Rock and Mineral lovers
Several members joined the field trip to Muir Creek in Sooke. On the land side of the road there’s some panable gold dust – see the mineral inventory page on Minfile. On the beach side of the road they looked for bivalve and other fossils.
The group met at the Juan de Fuca Recreation centre at 9:30am and the trip ended at 3pm.
6 people joined the field trip to an old mine site called the Ralph Mine behind the Goldstream Campsite. The hike involved a a fairly rigorous climb up a hillside to a gated mine shaft. It isn’t possible to enter the mine, but in the area they found clinozoisite (a cousin of epidote and tanzanite), bornite (peacock ore) and some malachite.
The meeting place was at the Ice Cream Mountain ice-cream shop at 10 am. See map link below
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.
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 |
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.
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.
