April 2015

Diamond

WEST SEATTLE PETROGLYPHS

Mike Wall, Editor P.O. Box 16145 Seattle, WA 98116

email: mike_wall@yahoo.com

Monthly Bulletin of the West Seattle Rock Club, Inc.

Seattle, Washington

Our Club:

Practices the Rockhound Code of Ethics

Website:

http://www.westseattlerockclub.org

April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 1

Volume 50, Number 4

Meetings:

Visitors are always welcome!

WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB, INC. Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 16145, Seattle, WA 98116

The purpose of this Club is to promote the study and enjoyment of the Lapidary Arts with good Rock-hounding and good fellowship; and to further education and lapidary skills for all; to conduct field trips for exploration and collection of minerals, gems, rocks and fossils; to promote shows and displays; to publish a monthly periodical known as West Seattle PETROGLY PHS relating to club activities.

COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS (2015):

2015 Show Chairperson Programs Refreshments/Hospitality Historian Field Trips

Webmaster

AFFILIATED WITH:

Northwest Federation & American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Seattle Regional Gem and Mineral Show Committee

Washington State Mineral Council ALAA – American Lands Access Association

Meetings are held on the Fourth Wednesday of each month, except for November which is the THIRD Wednesday and no meetings in July and December

The meetings are held in Adams Hall of the Tibbetts United Methodist Church 3940 41st S.W. (corner of 41st S.W. and S.W. Andover Street) Seattle, WA

6:00 PM – Junior Meeting 7:00 PM – Adult Meeting Dues are: $20.00 first year (including name badge), then: $10.00 per adult member per year or $15.00 for 2 adults in same family, $3.00 per junior member per year

VISITORS ARE INVITED AND ARE ALWAYS WELCOME TO ALL MEETINGS

All material in this Bulletin may be reprinted if properly credited - Exchange Bulletins are most welcome.

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OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2015):

President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Federation Director Director at Large Mineral Council Reps Seattle Regional Reps Newsletter - Editor Current Past President

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Bo Jeffers Richard Babcock Barry Nevin Diane Christensen Audrey Vogelpohl Audrey Vogelpohl Ken Schmidt Leroy Christensen Lyle Vogelpohl Mike Wall Michael O’Clair

(206) 248-1475 (206) 326-8951 (253) 945-7735 (206) 582-2267 (206) 932-3292 (206) 932-3292 (206) 932-3626 (206) 582-2267 (206) 932-3292 (206) 935-4953 (206) 938-1541

Leroy Christensen <Vice President> <Open> <Open> <Open> Donn Ullery

(206) 582-2267 <Vice President>

<Open> <Open> <Open>

(206) 633-0721

April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 2

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CLUB CALENDAR

April 22, 2014

Junior Meeting (6:00 pm)

Program: Show Preparation

General Meeting (7:00 pm)

Program: Protocol for the Show and Stuffing grab bags with tumbled rock

Show & Tell: Bring your favorite rock for show & tell

Not Available At Press Time

PRESIDENT’S

MESSAGE

WHAT’S INSIDE

Club Calendar 3

President’s Message 3

Hello Junior Rock Stars! 3

Congratulations Keir Hichens 3

What’s Inside 3

General Meeting Minutes – March 4

April Refreshments 6

Door Prizes Needed 6

New Wilderness Areas in Montana ... 6

May Board Meeting 6

Show Setup Potluck 6

WSRC Member News 7

Oz and Bowie’s Science Olympiad Team 7

Cutting Ethiopian Opal 7

The Ruby 9

Shop Tips 9

Field Trips 10

Rock Shows 10

April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 3

Props/decorations to include in display if desired Junior-Hosted Activities for Show

Bean Bag Toss

Supply Cardboard targets - (Eliot Forrest’s from last year? New one?)

Spinning Wheel

Treasure Dig - rice or sand (check with Diane)

Kids’ auction

Additional games or activities? Suggestions? In Rock Solidarity ~ April Hichens Jrs WSRC Facilitator

HELLO JUNIOR ROCK

STARS! We are in the final stretch!!! Our annual rock and gem show, Earth’s Treasures, is right around the cor-ner! Mark your calendars for April 25-26 at the Alki Masonic Center, 4736 40th Ave. SW. If you’ve not yet signed up to put together a case, there is still time! Audrey will have the sign-up sheets available at our upcoming meeting, or you can email her directly at avogelpohl@comcast.net to re-serve yours!! Again, cases will be judged as an entry in one of five categories: self-collected specimens, minerals, educa-tional, lapidary, or fossils. Juniors can decide on their own case's theme. The Juniors meeting time will be used to answer any remaining questions regarding your own cases, and determining our own roles during the show. Sign-up sheets for the various shifts and duties will be circu-lated among the Juniors and their parents (<= during the meeting time, along with identifying additional projects in support of the show that can be done at home. Traditionally, the Juniors have done a bang-up job in fulfilling these roles: Your Display Case - checklist!

Specimens labeled - name, date found/purchased/given to you, location

Nameplate with Junior’s name, age, school (if applicable)

Completed risers

CONGRATULATIONS

KEIR HICHENS A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Keir. He is a coauthor on a research paper resulting from the find of a new species of insect at Stonerose. It is in the latest Northwest Paleontology newsletter. Way to go Keir! Thanks for bringing this to our attention Barry.

WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB –

GENERAL MEETING MINUTES March 25, 2014

Business

The meeting was called to order by President Bo Jeffers.

Annette Nelson reported there were 22 adult members, 12 junior members and 5 guests present. Jim and Sylvia Ewins, Laura Jones, Cooper Legler, John Wingle and Dan Zucker won the door prizes.

Bo then asked if there were any additions or corrections to the last minutes printed in the Petroglyphs. There were several amendments to be made.

1. Mike Blanton mentioned there is no collecting in any parks, and that the 25 pounds per person per day and the 250 pounds log per year are allowed on public lands only. (In the February Petroglyphs it was unclear on where you can collect material).

2. Diane Christensen also mentioned that the show is at the Masonic Temple (not the VFW) on April 25th and 26th.

April Hichens junior advisor informed the members that the junior’s are working on the showman badge. In order to get this badge you must put in a display case at our show. Also if you're looking for your badge book, April found one. (Contact April if it is yours).

Audrey Vogelpohl has the sheet to sign up for display cases, she also has information regarding displaying cas-es to give to the parents of the juniors.

Show Information Audrey then indicated who the demonstrators will be at our show. There are 10 federation cases and lots of regional cases available to display your rocks. There will be five dealers at the show as well. We also are in need of door prizes. Bo volunteered to be the contact person if there's anything you would like to contribute (for door prizes).

A big thank you goes out to Christine and Caitlin Gilman for making a hundred grab bags and to everyone else who also made grab bags.

There will be waffles with strawberries in the morning and other food available to purchase for lunch at the show.

Bo went through the list of field trips and shows coming up in the near future. Audrey also stated that she had information on collecting material in BC. (You will need an enhanced driver’s license or a passport).

Audrey made it known that membership books will be available at the next meeting for purchase.

Audrey mentioned that the Northwest Federation will have their semiannual meeting in Ogden Utah. Lyle Vo-gelpohl mentioned that Bob Jones, editor of Rock and Gem will be the speaker Saturday night in Ogden. The field trips available in Utah are listed in the Petroglyphs.

Mike Wall, editor mentioned that he received several articles from club members to put in the Petroglyphs.

LeRoy Christensen, Mineral Council representative said there were two house bills submitted regarding “digging” but they are not out of the house yet. If 6-8 people call/text or e-mail their representative, the issue at hand would show some interest. It was also mentioned that our Club should set up a field trip for members only, perhaps looking for crystal (near the top of Snoqualmie pass) or material near Greenwater.

Lyle Vogelpohl said the Resource Coalition used 700 gallons of water and floated a dredge, started the dredge, and showed that motorized dredges do not cause any damage, and we want to maintain access to lands.

We received a letter from Shelton Rock and Mineral regarding a “rock swap” where you can swap/sell rocks and used equipment. The date is 5-15-2015 in Shelton at the Mason soccer field. Cost is $15 if pre-paid, and $20 at the gate, if you want to sell material. There is no cost if you are just buying material.

Mike Blanton noticed that we only announce the shows listed on the Mineral Council website, which are Feder-ation shows. Why don’t we announce non-federation shows? This was tabled, and will be discussed at the

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April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 5

Board meeting.

The next Board meeting will be 4-1-2015 at Elliott Bay Brewery at 7 pm.

Bo reminded the members to sign-up for refreshments for our meetings. Go to Sign up Genuis.com

Show and Tell

Lyle Vogelpohl – brought four stunning cabs he made at the Rockhound Retreat. The thunder egg will be the displayers’ prize.

Lola Smith – brought some attractive rose quartz, pyrite, onyx and one with eyes she calls “Cat”

Audrey Vogelpohl – brought treasures in beautiful purple amethyst, a goblet with rock on it, and some rough and finished jewelry

Laura Jones – brought a wonderful minerals kit from Jerry’s Rock Shop, which had copper, pyrite, sele-nite and many other materials in it. Her favorite one looks like a diamond

Ezra Babcock – brought a pretty Imperial jasper that he got from a raffle

Rich Babcock – brought pieces of display stands to show your material. Some were made of filler rod (normally used for welding), PCV pipe and some elegant slabs

Molly LeBlanc – brought a display case with elegant minerals including some apache tears, sandstone and some agates

Joe LeBlanc – brought a “Detroit agate” that had numerous layers of paint on it, so it appeared to be amazing rock

Diane Christensen – brought a rock display that was a round acrylic stand with a charming thunder egg on it

Cooper Legler – brought some impressive rainbow obsidian from Glass Butte and ½ geode with ame-thyst in it

JoAnn Churchman – brought an astounding agate that Mike Blanton drilled a hole in and a turquoise blue necklace

Mike Blanton – brought some incredible rock clothes pins that he displayed in a competition (and got 92 points)

Ken Schmidt – brought some marvelous material to share with club members

Diane Christensen won the drawing.

Program

Lyle Vogelpohl demonstrated several different risers to use in your display case. It is best to pick a theme (like crystals) and usually a neutral background works best. Only display your best pieces, do not display all of them.

Sometimes a black or red background works better for showing off your material. You can use risers for the choice items. Risers can be made of Styrofoam as well as other materials. Put pictures or narratives on the back board. Label your items and make sure the print is large enough to read. You can use commercial stands, or make your own. If you display your material “up-right” you can see through it.

To determine how much space you have in your case, take a 2x4 towel and use that as an approximate size of the bottom of a display case. Set up your display and determine if more material is needed or if you have too much material. You want to make sure that all the pieces can be seen.

The meeting was adjourned, and refreshments were served. Respectfully Submitted, Diane Christensen WSRC Secretary

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NEW WILDERNESS

AREAS IN MONTANA AND

THE REASON WHY by Tom Noe, adapted from the ALAA Newsletter,

Oct-Dec 2014

Tom Noe, an ALAA Director from the Midwest creates these short items for editors to use in their club bulletins. If you, as an editor, would like to get on the list to receive this monthly information directly, contact <info@amlands.org> and leave your name, club and e-mail information.

New Wilderness Areas in Montana and the Reason Why. A News Report from: Citizens for Balanced Use (summarized)

Citizens for Balanced Use (CBU) has always been opposed to new wilderness and “land of no use,” and we will continue to fight for multiple-use recreation, active forest management, and responsible resource development on our current federally managed public lands. Maybe it is time to start an orderly transfer of these public lands back to the states—for us to effectively manage them in a way that benefits our state and our communities.

The Defense Spending Bill was a must-pass piece of legislation and legislators attached their pork in order to pass some things they wanted. Senator McCain was the first. His bill opened a large copper mine in

DOOR PRIZES NEEDED

We need additional door prizes for our show in April. Please bring any you wish to donate to our April meeting. Thanks for your support.

APRIL

REFRESHMENTS

To access the site and sign up for bringing snacks and/or drinks go to:

http://www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090C4AAEAA2DAA8-snacks/20750703

There are still a couple open spots in May, so please signup if you have not already.

Here is who has signed up for April:

Snacks: Emily Brune (15-20) & Mary Rider (15-20) Drinks: Valerie Legler (30-40)

SHOW SETUP/POTLUCK

The show is almost upon us and to kickoff the fun is Friday Setup and Potluck. Setup will be happening all day Friday, 4/24, so please stop by to help. The Potluck will start at 6 pm, so please plan to bring your favorite dish. After a long day of setup we will all be hungry. We should have a signup sheet at the next meeting. Brooke Wagner has agreed to host so please contact her if you have any questions.

his state, producing 6,000 new jobs. Then the environmental groups got enraged about that and wanted something in return. So Senator Tester added his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, setting aside another 650,000 acres of new wilderness in Montana.

CBU worked hard to have this added piece of legislation removed and in the end Congressman Daines succeeded. But in return for removing the FJRA, the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act was inserted. It adds approximately 67,000 acres to two wilderness areas and designates roughly 208,000 acres of adjacent federal land as Conservation Man-agement Areas. The bill protects existing agricultural uses, prohibits management of a buffer zone to the Conservation Management Area, and protects valid and existing mineral rights, among other things.

Are we happy? No. But it could have been worse.

CBU is very disappointed in how Congress jammed these bills into a must-pass Defense Spending Bill. We are saddened for the people close to the Rocky Mountain Front because of the further restrictions and closures they received. We are angry that these politi-cal stunts are pulled and we are frustrated by all the thousands of miles driven and the hundreds of hours spent by our members and supporters in fighting this bad legislation. The Rocky Mountain Front wilderness bill was opposed by local government, recreation, agriculture and resource groups. In the end we lost. If we had more control over these lands, rather than the D.C. bureaucrats, these actions would not occur.

ALAA is the lobbying arm of the American Fed-eration, working on behalf of rockhounds to keep public lands open and accessible to all, including the elderly and handicapped. (via The AFMS Newsletter, 4/15; via ALAA Newsletter 10-12/15)

MAY BOARD MEETING

The May Board Meeting will be held at the Vogel-pohls' on Wednesday May 6th at 7:00 pm.

April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 7

WSRC –

MEMBER NEWS

April Birthdays

White Topaz/Zircon/Diamond - for the adventurous, dynamic and energetic. If your impatient pursuit of excellence or desire to control your own environment often leads you down a restless path, wear one of these power stones to help you see the big picture and bring love and balance in abundance.

1 - Jessie Weiland 4 - Lucie O'Clair 9 - April Hichens 12 - Jason Durante 14 - Rosa Lefkowicz 14 - Joe Moushey 23 - Christina Gilman 25 - Keir Hichens 29 - Eliot Forrest May Birthdays

Emerald with its bright green precious qualities pro-motes your being patient, determined and warm-hearted. Wearing emerald helps you remember the important stuff and practice flexibility to make the right actions.

5 - Judy Ayers 5 - Molly Le Blanc 11 - Bowie Hichens 11 - Ken Schmidt 14 - Kate Flanagan 24 - Cooper Legler 25 - Diane Christensen

Audrey

OZ AND BOWIE’S

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

TEAM By April Hitchens

Congratulations and good luck to Bowie and Oz Hichens! Their Science Olympiad team, Evergreen Science, has qualified to compete at the Science Olympiad WA State tournament on April 18th at Highline Community College by placing 2nd overall out of 16 teams at their regional tournament in Feb.

Science Olympiad is a national non-profit organiza-tion dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 sci-ence education, increasing interest in science among a diverse population of students, creating a technolog-ically-literate workforce and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students & teachers.

Evergreen Science is an independent homeschooled 6th-9th grade Science Olympiad team with an active parent base that serves as coaches for the 23 events in which the team members compete collaboratively. The team meets once a week and multiple times throughout the week with individual event partners throughout the academic year.

Science Olympiad is structured around a competition based on 23 events with 2-3 team members compet-ing together on each event. Bowie’s events include “Crave the Wave”, a test event which is about the physics of any type of wave including electromagnet-ic, sound, seismic and oceanic; “RoboCross,” a "build" event requiring building a robot that must pick up objects and place them in specific quadrants dur-ing a 3-minute timed trial; and “Picture This”, a Pic-tionary-style test using only scientific words. Oz also competes with Bowie in "Picture This", along with our friend and past WSRC member, Alex Lee. Oz’s other events include “Dynamic Planet,” a '"test" event on physical oceanography (e.g., ocean layers, coral reef formation, salinity, currents, tectonics, oceano-graphic tools, etc.); and “Bottle Rockets,” another build event using empty soda bottles in making a rocket that is shot into the air with air pressure and water. The rocket that stays aloft longest wins.

Wish these boys and their 13 teammates the best of luck on their upcoming competition. The top team will advance to Nationals, being held in Lincoln, Ne-braska on May 12-14!

CUTTING ETHIOPIAN

OPAL

The new opal deposit in Ethiopia, in Welo Province in the north of the country, is producing spectacular crystal opal displaying very bright play-of-colors in a variety of patterns. The opals in this new deposit, discovered in 2008, are nodule-like stones in an unu-sual variety… where some stones resemble top Mexi-can fire opal with excellent play-of-color, others re-semble subtle dreamlike stones from Brazil and many resemble bright crystal opal from the Andamooka opal field of South Australia. It’s quite easy to be-come enamored with this opal.

Most of the opal from Welo is hydrophane opal. Hy-drophane opal quickly absorbs water and the opal’s base color appearance changes, becoming very clear. The play-of-color, though not entirely disappearing, fades out. But luckily this is only a temporary prob-lem … when the opal is allowed to air-dry for 3-4 days, almost like magic, the body color and play-of-color return to normal. Some of this opal becomes white when going through its drying process … but it too returns to its normal crystal or semi-crystal state,

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April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 8

although it may take a few days longer to become clear again and for the play-of-color brightness to return.

Please read the following procedure carefully before cutting this opal!

Cabbing: When cutting this material I use Elmer’s Glue-All to glue the stone to a 1/4" x 5" long wooden dop stick. Let the stone dry overnight, then coat the non-waterproof glue with a coating of clear fingernail polish to make it waterproof. Avoid using dopping wax … especially if the opal has been exposed to and has absorbed water. Cracks can appear between the clear hydrophane portion of the opal and the still fiery portion of the opal, when partially wetted opal is heat-ed. So be aware that this material can be VERY heat sensitive. I use a 220-grit diamond grinding dry wheel to rough grind the stone… dry. Opal’s relatively soft and a 220-grit diamond wheel cuts fast enough and also doesn’t leave the deep scratches (and won’t be as likely to chip) that an 80 or 100-grit wheel will… especially when working dry. Watch for heat and dust (you might want to use a mask if you’re doing a lot of opal cutting… opal dust can cause silicosis), but with light pressure on a diamond wheel, opal doesn’t heat much. But it is important to check your stone’s tem-perature often.

I like to do the rough grinding dry, allowing the stones play-of-color to stay bright, to properly orient and rough shape the stone (if the stone has a uniform fire pattern throughout… orienting is not a problem & rough grinding can be done wet). But once that is completed I go to my normal water-cooled method of opal cutting using a 320 grit belt, on an expanding drum… for final shaping of the stone. And 600-grit will remove any leftover flat spots and course scratch-es… then onto 1200-grit and 3000-grit with a final polish using a mix of tin oxide and Linde A (10:1 ratio)… or 14,000 grit diamond. If you’d like, a disk with 50,000-grit diamond will give you a super final polish. Remove the fingernail polish coating by swirl-ing in a jar with acetone in it for about 20 seconds (careful acetone is VERY flammable). Soak in a glass of water for 2-3 hours and the stone should fall off of the dop stick. If not let the stone soak overnight. I’ve never had a problem releasing the opal if it is allowed to soak in water overnight.

One weakness these stones seem to have is sensitivity to pressure… they can easily crack with anything more than moderate pressure. Unfortunately the cracking can place right down the middle of the stone. This isn’t a crazing problem as you might find in Australian or Mexican opals, but a tendency to be fragile as you might find when cutting garnets. It’s especially noticed when flattening the backs of cabo-chons on a flat lap. So please use caution when grind-ing and sanding these gems… and a slow gentle touch

(Continued from page 7) is okay as opals are a relatively soft stone that easily responds to abrasives.

Drying Welo Opals: Here in Billings the air is very dry and Welo opals return to their original bright col-orful state after drying for 2-3 days. But to accelerate the drying time I use a quart Mason jar 1/2 full of sili-ca gel desiccant. Leave the stones in the jar overnight and in most cases the stones have returned to their original color and brightness. I’ve recently spoken to an opal customer who lives in a very humid area and his cut Welos have taken an extended time to return to their original bright colorful condition after wet cutting. His solution sounds scary… but he’s had good luck (a dozen good stones at this writing). He uses a programmable burnout oven and sets the tem-perature for 65-70 degrees Celsius. He programs the heating cycle to warm at 2C/minute and leaves the stone at temperature for 1 hour and then allows the stones to cool down naturally. He says his stones have dried beautifully without a problem.

Another opal cutter has come up with an effective and less expensive method of drying his stones. He uses a desk lamp with a 60 watt incandescent bulb (standard round bulb, not spot light) and positions his stones about 10"-12" below the bulb… very gently heating the stones overnight.

Dry Cabbing: This procedure isn’t for the faint of heart as it’s still not a proven method of cutting We-lo opal… so beware and be VERY careful of heat build-up. I’ve been experimenting with cutting this opal completely dry… except for moistening the polishing wheel slightly, when using tin oxide or cerium oxide on leather, to improve the polish. Tin or cerium doesn’t seem to work well completely dry. But diamond compound with a bit of baby oil or extender fluid, should be fine for polishing… perhaps better than tin or cerium (I’m just old fash-ioned and I have a lot of tin oxide). I dop the stone to the wooden dowel using Elmer’s Glue-all, as previously mentioned, but no fingernail polish is needed as this is essentially cutting dry. Again… watch carefully for heat buildup… this opal can be very heat sensitive. And if you are using Nova wheels or expanding drums with diamond/resin bonding: beware of sharp edges on your stones peel-ing off the abrasive coating on the wheels or belts… water provides lubrication for the belts and wheels so this will decrease your diamond abrasive wheel life. There is a LOT of dust coming off the stones and this can be dangerous as it causes silicosis!! Be sure to at least wear a good dust mask. The results cabbing dry have been encouraging… no color change to wait on. But the jury is still out… need to cut a few more stones to see how well this works on a variety of Welo opal types. To remove the stones from the dop sticks I simply use a fine jewelers saw

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April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 9

SHOP TIPS

Editor’s Note: Shop tips featured in this bulletin have not been evaluated for safety or reliability. Please use caution and common sense when trying out any new idea.

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Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks - by T. Vasseur

I’ve been making jewelry on and off for 20 years using fine iron wire to hold items together for soldering. When you bring the flame on the piece, especially a hot oxyacetylene flame, the iron wire can get hot enough to oxidize and melt before the solder flows into the joint you had wired tight. It never occurred to me that if you doubled up the iron wire and twisted it, it would hold better and withstand the flame almost twice as long as a single wire. I cut the wire off the spool, bring the two ends together and give them a couple of twists. Then I put the twisted end in a small vice and tighten it, slip a tooth pick in the loop at the other end and wind it up like one of those old rubber band balsa airplanes.

(via The Tumbler, 3/15; via The Agatizer, 3/15)

to cut the stones off of the sticks, at the stone-stick glue interface. Then sand off any extra wood or glue on fine (400-600 grit) wet/dry sanding cloth or a dry flat lap… checking often for heat.

Carving: If you plan to carve this opal (it carves wonderfully) and are using syringes filled with color-coded diamond paste, beware of the color staining the opal. I’ve switched to mixing my own diamond com-pound (1200, 3000 and 14,000 grits) with a mixture of diamond powder and clear baby oil… it’s even a bit cheaper… and it smells better. If you want it thicker add a bit of Vaseline and stir well… or for a different consistency, I’ve heard that melted bees-wax or Crisco has worked well. I like to carve this material using a combination of diamond/metal bonded grinding points, Cratex points (coarse, medium fine and extra-fine) for sanding and diamond compound on bullet shaped felt points… dry. When working dry, using these techniques, you won’t have the color change problems associated with working wet. I’ve found that as long as I’m VERY careful with heat… checking the stone’s temp often… this opal can be successfully cut dry. But it is heat sensitive, like other opals, so care must be taken working without water.

Keep in mind this is just one of many cutting tech-niques that will accomplish the same result… a beauti-ful, well cut opal cabochon. The important things to remember are: cut slowly, avoid over-heating your stones, smooth out flat areas and polish your opals well… checking carefully for scratches.

(via The Tumbler, 5/13; via Roc Toc, 4/11)

Editor Note: Here are a few pictures of Welo opal:

THE RUBY

by Odessa Durante, WSRC Junior Member

While all my friends surrounded themselves in a sea of pink, I always gravitated towards the color red. You could say it’s my signature color. So it’s not a surprise one of my favorite gemstones is a ruby, prized for its deep red color.

The word ruby originates from the Latin word which means red. Did you know that the color is mainly caused by the presence of chromium? The price of rubies depends on the color, origin, size and clarity. The color of a ruby varies from pink to blood-red. The darker the stone the more expensive it can be.

This beautiful gemstone symbolizes the sun, freedom, and power. A ruby also inspires self-confidence, trust and willingness. The Buddhist considers the ruby to be a sacred gemstone which they refer to as “the tears of Buddha”.

I am lucky to own a few of these beautiful gemstones. I found them in Phillipsburg, MT. in mine gravel. I will keep my rubies uncut because I think they’re more beautiful in the rough. I hope you enjoyed learn-ing about rubies. Sources: The Pocket Book of Stones page 249, Wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby

How Can You Help

Your Federation: Save stamps and give to our club treasurer. Your Hobby: Join ALAA. - Contact Lyle Vogelpohl

Other: Volunteer to teach beginners what you are good at.

To Learn More About ...

Cabbing … contact Lyle Vogelpohl … (206) 932-3292

2015 SHOWS

Apr 25 10am-5pm West Seattle Rock Club – Earth’s Treasures - Annual Show Apr 26 10am-5pm Alki Masonic Temple, 4736 40th Ave SW, Seattle, WA May 2 10am-6pm Everett Rock & Gem Club – Annual Show May 3 10am-5pm Everett Comm. College, Student Fitness Ctr., 2206 Tower St., Everett, Wa

Jun 5 10am-5pm Puyallup Valley Gem and Mineral Club – Annual Show Jun 6 10am-5pm Swiss Park, 9205 198th Avenue East, Bonney Lake, Wa Jun 7 10am-5pm

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See the Northwest Newsletter for additional show listings and times. Available online at: http://www.amfed.org/nfms/documents/NorthwestNewsletter/NW0315.PDF

April 2015 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 10

2015 FIELD TRIPS

Apr 25 Marysville Rock & Gem Club Field Trip – Racehorse Creek – 9:00 @ IGA at Nugents Corner –

Fossils – Dig & Light hard rock tools - contact Ed Lehman— wsmced@hotmail.com (425) 334-6282 or (425) 760-2786

May 23 Ellensburg Rock Club Field Trip – Saddle Mt. (Mattawa, WA) – 9:00 @ Mattawa – Petrified

Wood – Dig & Light hard rock tools - contact Steve Townsend—srtrocks@aol.com (509) 933-2236

June 15 Spokane Rock Rollers Field Trip – Emerald Creek – 9:00 @ Emerald Creek Star Garnet Area, Idaho – Tweezers - contact Mike Shaw — mikeshawmoose@yahoo.com —509-244-8542

June 21-24 Spokane Rock Rollers Field Trip – McDermitt, NV – Call – Picture Jasper, Petrofied Wood, Agate, Thundereggs – Dig & Light hard rock tools - contact Mike Shaw — mikeshawmoose@yahoo.com —509-244-8542

————————————————————————————————————— See WSMC http://www.mineralcouncil.org/FieldTrips_2015.pdf for additional field trips and details