Mineral and Gem Society of Castro Valley Show

This past weekend was the locally-famed gem and mineral show at Centennial Hall in Hayward, put on by the Mineral and Gem Society of Castro Valley. All volunteer-run by the members of MGSCV, the show includes faceting and cabbing demonstrations, walls of displays ranging from gemological education to sorting different salts, to examples of rough gem specimens next to cut and finished specimens.And, the most fun? The fluorescent mineral room:
One whole room dedicated to minerals and rocks that glow under short- or longwave UV light. One of the hotspots for collecting is a site in New Jersey. Sign me up.

Tucson!

Every year in early February, Tucson, AZ hosts the most fabulous gem/mineral/fossil/jewelry show around. You want rubies, emeralds, tanzanite? No problem. Tektites? Yup. Fossilized dinosaur poop? Yes. Jade table? Sure.

And how about these skyscraper amethyst geodes?


Petrified wood?

From morning to evening my trip was filled with looking at these beauties.

I was there for 5 days. My days began with grabbing a quick breakfast, then usually heading out to a seminar or two (fabulous education!), and then taking the shuttles to the different shows. There were tents up all over town with gem and mineral dealers, and even the hotels had vendors showing wares in the rooms.
Can't wait until next year...

Jewelry Show

Last week my friend, Emily, and I had a holiday show to share my jewelry and her paintings and prints. We transformed the office of my construction job to be the gallery (with lots of help from my friend Marcus) in Berkeley. We had beautiful weather with lots of sun and temperatures warm enough to keep the door open until the early evening.


Lots and lots of folks came out to visit. It was a really fun time, well worth all of the hard work to get it ready.



Thanks to everyone who took the time to come out to our show!

What's that you say?

I've been playing around with some board game pieces, and have come up with some fun statement necklaces...

(Click on the pictures to see them large!)

Education

I've just passed my big Colored Stone exam (woo hoo!), and now I'm on to the final leg of my Graduate Gemologist journey. One course left, and it's bound to be the most fun. Gem ID will bring with it 500 different gemstones for me to get to know and identify, needing to provide their group, species, variety, and any treatments. For example: Corundum/Synthetic Sapphire/Flame Fusion. I'll have to wear a detective outfit when I do my work.

I've been reviewing my materials from GIA (Gem Institute of America), and am a bit overwhelmed with both how much there is to know, and how much I've learned. Also, how much there will always be left to learn.

I don't begin my new coursework until Tuesday, so until then I can enjoy some casual reading. I just finished a locally-published booklet about California jade, and am now on to reading more about the diamond trade and De Beers' participation in it. This is the third book I've read about the diamond industry, and they've all included different parts. Like I said, always a lot left to learn...

The Land

We had a bit of a scare yesterday here in my little town. A car accident off the highway became a car fire, which ignited the hillside - which hasn't seen rain since May - which quickly spread up the hill into town.









I raced home from work after hearing from both my husband and our neighbor that evacuations of some parts of town were beginning. I arrived to a swarm of helicopters dropping water on the fire, and fire trucks stationed throughout town.


The air was thick with smoke, smelling like a campfire. After living in California for so long, I'm finally starting to associate that smell with danger, and not fun.

Nobody had to be evacuated due to the competence of the local firefighters. I'm tremendously grateful for their knowledge and work.

Here's a little jewelry homage to them...

Summer Travelin'

This has been a wonderful summer. Now that I live outside of the Fog Zone in the Bay Area I now get to enjoy summer weather. As I write this the crickets and peepers are singing, and the windows are open, letting in the fresh night air. Nice to not have to be bundled in a sweater...in July.

The summer has been full of lots of fun travel. I started the summer by going to visit my friend in southern California to celebrate her birthday. It's always tons of fun visiting with her. We even got to spend a bit of time in Santa Barbara.

There's never enough time with close friends, and the weekend flew by.

Then I went to Vermont to visit with my family. My Grandma is 94, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time visiting with her. I wish I could bottle up her stories. She's a wonderful storyteller - in fact, she's one of my primary influences for getting my BA in Storytelling as Cross-Cultural Communication. Thanks, Grandma!

Vermont is gorgeous in the summer. This was one of the only times that I've taken pictures while I've been there. I've always felt that if I want pictures of Vermont all I have to do is look at a coffee table book or calendar with Vermont pictures and that's just what I'd be getting in my own pictures. It's true, but there's still something nice about having my own.

Besides, if I hadn't been taking pictures I wouldn't have gotten shots of the Flying Monkeys in Burlington...