At the Da Vinci Centre: An opportunity for members to showcase and sell their work
download the rocktober poster to give to friends and post at work.
Rough to Ready show 13th-14th October
Year: 2018
2019 BCLS Calendar – now available
Hello club presidents, membership people & secretaries,
Denise has put a beautiful calendar together again for 2019.
I’m attaching a ‘thumb nail’ of all the months so you can see what it looks like, as well as a separate order form
for club orders. Congrats to those of you I see ‘won” a spot!
Thank you for your support of the BCLS.
Georgina Selinger, Executive Secretary,
BC Lapidary Society 604-852-1307
bcls10072@hotmail.com
www.bclapidary.com
Click image below to see larger version
Workshop
by Vanessa (President and Workshop)
New blades have been recently added to the 10″ and 6″ trim saws as the past blades were both a year old or more. Thanks go to Mel for the contribution of the 10″ blade. The slab saw blade still has its original blade in use and is not expected to need replacement in the very near future, as cutting with oil greatly reduces the blade wear. The Genies are all in active use with most sporting new or reconditioned spitters – these have noticeably improved the water amounts to the wheels. Brian will be looking into getting some grit for the vibrating flat lap (donated by new club member, Doug Smith) and Alana has offered to check out wheel replacements for the small 6″ flat lap. The longer course session format, newly implemented on Sundays, has shown to have some instruction advantages for the Basic Lapidary course, held recently. We are hopeful that future courses will follow the same format so as to not interfere with Saturday workshop activities for members.
Island Zone
by Vanessa (President and Island Zone Rep)
A brief meeting of Island Zone representatives was held on the morning of Sunday, July 29 immediately following the pancake breakfast at the Gemboree. In addition to Zone reps, the meeting was also attended by several club members interested in finding out more about what the Zone is about as well as what is going on with the other clubs on the island. Reports were submitted by each club in attendance to the Zone secretary and will be posted as soon on our VLMS website as soon as they are made available. VLMS members who are interested in becoming a representative of our club for the Island Zone – please contact Vanessa at our next meeting, or by email.
2018 Gemboree – Part 1
The 2018 Gemboree was hosted by the Victoria LMS and held at the Sooke River Campground.
- Thursday – lunchtime onwards: set up
- Friday – am: visit to K2 Quarry outside Port Renfrew
- Friday – pm: gold panning on Loss Creek near Port Renfrew
- Friday – evening: flint knapping demonstration
- Friday – evening: Cowboy steak dinner
- Saturday – am: fossil and crystal hunting in a quarry near Jordan River
- Saturday – pm: beach rocks on Ella Beach
- Saturday – pm: rock identification “masterclass” by Sean Maier
- Saturday – evening: spontaneous pot-luck (courtesy of our up-island friends)
- Sunday – am: Pancake Breakfast
- Sunday – am: Island Zone meeting
- Sunday – am: Tailgate Sale
- Sunday – lunchtime: pack up
Photo galleries
Our web server space is limited, so only low resolution photos are uploaded here. If you want to download full-resolution photos, please follow the full-resolution photo link for each event. If you have photos you would like to add to the albums, please send or share them to web@vlms.ca and I’ll be happy to add them in. Photos with captions courtesy of Doug McLeod.
To download all the full-resolution photos in a gallery at once;
1. click on the “Select photos” button at the top right of the screen
2. click on “Select All” at the top left of the screen
3. click on the “Download” button at the top right of the screen
Allana Shillito (Gemboree Committee Chair):
Well, after one and a half years of planning, the VLMS pulled off a darn good Gemboree. We had approximately 60 adults and 9 children attend the 3-day affair at the Sooke River Campgrounds.
A taste of things to come…
Sooke River Campground
For full resolution photos click here
2018 Gemboree – Part 2
Allana Shillito (Gemboree Committee Chair):
Friday
The morning was hot and filled with anticipation as our newly-appointed wagon master Bill Needoba led us to the K2 Ocean Pearl Quarry on Mosquito Creek near Port Renfrew. There we learned that K2 has 3 different kinds of slate at their quarry: (i) black, oily slate – good for construction and aggregate material, (ii) a light blue-gray, and (iii) a dark gray. Both the latter two types are desirable for stone products. Matt Girard was our guide and explained all the processes needed to take the stone out of the ground and then to market. Any excess or unwanted material is used in conjunction with concrete and other aggregate, so nothing is wasted. Our afternoon was spent gold-panning in more temperate climes at Loss Creek. The water was definitely welcomed in comparison to our dry hot morning quarry run. Several participants found “colour” in their pans and some were able to do rock hounding in the creek as well. The Friday agenda was ended with a steak BBQ put on by the Sooke Lions and with an arrow-knapping demonstration by our very own Bruzz Bethel.
K2 Quarry
The K2 Quarry is located past Lizard lake on a challenging and extremely dusty logging road. A convoy of around 12 high-clearance vehicles made the trip, loaded to the gunnels with all who wanted to attend. We were met for the last segment by Matt Girard from the Nanaimo office of K2 Stone. In the quarry we had an hour walk-and-talk on how K2 operates. We were allowed to take any sample of rock we could physically carry to our vehicles – which led to some team efforts.
For full resolution photos click here
Loss Creek Gold Panning
Patrick Lydon (of the Victoria LMS) let us try panning on his claim on Loss Creek. After the hot and dusty quarry the latecomers seemed just as interested in dangling their toes in the water as in searching for gold. Nevertheless some people found a few flakes of actual gold. Almost as much fun were the garnets to be found all down the creek which conveniently collected in the panning pans.
For full resolution photos click here
Mineral Identification part 1
