Category Archives: Recent Activities

In March we visited multiple private rockyards and were allowed to sort through tons and tons of great material. Our participants found wonderful rough, slabs and even some specimens at bargain prices!

Our show in March was a great success. A big thank you to everyone who came to support us!

Our next show will be March 7-8, 2026…you won’t want to miss it.

On January 14, 2025, the Board of Supervisors of Ventura County recognized VGMS with a “Proclamation Honoring Ventura Gem and Mineral Society Upon Their 80th Anniversary Celebrating a Legacy of Education, Community, and Excellence in Earth Sciences.”

Each year, VGMS installs an exhibit in the glass display case gracing the main reading room of downtown Ventura’s E. P. Foster Library. This year was no different. On the morning of February 1, several members gathered: Robert Seaton, Brett Johnson, Brett Bednorz, Art Lopez, and Nancy and Jim Brace-Thompson. David Springer also took part from afar, having passed along a sphere for display at our last club meeting.

The exhibit both promotes our March show and educates the community about our society and the many facets of our hobby. Thus, we showed off a wide range of specimens: fossils, rocks and minerals, lapidary and jewelry work, and beading. We augmented the specimens with photos showing activities within the club and within the community at large. Also, because this is in a library, we included a small array of books about minerals, fossils, and lapidary arts, and Robert arranged for a selection of books from the library itself to be on display in a bookshelf alongside our exhibit.

By Maria Flores & Raul Barraza

As most of you know we lost our home to the Thomas Fire Dragon a few years ago. A few days after the fire we went back and sifted thru the ashes. My wife who enjoyed making jewelry found these beads among the rubble, most melted in her hands or cracked, but the few that had survived were still warm, and as you can see a lot have burnt marks and cracks, the chemical composition was altered due to the high heat and discolored most of them.

She’s kept them in a taped box in her closet for the last few years, and to keep busy during these trying times she pulled the box out and between her tears made these beautiful works of art that you see.

by Ron Wise
Returning home from Brenda, Arizona, I have been working on the yard a lot, trimming bushes and pulling weeds. My gardener must have fertilized the weeds. After the show, I started transplanting succulents and cactuses for our next show, if we have one.

While being stuck at home, I have been finishing up old projects that I had given up on and were gathering up dust. These items will be used in the next silent auction.

Also on the time-killing schedule, I have been polishing small rocks for Ways and Means or the Kids’ Booth. I think of them as 15-minute projects.

It’s hard to believe, but I have a few good slabs that need to be converted into cabs. Lately, I have been interested in sagenite and flame agates. I was trying to make up a case of double-sided cabs for the 2021 Fair.

I try to keep up my knapping skills by making a few arrowheads and knives. Bicycling takes a lot of time and takes me tired enough not to think about other small jobs I need to finish.

by Jim Brace-Thompson

No longer a boat anchor, my vintage vibratory flat-lap sets to work!

One of my flat-lapping results: a large Brazilian agate. (Dog provided for scale.)

Years and years ago, old-time VGMS member Ray Mesienheimer sold me a boat anchor. Well, it wasn’t really a boat anchor, but it may as well have been! It was a “vintage” vibratory flat lap. Supposedly, you set your rocks with some grit and water in the 20-inch pan, then forget about it while the vibratory action produces a beautiful, smooth polish. Well. The first time I flicked the “on” switch, I heard a little “pop” accompanied by a puff of blue smoke. So, a boat anchor sat in my garage for years. Eventually, John Cook helped me get the motor fixed, but still it sat. Since home quarantine, I’ve decided: Enough sitting! Big rocks that have been decorating the edges of my backyard are now getting polished to go on the Touch Table at next year’s Show Kids’ Booth, and some may well end up on Silent Auction tables. That is, until the day when I again hear a little “pop” with another puff of blue smoke…

By David Springer
Social distancing and stay at home orders are not a problem with a nicely outfitted garage, some spare time, and a stockpile of rocks representing many popular collecting areas that our club and other sister clubs routinely visit. Full disclaimer, some of these materials I did not self-collect, but rather identified them in fellow rockhound yards and confirmed their provenance before acquiring them and thereafter turning them into polished spheres.

Sphere 1: Greenhorn Mountain rose quartz – collected from this popular field trip location in CA. I procured a 30-lb chunk from fellow rockhound Rob Sankovich’s yard, and I thank him for making the backbreaking hike back from the collecting area to the vehicles. Finished diameter is at 6.0-inches, showing the characteristic white streaks that in some pieces yields an asterism or star pattern. In this piece, I just got the streaks, and some orange hematite staining, but also some nice rosy coloration. I prefer when I can to keep the sphere material as unadulterated as possible (i.e. limited stabilization only, no bleaching, etc.) allowing nature to speak for itself.

Sphere 2: A massive chunk of Lepidolite with clear and smoky quartz and blue beryl (aquamarine). This material came from the Oceanview mine, in Pala, CA. Our club has headed down to this area regularly in late summer to sift through the dirt pile looking for tourmalines and such. Finished diameter is 4.2 inches. This one is fun one to hold and rotate to see the changes – the aquamarine was a surprise as I only saw it after making a few cuts into the rough.

Sphere 3: Silver lace onyx sourced from the Calico Mountains near Barstow, CA. This piece was fun to work with as it contains the classic onyx on matrix with some nice vugs; finished up at a nice 5.5-inch diameter. I am showing the obverse side as well to see the contrast between onyx and matrix. The Barstow field trip is typically scheduled in late spring before it gets too hot. Check with field trip leaders Chuck Borchard or myself to coordinate a potential trip Saturday AM 30 May 2020.

by Nancy Brace-Thompson
I made a sodalite and crystal necklace during lockdown! I’ve wanted to do some beading for quite awhile (since I keep buying beads and putting them in a drawer) and when the lockdown came around, even though I’m still working Monday through Friday, I had time on a weekend to put this necklace together. It was so much creative fun that I’m hoping to do it again and use some more of the beads that are sitting in my drawer.