At 6:15, junior rockhounds began with a lesson on the layers of our earth followed by a chance to cut open thunder eggs and geodes on a saw!

The younger kids were helped at the saw but the older kids could cut on their own, with full safety gear, of course!

These locally connected thunder eggs were beautiful inside and the kids got to keep them.

At 7 pm, the general meeting began. People showed off purchases from the show and other things collected or made. The silent auction table was resplendent.

Come join us the second Wednesday of each month! You don’t need to be a member to hang out with us.

The 2024 Gems By The Sea show is coming up September 29th and 29th at the San Luis Obispo Veterans Memorial Hall.  We are expecting these two dozen dealers to participate in the show.

Amber Gifts
Gem trees, cabs, slabs, rocks, jewelry, fossils

Beads Zone
Semiprecious stone beads and findings

Elethea & Cliff Brewen
Jewelry, spheres, polished stones

Christensen Minerals
Mineral specimens

Crystal Monster
Minerals, fossils, gemstones, beads & jewelry

Crystal Rapture
Quartz, minerals, carvings, dream catchers, some fossils

Crystalz at Tiffanys
Carvings, spheres, specimens

Diamond Diane Consulting
Minerals and Gems, some sterling jewelry, appraisals and gem ident services

Gem Cove

Grandma’s Bead Box
Beads, findings, jewelry tools, handmade jewelry

Gray Designs
Jewelry, art, raw material in rocks, gems and fossils

Rick Hicks
Specimens, slabs, cabochons

Jade and Jewelry
jade jewelry and gemstone jewelry in silver and gold

Joy Discovers
Tumbled stones, natural crystals, sets of geodes or fossils mostly geared toward children

Linda Lewis
Fine art jewelry

Don Moore

Paradise Jewelry
Sterling silver and hand made jewelry with natural stones

Rock Solid Jade
local jade and other stones, silver jewelry with stones, carvings, rough rock, cabs

Rocks & Relics
Minerals, fossils, meteorites, polished stones, decorator minerals and crystals

Stone Medicine Design
Sterling silver & gold jewelry made with natural stones and gemstones

Colton Shultz
Rough rocks, slabs, cabochons, pendants, fossils. earrings, tumbled rocks

The Crystal Scout
Minerals, fossils

True West Silver Works
Cabs, handmade sterling jewelry

Nancy Valentine
Jewelry and mineral specimens

This was a great one! At junior rockhounds, Jo taught the kids about how to best display rocks in a display cabinet for the upcoming September show.

The main event included a hands-on tutorial from Leslie for making gemstone wire wrapped rings! Even kids got to participate with the adults in making their rings.

The silent auction table had some awesome choices.

Colton demonstrated the flat lap to the junior rockhounds. They each got a chance to try it out and learned about switching out the wheels to finer grit levels. Then they got to paint rocks during the general meeting.

The general meeting had the usual refreshments, awesome raffle prizes, and great silent auction options. They watched a video of mineral explorers after discussing club business.

Junior Rockhounds and Pebble Pups received their first certificates, patches, and backpacks! 

Jeff Bissely presented on meteorites with an excellent presentation and collection.

A great showing for both the junior rockhounds program and the general program! In junior rockhounds, the kids learned about the three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Then they learned about mineral identification: the Mohs scale, a scratch test on tile, and an acid test (which didn’t fizz as much as we hoped so we’ll try again next time!). They are on their way to earning their badges!

The general program, a special presentation by Scott Johnson, Geology Faculty Member from Cal Poly – about “Local Geological Formations” was very informative. These included the Franciscan Complex melange made of many types of rocks. The volcanic Morros are younger and popped up through the Franciscan Complex.

Junior rockhounds is taking off! We had nine kids join the second meeting, where they learned about jaspers and piezoelectricity m quartz.

The general meeting, which was packed,  included a special presentation from the O.G. rockhound, Jim Mills, “Rockhound Nostalgia.”

We had the awesome silent auction and the raffle. Join us! Everyone is welcome!

Today we held the very first (of many) junior rockhound programs at 6:15 pm before the general meeting! Kim led with an intro to quartz. The kids got to keep specimens in their newly gifted rock boxes. This may have been the very first meeting, but a good number of families showed up. All the kids said they wanted to come back!

After junior rockhounds ended, the general meeting began at 7 pm. A lot of new people attended.

The silent auction had great stuff and the raffle prizes (if you attend, you get a ticket) were excellent. Then we heard about the huge (250 vendors) Pow Wow show in Quartzite, Arizona from Jeff. This was followed by show and tell. Lots of specimens were given away!

Come and join some fellow rock nerds. Everyone is welcome!

Some great options on the silent auction table!

Today was a day for show and tell. Many members brought in cool finds and things they needed help identifying! There was petrified whale bone from Santa Barbara county, Benitoite (California’s state gemstone) from Benito County, lots of quartz, UV rocks, and more!

The first junior rockhound meeting will be happening in the February meeting at 6:15pm before the main meeting starts.

The club met early at 6pm with an incredible potluck spread. After chatting and chowing down, it was time to pick a rock themed gift from the pile. Anyone who brought a gift could grab one and then could trade at the end.

Who knew we had so many members!?!

After eating and gifts it was time to formally elect the new officers.

President: Rick Hicks steps up!

Vice president: Kim Noyes

Secretary: Evelyn Lopez

Librarian: Don Moore

Show chair: Mary Rafferty

CFMS rep: Dan Manion

Treasurer: still need someone!

We will start a junior rockhound program by Kim, Don, and Mike at 6:15 pm on meeting days. Then done by 7 into general meeting! The program for January will be jasper in all of its forms.