Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society

BCLS Gem show – club trip

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Good day.  I just wanted to say a few words about the clubs’ trip to Chilliwack.  First, thanks to Vanessa for organizing the bus trip.  The ride was really smooth and the driver was really attentive to our needs (there was A/C on the bus).  The show was really good and many purchases were made.  There was something for everyone.  Sean found some really nice opals.  Mike Hill, one of our past presidents, now 1st vice president of the BCLS was selling his wares.  Other vendors that come to our show were also there.  On the trip back on the ferry, our members availed themselves of Seans’ knowledge of rocks and minerals to identify some of their purchases.  There were rocks all over the tables and some people were curious and looking, wondering what was going on.  Carson took the prize for heaviest suitcase.  There must have been something in the vicinity of 100 lbs of rocks in there.  Leni bought a fossil and I found a few minerals she didn’t have.  It was a beautiful day and maybe a bit warm inside the building, but all in all it was a good day for everyone who participated.  See you at the strawberry social!

Yvan Gagnon, VLMS president

Upcoming: Field Trip: Sunday, May 28th, ’23

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Field trip to : Walker Creek
Date: Sunday, May 28th, ’23
Meeting place: Juan de Fuca Rec Centre / A&W in Sooke
Meeting time: 9:00 am / 9:30 am

There are a few who missed last month’s trip there and really want to go there, and others who want to go back, including us, so let’s make this a balmy end of May trip and we stand a better chance of seeing no snow and can hang out in the area for a longer time.  We won’t stop at the first creek first, we’ll go straight to the end. 

Additional stuff: Ridesharing is working!  Riders, thank you for contributing to gas costs for your ride!  And drivers, thank you so much for being so considerate.  We can venture out a little further if we can help each other by cutting costs.

Things to bring

  • water (for drinking)
  • rock hammer
  • safety glasses (eye protection)
  • gloves
  • hiking boots or good treaded running shoes (I recommend the boots)
  • backpack or bucket for collecting

Annual Club Auction – May 1st, 2023

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Our auction yesterday was a great success. We managed to auction off all but one lot (sorry Sean) out of 102. We collected quite a bit of money for the club and it’ll go far to continue the funding of the clubs’ activities. There are many, many people to thank for the success of the auction.


I’ll begin with: Jay Prazma: His kind and generous donations of equipment and materials contributed immensely to the auction.


Thanks to all others who made donations and brought merchandise for the auction.
Thanks to Barb for making the clubhouse available for most of the afternoon, giving us enough time to set up.
Thanks to Karen for helping out with the auction process and keeping me on track.
Thanks to Allana, Kathryn and Karis for recording and keeping track of who bid on lots and paid how much.
Thanks to Dave for processing all the payments and keeping track of all that money.
Thanks to the members who helped set up, carry purchases to the cars of successful bidders and take down tables and chairs at the end.
Thanks to Becci for posting on our website all the pictures of items that would be available at the auction.
And most of all, thank you to all the members who most enthusiastically participated in the auction: you made this the great success that it was.
I apologize if I left anyone out.

Feb 26, 2023 Gold-panning Field Trip to Sooke Potholes

Posted on by Arlene Modderman

We kept an eye on the weather to the very last minute and it paid off! We met at the Juan de Fuca parking lot at 10am and by 10;15 we were on our way.
There were 7 of us, plus Megsi of course!
The weather was sunny when we arrived.
We parked at the first parking lot and took the first trail on the other side of the gate down to the water. It was a 2 minute walk from the car – quite manageable even with some snow on the ground.
The beach was great, not a lot of snow and everyone quickly went to work. Lots of conversation and fun.
About 20 minutes after we arrived, the big cloud that had been dumping wet snow on Metchosin caught up to us and within 10 minutes it had passed, giving us only a very light dusting. Everyone kept panning or digging or whatever they were up to.
No gold for me – just a big iron very old spike that took a while to find.
We did get gold, however, as expected, someone before us must have found the nuggets!
Looking forward to the next field trip, it will be announced at the meeting tomorrow.

Monthly meeting: Feb 6th, 2023

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Topic: Can We Predict Earthquakes? Tales of the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Presenter:  Ms. Isaporn (Grace) Sethanant – School of Earth & Ocean Sciences – Faculty of Science UVIC

The meeting was well attended and passionately presented, there was lots of talk about it afterwards. 

Click on the pictures to see them larger and to run them as a slideshow.

The presentation was given by Ms. Israporn Sethanant who has been so kind as to share a pdf of the presentation itself below for those of our members who might not have been able to attend in person:

Tales of Cascadia (download)

Field Trip: Island View Beach, Jan 29th, ’23

Posted on by Becci Simmons

The field trip to Island View beach was very well attended, with 16 members showing up.

The tide was quite high when we arrived and the weather very cold and sunny. We started off going to the left first to give the high tide time to start going out. After about an hour we turned around and slowly worked our way back towards the cliffs.

One member found a beautiful small agate. Others found jasper, pretty quartz and also a few interestingly shaped rocks. A very determined flower stone hunter managed to find their very first one!
The tide unfortunately did not recede enough to get us close to the cliffs, however now we know the tide heights that should get us there. Island View always has a lot to offer – if not just for the views and the wildlife. And the wild crazy people sailboarding in the cold water in the winter!