The Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Show, The 60th Anniversary

Our first major show of each year is the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Societies annual event. It held at the Fairgrounds in Robstown, Texas, lasts two days and is a juried show. All the venders must be selling items related to rocks fossils and minerals. The number of venders is usually under thirty. The venders specialize in, rare minerals, carved and rough rocks, jewelry, and lapidary supplies. Although its one of the smaller shows we love showing our work. The reason for this is that the club mentored us and taught us how to select, saw, grind, and polish each one noting its special properties. We have been blessed in many ways havin learned under several Masters. Jerald Simpson taught us how to make cabochons from a rock slab, (a sawed slice of a rock). Dick Cline (a retired elctrician who worked on numerous nuclear power plants world wide and passed away at age 93), taught us how to saw and identify quality specimens. He insisted that we only work with high quality rock. He often told us life is too short to waste your time on “junk”. In turn we have taught our wire wrapping techniques to many in the club, some of which are in the following pictures. Thank you to all the members, both past and present.

Russell is the current president, and a petroleum geologist, an extremely smart man, (but aren’t all geologists), Henri our current treasurer, Sue, and Jose.

All have taken our class.

Linda Simpson is holding down the information booth and identifing specimens brought in by our guests, She is a retired Earth Science teacher, (another group of smart people). Rita is the current secretary, and has an avid interest in collecting Pleistocene fossils, modern bones, antlers, and petrified wood. She combines them into a multimedia pieces on display, Here she is running the silent Auction tables where anyone can bid on club and member pieces.

The club currently has lost our lapidary shop and we hope that they will be able to find a space as we have all the equipment in storage, (we rented a space from the City of Corpus Christi, Tx, and have been forced to leave as the new Harbor bridge and surrounding area plans have claimed the building we occupied as our shop. Thank you all, we hold you in our hearts! Clear skies