Hard Rock News
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Hard Rock News A Publication of the Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society Founded in October, 1939 January, 2020 Highlights: A Message From Our President , Vangie’s Wirewrap Group will Garry Mahan meet on January 9th (see page Hello everyone! I hope all of you are set to have four for details...) a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020! For General Meeting: January 10th those who missed it, we recently had KMGS 7:00 PM officer elections (at our November meeting) and Board Meeting: January 16th installation of these officers (at our Christmas 6:30 PM Upstairs at the Chico potluck). “Thank you” to the outgoing officers and “Welcome” to Church the incoming officers. A special thanks to Shane Schackmann for all of his work as 2018 and 2019 KMGS president. We have several challenges coming up in 2020 which I hope we can successfully maneuver our way through. Of primary concern are filling vacant chairperson positions in our club. This seems to be an ongoing challenge not only for our club but for many clubs around the nation. Many of you are qualified to fill these positions, so please step up and volunteer your help. One of my main goals for this new year is to help people have fun while participating in our club. Even though I have been collecting rocks for many years, I still try to learn a new, exciting or fun aspect of the hobby every year. Many of you have never lost the thrill of finding that cool rock, whether it be a beach pebble or a big chunk of petrified wood. I hope to keep this spark alive for myself and help others “fan” that spark as well. If you have ideas about how to do this, please talk to me or send me an email. In addition to our regular January meeting (the 10 th ), we will also have a board meeting the following Thursday (the 16 th ) at 6:30 PM, upstairs in the Chico Alliance Church. All members are welcome to attend these meetings. So please come join us in 2020 and participate in as many of our club activities as you can. Active participants in our club are always appreciated. Here is one of my favorite quotes: “Make new friends. Keep the old. One is silver. The other is gold.” I am looking forward to the opportunity of being your club president in 2020. Dues are due now for 2020! Family Membership $20.00 Adult Membership $10.00 Junior Membership $3.00 Mail to: KMGS PO Box 3342 Silverdale, WA 98383-3342 Members who joined at the 2019 show are exempt from dues in 2020! January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 2 Refreshments Refreshment Refreshments for the monthly General Meetings are Schedule: provided by the members. We count on you to bring January —H, I and J snacks for the group—per the refreshment yearly February—K and L schedule. You should plan on helping in the kitchen March—M with set-up and clean-up for that meeting. The April —N thru R schedule is based on the first letter of your last name. May—S Feel free to exchange months with another member if June —T thru Z you know you will be out of town for that meeting. If September—A and B your last name begins with an “H”,“I” or a “J” you will be responsible for refreshments at the October—C and D January meeting. There will be a procedure list November—E , F and G available. We need a new chairperson ASAP. Club Website: kmgs.org Important Contacts Elected Officers for 2020 Like Us On Facebook President: https://www.facebook.com/ Garry Mahan KitsapMineralandgemsociety/ [email protected] We are affiliated with (360) 871-2815 the Washington State Mineral Council https://mineralcouncil.wordpress.com/ Vice President: Tony Schackmann [email protected] We need a Refreshment Chairperson! (360) 801-1914 As of right now, we do not have a Refreshment Chairperson. We could probably go a few months without one but Secretary: eventually we will need to have someone step forward and Melissa Tangen manage the supplies, at a bare minimum. If we cannot have [email protected] someone manage this—we may need to consider dropping (360) 689-2339 the possibility of offering refreshments at the meeting. It is the charm of our meetings that I love. One thing that Treasurer: Marlaina Atkins adds to the charm is refreshments served. Kids of all ages [email protected] love it! I hope that someone will come forward and help us (360) 689-4424 maintain this very fun part of our meetings. Kathy Reimers January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 3 January Display Table : We will have a display (show and tell) table at our January meeting. You can bring any rock, mineral, fossil, or lapidary-related item of your choice. Our theme for this month will be those items that begin with the letter “B”. I am sure you can think of quite a few of these. As usual, junior members are encouraged to participate in this part of the meeting. January Program: Fossil Identification and Preservation by Jill Wetzel Juniors: Hello KMGS Junior Rockhounds! We will not have a separate junior program in January so that we can enjoy the January meeting program. Field Trips: If you have an interest in going on a club field trip— we need to know about you! We are always hopeful that a field trip can happen with enough folks attending to make it worthwhile. It is difficult to plan a trip and end up with no one attending. For now, Tony Schackmann is our contact person for field trips. (360) 801-1914 [email protected] **NEW Meeting Set-Up Meeting Set-UP Plan Schedule** In an effort to include more folks in our club processes, and to insure that it is not always the same few September—H, I and J members responsible for meeting set-up, we are October—K and L implementing a new schedule for meeting set-up and November—M take-down. It will be based similar to our refreshment December—Potluck schedule. If your last name begins with “N-R” , you January—N thru R will be responsible for meeting set-up at our January February—S General Meeting. Be at the meeting place to set-up when the daycare closes around 6:00 PM. We will have March—T thru Z more experienced members standing by and there will April—A and B be a procedure list available for general set-up and AV. May—C and D You will also need to plan to stay to help get the chairs, June—E, F and G tables etc. put away. January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 4 Definition of “Lapidary” adjective: relating to stones and gems and the work involved in engraving, cutting, or polishing. noun: a person who cuts, polishes, or engraves stones and gems Black Opal (OK, I had a hard time coming up with a rock or mineral that starts with the letter “B”) In honor of the display table theme of the month—I went searching online for something beautiful in the “B” department. This was my choice— since it is VERY beautiful! If you own one, please bring it to the meeting! Opal is a mineral composed of silica (and some water) and is a species of quartz. The rainbow-like iridescence is caused by tiny crystals of cristobalite. Many opals have a high water content - they can dry out and crack if they are not cared for well (opals should be stored in damp cotton wool). Opals have a hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 and a specific gravity of 1.98-2.50. Black opals are found in Australia. Upcoming Club Events: The Board met on December 19th and amongst other business, created a schedule of events for 2020. Annual Member Sale: February 14th—during the meeting Annual Auction: April 10th—during the meeting Club Picnic: July 11th Wirewrapping By Vangie Vangie Mayton hosts a popular wirewrapping class on the second Thursday of most months. The date of the meeting this month is January 9th. The class is held at Vangie’s home: 3904 NW 18th St Bremerton, WA. It is off of Rocky Point Road. The class starts at 10:00AM and ends around 3:00PM. If you have any questions, call Vangie at (360) 373-3370. Vangie would like to let the brand-new members know (those that joined at the show) that they are welcome to come to this class. “The Hard Rock News” January, 2020 Page 5 DENDRITES VS. MOSS AGATES: ORBICULAR JASPER VS. POLKA DOT AGATE We are usually delighted, but not surprised, to find inclusions in crystals, e.g., quartz of one color or another, rutile, sagenite, and “stars.” The appearance of inclusions in microcrystalline varieties of quartz, however, have a mysterious ambiance that brings out the name-making propensities of collectors. When our vision of inclusions is obscured, our imagination takes hold. Chalcedony (clear to cloudy), agates (clear but usually banded), and jasper (opaque) are all variations of silica oxides, with hardness between 6 and 7, which makes them very suitable for polishing. They may all have included material, and the nature of the inclusion is dictated by the composition of the host rock material and the manner of rock formation. Dendritic chalcedony and moss agate are terms or names frequently applied to the same material. They are basically similar, but dendrites can form not only in chalcedony and agate, but also on limestone and soapstone and some sandstones.