vlms – Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society

Members’ meeting March 2020

Posted on March 3, 2020March 3, 2020 by vlms

Victoria, owner of Twisted Fern Designs presented her work and how it is evolving on Monday evening at our monthly members’ meeting.

Victoria started Twisted Fern Designs in 2017 having acquired a crochet addiction the year before. In 2018 she became a member of Sidney Lapidary Club, and quickly fell in love with Metal Smithing and learned to incorporate BC stones. While Silver Lace is the main focus of her creations, she still enjoys creating stone set pieces, using local island beach finds and her favourite handpicked UK stone, Lewisian Gneiss.

Twisted Fern’s Silver Lace Jewelry and Sculpture marries 19th century lacework traditions with the geometrical complexity of the natural world. Crocheted Silver is strong, yet light, and allows great scope for creativity and a wide range of design.

Each piece is hand-crafted from 100% reclaimed Silver, using antique hand tools; a modern and sustainable imagining of a heritage craft. You can check out Victoria’s website at: www.twistedferndesigns.store.

Also at the meeting, Bill Needoba had a show table of fossils he collected during Summer Camp 2019 at Galloway (E Kootenays) in BC.

Annual General Meeting 2020

Posted on January 8, 2020January 13, 2020 by vlms

In the January member’s meeting we elect and appoint our board members for the year. This year the following have committed their time, energy and expertise to keeping our club running.

Note: The Island Zone reps do not change in January, but in March.

In other news, the meeting was well attended and lively with wide-ranging discussions of club business.

	Elected Positions
	President Doug McLeod president@vlms.ca		Past President Allana Shillito
	Treasurer David Jackson treasurer@vlms.ca		Vice President Mel Johnson vicepresident@vlms.ca
	Membership Becci Simmons membership@vlms.ca		Secretary Sarah Hamilton secretary@vlms.ca
	Member at Large John Anderson		Member at Large Rae DeFrane
	Member at Large Brian McMillan		Member at Large Debbie Frank
	Appointed Positions
	Laphound News Editor Gary Brooke laphoundnews@vlms.ca		Librarian Kathryn Hawkins librarian@vlms.ca
	Field Trips Sean Maier fieldtrips@vlms.ca		Program Coordinator Arlene Modderman
	Program Coordinator Karol Jorgensen		Show Chairman Allana Shillito showcommittee@vlms.ca
	Social Committee Susannah Anderson		Social Committee Barb McKenzie
	Workshop Doug McLeod lapidaryworkshop@vlms.ca		Workshop Brian McMillan
	Senior Island Zone Representative David Jackson		Junior Island Zone Representative Doug McLeod president@vlms.ca
	intermediate Island Zone Representative Sarah Hamilton		Webmaster Becci Simmons web@vlms.ca

Christmas Pot Luck 2019

Posted on December 31, 2019December 31, 2019 by vlms

The Christmas pot luck party was well attended this year, and much good cheer was had.

Click on the photos to see bigger images as a slideshow.

Wire wrapping workshop

Posted on July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by vlms

The first evening of Gemboree 2019 had an open-air wire wrapping workshop in the big central canopy. It was a blast. Over half the gemboree attendees particpated and the rest formed a relaxed cheering team. The workshop was led by Suzanne Rivard, whose work can be seen at www.suzannart.com. Suzanne was patient and encouraging with a slightly rowdy crowd whose abilities ranged from beginner to been-doing-this-for-ages. The results were beautiful and each one worth wearing. Some of us continued redesigning our pieces for the rest of the weekend.

To download full resolution photos click Wire Wrapping Workshop .

To view the pictures below as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.

Calco (Coronation) Copper Mine

Posted on July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by vlms

One of the field trips on offer at the 2019 Gemboree was to the Calco Copper mine north of Campbell River. In 1955 five tonnes of ore were removed and sent to Tacoma for processing. It yielded 1011 kg of copper and 250g of silver. The mine is on private property and requires permission to access. The trip was led by

On the way back to Courtney we stopped at the viewpoint for the historic Ripple Rock explosion, a short documentary on youtube. It was the biggest manmade explosion of the time and it took them several failed attempts before they could pull it off.

To download full resolution photos click here Calco Copper Mine

To view the pictures as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.

Gemboree 2019

Posted on July 24, 2019July 28, 2019 by vlms

Gemboree 2019 was hosted by the Courteney club. We all camped at the Puntledge River RV Park. There was a pleasantly packed schedule including an evening wire wrapping workshop, BBQ, field trips, pot-luck dinner, auction, tall tales around the campfire and tailgate sale.

Below is a gallery of pictures around the campsite. If you would like to download full-size pictures for yourself, please use this link:

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.

To download all the full-resolution photos in the linked 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

Around the Campsite

To download full resolution photos click here Around the Campsite

To view the pictures as a slideshow, click directly on a picture.