THE BACKBENDER’S GAZETTE
Volume LV ----- Houston Gem & Mineral Society ----- January 2025
Safety Matters: Hands – Where Are They?
Table of Contents
Click a Table of Contents Entry to jump to that article.
Club Information
Houston Gem & Mineral Society
Regional and National
American Federation of Mineralogical Societies
(AFMS) https://www.amfed.org
South Central Federation of Mineral Societies
(SCFMS) https://www.scfms.net
Permission to use material originating in this newsletter is given freely providing that credit is given to the author and the source. Articles published in the BBG is may be edited for grammar and content.
BACKBENDER’S GAZETTE SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Articles are due on the 15th day of the month before the posting of the BBG.
Email content and comments to editor@hgms.org
President's Message
by LT Wilcox
I want to say “Thank you everyone” for making 2024 an interesting and great year! We look forward to seeing you in 2025. I hope to crack open this year like a geode filled with sparkling surprises! I would also like to thank everyone for their hard work in 2024 and our exiting officers. VP1 Jeanean Slamen for all the Amazing work she’s helped me get accomplished and the impressive programs for our general meetings all year long, Treasurer Sharon Halton for flipping our entire operation upside down to get it back into working order with the help of Michele Marsel, Danial Rodriguez and Michelle Wilcox for their hard work as secretary and keeping us organized, and Nancy English for guiding us in the right direction when we had questions and an amazing job with finding volunteers. Scott Singleton and the show committee put on an amazing show this year and we are thrilled with the turnout! Let’s put that same effort into making the next one just as amazing! Our web committee for putting up with me and all the improvements we’ve made to the website this year.
Unfortunately, we lost some members along the way and a few more have stepped aside to take care of themselves. Our hearts go out to everyone we lost and have those of you still fighting in our minds. You’ve all put your heart into making this club what it is today, and I hope I can keep that same momentum in the coming years. We have started to see many new faces as well and have a few stepping up into positions to help us accomplish our goals and keep growing our community into a new generation of rockhounds. We are always looking for volunteers to help in many places throughout the club as it takes a village to run such a long-lasting and unique place for all of us to enjoy! Keep in mind that HGMS was founded on December 7, 1948, 75 years ago!!!!
Let’s make our 76th year an even better one! And thank you, our members, and everyone I didn’t mention for being a part of Houston Gem and Mineral Society. It wouldn’t be possible without you! Honored Mentions for hard work and supporting me and the club in ways no one else could – Sigrid Stewart, Steven Blyskal, Clyde McMeans, David Pawek, Debbie Seid, Dean Wix, Neal Immega, Richard Good, Fred Brueckner, Ray Kizer, Sarah Metsa, David Hawkins, Alicia Tristan with FBAC, and many more.
Safety Matters: Hands – Where Are They?
By Ellery Borow, AFMS Safety Chair,
From the October AFMS Newsletter
One’s hands play a big part in our hands-on hobby.
Setting up for a rock and mineral show several years ago I was taking show tables off the cart, unfolding the tubular steel legs, and moving them into the positions shown on the show’s table layout diagram. The tables were the heavy wooden ones with the metal edge around the perimeter. As I grabbed the next table, one finger was pushed hard against the very tip of a sharp sheet metal screw protruding through the metal perimeter frame. The table had been “fixed” by someone with a sheet metal screw placed exactly where one would grab the table to take it off the cart.
Our hands often seem to be placed in pinch-points with rock saws, grinding machine wheels, and folding table legs. Hands and fingers are often thrust between overhanging yet loose rocks, into holes/cavities/vugs in rocks where we cannot see that which our hands and fingers may be exposed.
With machinery and folding table leg pinch-points, we can take note of their inherent dangers ahead of time and be sufficiently cautious when working around them. With rock pinch-points, we can explore the rock to try to be certain nothing is loose that might shift and grab one’s fingers or hand.
When reaching into a hole, we don’t often know what exactly one’s hands and fingers might find.
A not-so-common experience is hammering some rock and exposing what looks like a cavity. Sometimes a little more careful chipping may reveal an opening big enough to fit one hand in – a tempting opening to use to explore what is to be found inside the cavity. Think of having such an experience in a pegmatite mine where a hole may very well be a pocket of gemmy, multi-colored tourmaline crystals. It would be hard to resist the temptation to reach inside to feel what is to be found. True, one might find muck and mud, but one may also find long secluded crystals! Who can resist the temptation to reach in and explore? In such a cavity one is unlikely to find critters inhabiting the hole.
In cavities, vugs, and openings hammered in near-the-surface rock, it is possible any hole might have another or hidden opening allowing the hole to be occupied by things that bite. Any holes in the rock should be investigated with caution for critters living inside the hole, before sticking one’s hand inside.
It is important to know where one’s hands are, to keep one’s eyes open for dangers to our hands and fingers. I have seen people drilling into a board with their hand holding the board and their fingers out of sight on the board’s other side – a situation that is liable to result in a hole being drilled not just through the board but the finger as well. It is wise to always know where one’s hands and fingers are located with respect to potential hazards.
There are situations where one will want to empty their boots before sticking their feet in them or look in the pail before sticking one’s hand in or look underneath the crate for biting spiders before reaching underneath to lift it or use a stick to check out the area under a bush before digging there with one’s hands or — well, you get the idea. Please consider keeping your hands and fingers safe by knowing where they are in relation to any possible hidden dangers. Your hands and fingers will love you for the attention to being safe. After all, your safety matters.
Oh, by the way, that sharp sheet metal screw about to puncture my finger? Due to sensitive fingers and quick reaction time, there was no injury – lesson learned.
A Hand-y Tool
An Aid to Rockhound Collecting
If you love to collect in the field, here is an item that will help protect your hands – and maybe the rest of you! The Treasure Scoop – sold by Kingsley North – allows you to easily pick up small rocks from sand or dirt or out of streams or shorelines. This means your hands do not have to go into small holes or under bushes where thorns, rattlesnakes and scorpions may be hiding – and your face is also farther away. By not stooping to pick up interesting items you are potentially saving your back from stress. The small pick on the back of the scoop can help loosen a rock and stabilize the action of the scoop so that it can serve as a walking stick while climbing amongst boulders in the field.
That bright orange tape on your hammer or scoop helps them stand out so you can spot them in the field, too!
https://kingsleynorth.com/treasure-scoop-42-inch.html?srsltid=AfmBOoo2BcQjcNlmokwIyQQLpcuB1sr2UtqN7J2Rdxclm-2yS8DkZfGs
Section News
Beading – Second Saturday, 12:00 PM
At the January 11th meeting we will be learning the right way to string beads including the proper way to start and finish a piece for a professional finish.
NOTICE: Do you have a bracelet or necklace that needs restringing? The Beading Section will carefully restring your piece at an hourly rate of $15.00 + materials. Contact Beading @HGMS.org to make arrangements. All funds will go to the Beading Section.
Always bring beading mat, scissors, wire, wire cutter, round nose and needle nose pliers, thread, and beading needles if you have them.
Find out more about the Beading Section!
Gemstones and Faceting – Second Thursday, 6:30 PM
Our next meeting will be January 16th at 6:30 pm.
Topic to be announced
Learn more about the Gemstones and Faceting Section here.
Lapidary and Silversmithing – Third Monday, 7:00 PM
- The lapidary section welcomes everyone into the new year. This monthly meeting we will go over the year ahead and workshops that will be done. This month will not be a stone of the month but actually a slab of the month. The Workshop this month will be from the beginning of buying a slab or cutting one all the way to cutting a stone to use. I will have enough slabs for everybody that wants to participate. You do not need to register for this Workshop it will be open to all members and guests. There will be door prizes. Also don’t forget to pay your dues for the new year!
Email Lapidary@hgms.org if you have questions, and check out the Lapidary and Silversmithing Section page.
Day Light – First Wednesday, Noon to 3:00 PM
The Daylight Section’s first meeting of the year will be Wednesday, January 8th in the center classroom. January 1st, which was the first Wednesday this year, does not make a great meeting day!
This will be the first meeting for the new head of Section, Linda Krzywicki, and she will be teaching a project using crochet to make metallic gold thread and pearl three-strand necklaces. The entire project is made with the chain stitch.
Gemstones and Faceting – Second Thursday, 6:30 PM
Our next meeting will be January 16th at 6:30 pm.
- Topic to be announced
Discover the faceted gemstone!
Mineral – Third Wednesday, 7:30 PM
There will be no meeting in January!
Our next meeting will be February 19th. Topic to be announced.
Paleontology – Third Tuesday, 7:30 PM
The next meeting is Tuesday, January 21st at 7:30 pm.
Bob Wagner will present a program in January on the Chesapecten & other mollusks of the Hanover, Yorktown, & St. Mary’s Formations of Virginia.
There will be a fossil door prize for one lucky attendee. Hope to see you there.
Zoom link for the meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86053771923?pwd=ek5lNlk5SGFYNjN6U29ONU4xVElyQT09
or
Meeting ID: 860 5377 1923
Passcode: 826994
If you’d like to join the Paleo Section email list, send an email to hgmspaleosection@gmail.com and ask to be added.
Find out who we are!
Youth, First and Third Saturdays, 10:00am – 12:00pm
The first meetings in 2025 will be January 4th and 18th
Mostly we will be working on cabochons. Children must be accompanied by parents.
Learn more about the Youth Section.
The Gem Shop
by Sigrid Stewart
Photos by Steve Blyskal
How can you tell someone is a rockhound? If the flowerbeds lined with petrified wood and large yard rocks don’t tip you off, check out the calendars hanging inside the house. Yes, Virginia, some people still hang up calendars! Ours is from the Gem Shop, located in Historical Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and advertised as the largest Rock Shop in the Midwest. Every year they put out a Calendar of Fine Agates and Jaspers, with fabulous photos of the kind of rough you can buy directly from the shop. We just opened the new one for 2025 and it features Laguna agate, Ocean Jasper, Brazilian Agate, Willow Creek Jasper, Arizona Petrified Wood, Moroccan Agate, Utah Limb casts, Blue Mountain Jasper, Condor Agate, Dryhead Agate, Dinosaur Bone, and River Agate. Silicified wonders.
We visited the Gem Shop when we attended the Agate Expo in 2016, when it was hosted in Cedarburg by the Gem Shop. Matt Dillon and his wife Leslie were there too, to display agates. Close to 200 displays and 45 vendors were set up in the local high school gymnasium and talks by noted agate dealers and writers were presented. We were agate fans before that; after the Expo you could call us fanatics.
The Gem Shop has sponsored mining at sites like the Agua Nueva and Coyamito mines in Mexico and other localities, and owns two claims where collectors can dig in Oregon. The website features artists, art, jewelry, lapidary tips and equipment, slabs, cabs, specimens and rough of many types of cutting material. There are stories about mining expeditions and past field trips. There’s everything you might hope to find at a really terrific rock shop. And if you can’t manage to visit in person, you can check it all out online.
Education
We are working on new classes now, but none are posted yet.
Shop and Building News
Richard Good and David Pawek have been working on the 18-inch saw and it is nearly finished. The power feed drive pulley was oversized causing the saw to jam the rock into the blade, and a new pulley has been ordered The saw hood may need an extra hood support when open. Once this is fixed they will put a belt guard on and fill the reservoir with oil. If passed as safe, it will go into service. Then they will start work on the 20″ HP saw.
Seeing
by Edward Clay
To see
in the art and skill
of lapidary.
One must use eyes to acknowledge
where to remove some
to make the remaining fit.
But machines might do this.
It is also needful to see
with heart and mind
to discern the beauty inherent
in the stone beneath our feet.
To understand with
experience and intellect how
to shape and work
bringing this beauty out.
Hopefully finding joy
in the learned ability
to share this seeing
with the world about .
Calling self lapidary artisan
I found that joy
learned the skills and was able
to see.
Sadly
while the heart still feels
while experience is remembered
with age the eyes began to go.
But I will continue
best I can and
hope my small example
of persistence
will aid another to began
to see.
End
Photos Steve Blyskal
I and others do attend The Annual Show and are given free entry and some small respect by displaying skills we have learned by teaching as we answer questions and displaying for the public.
Still I say we are not the ones that should be lauded nor is the leadership though they do work hard directing us all in this effort.
No the ones we should cheer for clap hands at and thank are the ones that spend hours in the ticket booth those that stand walk about answer questions in the information booth most or all the day during the show.
Not to forget those serve as security or maintain the hospitality room for members and guests (Dealers and such).
These all and others I may have missed mentioning all deserve gratitude applause, cheers and our honest and true thanks.
I will admit these are my words and some may consider them unneedful but I spoke them with honest intent and hope some will agree.
Small thought question, I hope the society leadership might consider for the next show to acquire a few showcases beginning to replace the ones lost in the trailer theft and consider to do so for each of the next few shows?
A Few Thoughts from Edward Clay
SCFMS News – the SCFMS Convention
by Don Shurtz, SCFMS President
The SCFMS Convention was held on November 23, 2024. The Convention was hosted by the Dallas Gem and Mineral Society (DGMS) at their annual show. Thanks go out to DGMS for their efforts in making this a Great Event. The Editor and Webmaster Breakfast attendance was quite small, the Awards Banquet could have had better attendance, but I was pleased with the number of people and clubs represented at the Annual Meeting. The AFMS President, JC Moore and his wife, Donna Moore, the AFMS Secretary, attended all of the activities.
By changing the Website contest to a fixed schedule for the Website Contest, there were no awards. Those winners will be announced in the JAN-FEB SCFMS Newsletter and the plaque awarded at the next Annual Meeting. The Editor and Author awards will be published in the next SCFMS Newsletter.
At the Awards Banquet, a Plaque was presented to Dr. Ron Tykoski, a Vice President at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, for being the 2024 SCFMS Scholarship Honoree. Dr. Tykoski, with the help of his associates at the University of Texas, awarded two scholarships of $4,000.00 each to two deserving graduate students. We also had the pleasure to introduce the 2023 Scholarship Honoree, Dr. George Maxey. Dr. Maxey is currently the President of the Hot Springs Geology Club.
At the Annual Meeting, which had good participation from SCFMS Clubs, we had representatives from clubs in all 3 states of the SCFMS area of responsibility, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The annual reports of the officers and committee chairs were all approved. We also approved the status of Susan Burch as the SCFMS Executive Secretary. Susan had been appointed to the office earlier in the year.
There were no officers elected at the meeting, as all of the officers are about to enter the 2nd year of their two-year term, The major item of business was the approval of the 2025 Fiscal Year SCFMS budget. Thanks go out to Henry Rojas, SCFMS Treasurer, and Sigrid Stewart, SCFMS Executive Vice President, for their efforts in compiling and presenting the FY2025 Budget. We had some lively discussions about moving to a Zoom-only format for the next Annual Meeting and about how the District Vice Presidents are elected. Those subjects will continue to be discussed and reviewed.
HGMS Board of Directors Meeting
Meeting Minutes for December 4, 2024
| Board Member | Section Board Member | ||
| X | President – LT [Logan] Wilcox | Beading – Maggie Manley [MM] | |
| X | 1st Vice President – Jeanean Slamen | X | Day Light – Fred Brueckner |
| X | 2nd Vice President – Sarah Metsa | Gemstones & Faceting – Turner Whitham | |
| X | Treasurer – Sharon Halton |
Lapidary & Silversmithing – Richard Good | |
| X | Secretary – Michelle Wilcox | X | Mineral – Ray Kizer |
| X | Past President – Nancy English | X | Paleontology – Mike Dawkins |
| X | Web & Show – Scott Singleton |
Call to order (upon achieving a quorum) at 7:31 pm there are voting members in attendance. Non-voting members present: Nancy English, Leah Wilcox
Motioned by LT Wilcox ; 2nd by Sharon Halton Approved: Yeas Eight Nays 0
President’s Comments:
- Officer vote: Appointed positions were voted in on November 26, 2024, as follows:
- President – LT Wilcox
- VP1 – John Moffitt
- VP2 – Sarah Metsa
- Treasurer – Rhett Cooper
- Secretary – Nancy English
- The treasurer and secretary will be added to the bank accounts effective January 1, 2025, Rhett Cooper(treasurer) and Nancy English(secretary).
- LT discussed whether to have an individual or a company handle the bookkeeping position, and which option would be better. Michele Marsel will be leaving the position at the end of December. It was decided that we would wait until January to make the final decision on this matter.
- We are looking to fill the office position of Publicity. Michele will also be stepping down from this effective end of December. If anyone knows of someone to recommend, please let the board know.
Treasurer’s Report:
- Account balances are listed in the spreadsheet. We just transferred over
$55,000 out of the Chase business checking account.
- The reason we have the Live Oak savings account is because it gets a much better interest rate than the other banks, at 4 and a half percent.
- Live Oak bank interest earned for November was $783.
- We ended the year, at this point, in the green on the budget, which is a great accomplishment.
Membership Report:
Old Business:
- We need to set up a painting date for volunteers to come and help paint the front of the building ourselves, instead of hiring a big company to do the job. I would like us to complete it sometime between December 14 – January 12.
- The holiday party is set for Saturday, December 14, 2024
- Work is needed on the bylaws to add a few changes, both, in the way we do discounts and update the treasurer description to include the bookkeeper, which was already sent to Michele for review.
New Business:
- Elliot Payne would like to become a shop foreman for Sundays. LT will be in charge of certifying him for the job of shop foreman. LT will also be in charge of certifying others to be shop foremen for now until a shop manager is set into the position to take over.
- Suggestions were made to set up shop managers over the different sections so there would be a responsible party that oversees the activities in those areas’ rooms. AKA jewelry shop manager, Lapidary shop manager, and so forth.
- Approval of buying a clubhouse laptop, or two, that can stay at the clubhouse so it can be used for meetings and presentations. This would run between $1,200-$1,800.
Motion made by Mike Dawkins and 2nd by Turner Whitham
Yeas Eight Nays 0
Motion approved
Section and Committee Reports:
- Volunteer Committee: N/A
- Show Committee: N/A
- Program Committee:
- Day Light Section:
The new Day Light Section chairman is Linda Krzywicki.
Nancy Searle has been the daylight section chairman for four years and is stepping down. She has done a terrific job these last four years.
- Gemstones and Faceting:
Randy Carlson is stepping down as chairman for the facet section. He has done a great job over the last year.
Turner Whitham will be taking over the Gemstones & Faceting chairman.
Adjourn
Motion to adjourn the Board of Directors Meeting: 1st by LT Wilcox and 2nd by Sarah Metsa The meeting adjourned at 9:11 pm.
Approved: Yeas Nays 0
HGMS General Meeting Minutes
There was no General Meeting in December! Instead, we held our HGMS Holiday Party Potluck Dinner and Auction on Saturday on December 14.
The brisket and turkey from Feges Barbecue was excellent, and every one brought a side dish or dessert. We set up starting at 5:00 at the Unitarian Fellowship on Wirt Road, and by 6:00 it was party time. Everyone had a great time and we had a good auction, with some interesting pieces.
Upcoming Shows
Fredericksburg Rockhounds Annual Show
01/18/2025 – 01/19/2025
Sat. 9:00am – 6:00pm, Sun. 10:00 – 4:00pm
Pioneer Pavilion, Lady Bird Johnson Park, Hwy. 16 South
Fredericksburg, TX
contact Frank Rowell, (325) 248-1067
East Texas Gem & Mineral Society
01/24/2025 – 01/25/2025
Fri. 9:00 – 5:00, Sat. 10:00 – 6:00, Sun. 10:00 – 4:00
Rose Garden Center, 420 Rose Park Drive, Tyler, TX
contact Margaret Kilanski, etgms.org
Clear Lake Gem and Mineral Society Annual Show
02/22/2025 – 02/23/2025
Sat. 10:00 – 6:00, Sun. 10:00 – 5:00
Pasadena Convention Center,
7902 Fairmont Pkwy, Pasadena TX.
Support our sister club!