Welcome to the Vernon Mineral & Lapidary Club
Were looking forward to this exciting 2011 year of rockhounding & lapidary activities which will include field trips, speakers, workshops, events and various related rockin activities!
We encourage people of all ages and families with children to join us in the joys of sharing our love of all things rock related. Many interests are shared and encouraged within our membership from actual collecting of all types of rocks, minerals, gemstones & fossils on club outings and field trips to known collecting sites; to learning how to cut and polish your rocks and gemstones in our very own fully equipped lapidary workshop. Knowledgeable and friendly people are on hand to show you the ropes on safe equipment operation, techniques and various artistic designs to create your polished rock and jewelry masterpiece.
We have experienced members who teach different classes on lapidary and jewelry techniques from cutting cabochons and wire wrapping to silver smithing. Speakers throughout the year will talk on all kinds of subjects that range from jewelry and gemstones, to opals and fossils. We even have a certified gemologist/geologist on hand to expertly answer your rock & gemstone related questions.
For the price of popcorn and a movie for 2 you can enjoy the full benefits of a family membership @ $30 for the entire year. It’s only $20 for the individual. That’s certainly nothing to throw rocks at!
Anyone is welcome to attend the meetings and you do not need to join the first time you come. We meet every second Wednesday of the month in the Vernon Arts Center at 7:00p.m. (except July and August). Meetings are according to “Robert’s Rules of Order” and after which there are speakers, silent auctions, and coffee/tea/snacks are available.
There is a place for all interests and ages in our club and we encourage you to come in and enjoy the fellowship!
Old News
The Heckman Creek Fieldtrip on July 11th,2010 was a great success with about a dozen members finding beautiful nodules and geodes of striped white & blue banded agate, as well as white & green common opal. Congratulations go out to first-time-out new members Ian & daughter Lottie who by noon had the best & largest finds of the day!
Great finds & a good time were enjoyed by all!
March 2010
Happy Spring rockhounding weather! This month’s events include a talk on fossils at the April 14th meeting, and a field trip to Kamloops Bar in search of
carnelian, arrowheads & aboriginal tool making artifacts. The GMFC Newsletter is out with some great articles. Click here to view it.
January 2010
Our website is being updated over the next few days with the dates & times of the new years happenings so please visit back soon to see the changes.
Please note the workshop hours have changed again to reflect user interest and supervisor/shop hour availability. The new hours are Monday 9am – 1:30pm, Wednesday 9am – 1:30pm, & Friday 9am – 1:30pm.
An updated Classifieds section is also about to be put in place where you can find equipment & various rocks and minerals for sale or purchase. You will need to register and become a website member in order to view and post sale items. Website membership is free.
December 2009
The BCLS Rendezvous 2009 was a resounding success. A special thanks goes out to Dave Barclay and the members who volunteered to make it so!
Thank You Rockhounders!
We’re getting a new look!
December 2008
The Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club Website is getting a fresh makeover and we’re adding a host of great new features for our membership to come together and share our passions in the new electronic frontier. We now have a newsletter & emailing system to notify our members through email about last minute up and coming events for our club activities. We can now go to our very own Club Blog and upload photos and stories about our latest & greatest outings & finds to share with our fellow members. We can also use the blog to organize outings that we may have come up with at the last minute that were not listed on our events page. And last but not least let’s not forget our exciting new “Ask the Geologist” section of our new blog, where our resident Gemologist/Geologist Dave Barclay will answer your questions about all things rocks, gems & minerals. All in all we are sure you’ll like the new look, feel and functionality of our brand new website. Any suggestions as to what you might like to see on our site are most welcome. We hope you will enjoy & make use of our exciting new site and features.
Our 52 Year History
Written by Pat O’brien
Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club
1959 – 2010
The afternoon of February 20th 1959 was clear and cold in Vernon, B.C. with a fresh skiff of snow swirling over the sidewalks and roadways. Soon to be elected Bob King and Harold Cochburn President and Vice-president of the Vernon Lapidary and Mineral club explained the ideas and concepts to 16 eager people.
Etta Thorburn (Sec.), Luicelle Loque(Tres.) and Margaret Munk (Historian) joined the first executive of the club. Larry Lougheed and George Menzies from Kelowna’s 1120 club (started 3 years earlier) were in attendance to help organise where they could.
Three weeks later a trip was taken to Kelowna to learn about some equipment and look at the collection belonging to Geo. Menzies. Following that there were expeditions to Penticton and Kamloops clubs for more expertise.
The first field trip was to be to Monte Lake and down the Douglas Lake road. These sites proved to be very popular through the years – still yielding good finds of agate nodules, calcite, green moss agate (Douglas Lk.) a blue common opal and some jaspers…
Vernon Lapidary & Mineral Club
Monthly Meetings & Lapidary Rockshop held at
The Vernon Community Arts Centre
2704A Highway 6, Vernon BC V1T 5G5
We meet every second Wednesday of the month in the Vernon Arts Center at 7:00p.m.(except July and August)
For further information please call:
Club President Dan Gillies @ 542-4234 or Vice President Pat O’Brien @ 545-1274
Check out RockHoundBlog.com:
Happy Rockhounding!
The Vernon Mineral & Lapidary Club 