite, shattuckite). Len brought several examples of the minerals he bought or self-collected on his trip, for those present to look at.
March 17, 2008
Leo Lu, club member and accomplished lapidary artist (examples of his work have been seen in Rock and Gem magazine), gave a demonstration of his lapidary carving techniques, including tips on the types of equipment he prefers to use for his projects. He also displayed some of his carvings to illustrate his methods and interests.
February 25, 2008
Longtime club member Preston Bingham projected and narrated DVD video clips of selected historic Sequoia club activities from the past two decades. These included a couple early-90's Annual Shows, field trips to Anderson Reservoir (magnesite and blue chalcedony) and Capitola Beach (whale bones and other fossils), an excursion to the winter rockhound gathering at Quartzite AZ, and one of the club picnics held at his home.
January 28, 2008
Club member Brian Thurston gave a show-and-tell presentation on the subject of his 2007 field collecting activities (in particular at Peterson Mountain/Hallelujah Junction, Colorado Hill and IXL Canyon in Alpine County, and at the Benitoite Gem Mine during filming for Cash and Treasures). In addition to his PowerPoint slideshow Brian displayed specimens collected at the various localities.
December 7, 2007
The annual holiday party and installation of 2008 officers was well attended. As usual festivities began at 6:00 PM with a superb meal -- the excellent main course prepared by Carol Bingham, and various salads and desserts provided by the membership. The youngsters were given gift bags, each of which included several polished rocks accompanied by informative write-ups prepared by Katrin Reimer. John Dabney thanked the 2007 officers for their service, in particular Walt Skinner who will not continue as Vice-President in 2008. He then welcomed Carol Corden in her new role as Vice-President for 2008. Charter memberships were extended to long-time members Brooke and Betty Thrasher, Jeanne Follensby, and Lee Wakefield. The Peters family led the group in singing carols. Members also brought and distributed holiday cards, and donated gifts of money or clothing to be given a needy local family.
November 19, 2007
In a departure from our usual lapidary and mineral-collecting topics, long-time club member Frank Flores gave a video presentation on his return trip to Saipan, where he had spent time during WWII. Elections of 2008 officers were also held.
October 15, 2007
New member Katrin Reimer provided a great overview of the type of training available through the GIA. Kat is enrolled in GIA's Graduate Gemologist program, and has been taking their courses at home (although tests must be proctored, a service available at certain libraries in the area). Kat specifically gave the group an overview of GIA's training on diamond grading and diamond lore, as well as their courses involving colored stone identification and grading. Kat's talk was nicely supplemented with videos that GIA makes available to students over the internet.
September 10, 2007
At the September meeting club member Duncan Penman provided a great "show and tell" session (his talk illustrated by projected powerpoint slides as well as specimens) on recent collecting trips to several localities in Oregon (Marlston Ranch jasper, polka dot agate, lily pad jasper); Nevada (Mount Airy blue chalcedony); and California (Davis Creek Obsidian, Arroyo Seco fossils). The Oregon localities are close to the annual Madras rock show, which the Penmans also attended while in the area.
August 20, 2007
Although the key focus of the August meeting was to prepare for the upcoming Annual Show in September, attendees also enjoyed two "Show and Tell" presentations by club members. Peter Adams gave an overview of his technique for carving spheres by hand, using a trim saw and grinding wheels but without the use of a sphere machine. His presentation addressed material selection, rough shaping, and grinding and polishing issues. Molly Samietz and son Brandon displayed and talked about some of their finds from rock collecting in Wyoming this summer, including some intriguing petrified materials, gypsum from an ancient hot spring deposit, and moss agate.
July 14, 2007
There was no Monday night general meeting in July. Instead, club members and their guests attended a picnic hosted by the Binghams in their park-like backyard, on Saturday July 14. The picnic featured lots of food of course (including the Binghams homemade ice cream), a silent auction, a "live auction" of a fine cut benitoite donated by Rick Kennedy (Earths Treasures), and a presentation by Cathy Phalen on specimen collecting at the Giacomazzi (husband Jim's family) Ranch. Cathy even brought a number of sedimentary concretions from the ranch for kids to break open in a search for fossils. Of course, members also had a fun time perusing Preston's rock piles and attempting to guess species/localities. Thanks for hosting once again, Preston and Carol!
June 18, 2007
At our June meeting Wanda Baczek (Instructor of Gemology at City College of San Francisco) gave a presentation on conflict diamonds, including a display of raw diamond specimens.
May 21, 2007
Artisan Steve Finch (please check out Steve's bio) gave a detailed presentation on his techniques for creating exotic vessels in soapstone and alabaster with accents of wood and metals, using a lathe for the carving. His talk was accompanied by a showing of his excellent DVD which beautifully captures the steps in his creative process. (You can learn more about Steve and see examples of his work at his website: www.exoticvessels.com.) After Steve's talk, Preston Bingham gave a "show and tell" on mercury ores and some equipment associated with mercury processing and handling.
April 16, 2007
The April program featured a presentation on Earthquakes by Dr. William Mooney of the USGS. Dr. Mooney's excellent presentation not only addressed Bay Area fault risks, but took us to some of the foreign locations where he has recently visited, including Turkey and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Dr. Mooney spent time training local engineers and scientists on planning and construction techniques to mitigate the risks of earthquakes on their major faults, including one which runs through Kabul. After the regular meeting concluded, Brian Thurston demonstrated the club's newly purchased digital projector, "touring" the website and then playing a DVD.
March 19, 2007
The March program featured a superb presentation on Benitoite by well-known local field collector and mineral dealer Rick Kennedy. Rick demonstrated his encyclopedic knowledge of this unusual and beautiful gemstone (the official California State Gem), found in one small occurrence in the Clear Creek Management Area, near Hollister. Rick illustrated his talk with fine self-collected specimens. Rick noted that there are informative Benitoite links on the web you may wish to check out, including John Veevaert's benitoite website, and Rick's own write-up of the proper way to etch Benitoite out of its natrolite/crossite matrix.
If you missed this meeting, you have another chance to hear Rick talk about Benitoite at the Santa Clara Valley GMS club show in April.
February 26, 2007
The February program featured member Carol Corden speaking on the topic "Fascination with Gems."
January 22, 2007
The January meeting featured members Molly and son Brandon Samietz presenting a "show and tell" on collecting in New Mexico (thundereggs), Wyoming (fossil fish and a possible dinosaur egg!), and other localities. Members Robyn and son Scotty Peters then followed with a personal history (supplemented by their own "show and tell" specimens) of their involvement in mineral collecting and lapidary, which all started with a visit to the SGMS booth at one of the annual San Mateo County Fairs.
December 8, 2006 (club members and guests only)
The annual holiday party was once again held at the community center. Festivities began at 6:00 PM with a superb meal -- the excellent main course prepared by Carol Bingham, and various salads and desserts provided by the membership. After a recap of the year's highlights by John Dabney, the Peters family led the group in singing carols. The youngsters were given gift bags, each of which included a beautiful amber piece polished by Josie Palladino, then several drawings were held for the adults. The meeting closed with thanks to the 2006 officers and installation of the 2007 officers. Members also brought and distributed holiday cards, and donated gifts of money or clothing to be given a needy local family. Check out the pictures of the party.
November 20, 2006
The November meeting featured a presentation by Dr. Jean DeMouthe, who is the Senior Collections Manager for Geology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
Jean once again provided a fascinating and well-received one hour presentation on natural materials used by people - including many forms of biological as well as mineral substances - based on the subject matter of her recently published book, Natural Materials. She also answered some questions on the Academy's plans for mineral displays following the move back to renovated quarters in Golden Gate Park. Sadly, she confirmed that the new Academy facility almost certainly will not include a permanent mineral exhibit. However, she did note that temporary displays of portions of the Academy collection are still being planned, including a major exhibit at the SFO international terminal (in an area accessible to the general public) starting in August 2007. Academy collection pieces will also continue to be displayed at the Tucson show, the SF club show, and perhaps other venues. Jean also assured us that the California Academy will not follow in the Philadelphia Academy's de-accessioning footsteps (Philadelphia recently sold its entire, very significant collection of 26,000 mineral specimens to a consortium of three dealers well-known to many of us - Leicht, Lees, and Bruce).