MGMS Newsletter

July 2014 Part 1 P.O. Box 5043 Midland, Texas 79704 - Shop: (432) 687-6467

Midland Gem & Mineral Socie ty

“Explore , Discover and Craf t the Wonders o f Nature”

Website: MidlandGemAndMineral .org E-mai l: mgmstx@gmail .com

Upcoming Events

SUMMER SOCIAL AND

GENERAL MEETING:

Thursday, July 24 at 6:00 pm-

Mabee Hall in the Junior

League of Midland Building,

902 West Dengar Avenue

BOARD MEETING: Tues-

day, August 5 at 7:00 pm-the

New MGMS Shop at 602

South Main Street

MIDLAND COUNTY FAIR:

Thursday, August 21 through

Sunday, August 24 at the

Midland Horseshoe Arena

Complex (see page 2 for info.)

MONDAY NIGHT OPEN

SHOP: Mondays at 6:30 pm

to 9:00 pm - New MGMS

Shop at 602 South Main

Street. ALL MEMBERS AND

VISITORS ARE WELCOME

Affiliations: South Central & American Federations of Mineralogical Societies

July Summer Social & General Meeting: Thursday, July 24 Meeting Location: Mabee Hall, Junior League of Midland Building

This month we are changing the meeting location to the Mabee Hall inside the

Junior League of Midland building for the Thursday, July 24 Summer Social.

The Junior League of Midland building is located at 902 West Dengar Avenue.

Directions from SOUTH & SOUTHEAST MIDLAND: Traveling north on North

“A” Street, turn left onto Dengar Avenue (the street right past the True Lite Chris-

tian Fellowship Church). Drive past the C.O.M. Swim Shop, Mabee Memorial

Aquatic Center and Greathouse Building. The next building will be the Junior

League of Midland building. Drive all the way to the back of the building and park

in the parking lot back there. Walk up the covered walkway, going straight ahead,

until it ends. At the left is the entrance, “Door C.” Directions from NORTH &

NORTHWEST MIDLAND: Traveling east on West Wadley Avenue, turn right

onto North “A” Street (the intersection located right after the Solutions LaserWash

car wash and before Michael’s Charcoal Grill). Turn right onto Dengar Avenue.

Drive past the C.O.M. Swim Shop, Mabee Memorial Aquatic Center and Great-

house Building. The next building will be the Junior League of Midland building.

Drive all the way to the back of the building and park in the parking lot back there.

Walk up the covered walkway, going straight ahead, until it ends. At the left is the

entrance, “Door C.”

Thursday, July 24 Summer Social & General Meeting...

FOOD, FOLKS and ROCKHOUND BINGO!!!

Members can begin to bring food at 5:00 or 5:30pm, but we won’t start eating until

6:00. Please bring sandwiches, salads, veggies or desserts. We furnish tea, coffee,

lemonade and water, otherwise, you will need to bring your own (non-

alcoholic) beverage with you. After a short meeting, we will have

Rockhound Bingo. This is our own version of

bingo - no money involved. Just bring slabs, cabs,

minerals, fossils, jewelry, or what have you to get

your bingo cards if you want to play. All mem-

bers, spouses, guests & visitors welcome!

Junior League of Midland bldg.

Greathouse Bldg.

▲Mabee Memorial Aquatic Center ▲ C.O.M. Swim Shop

The back of the Junior League of Midland

building as seen from the parking lot. Entrance “Door C” to Mabee Hall

CLASS ENCOUNTERS

Diplomas have been awarded

to the following members who

have successfully completed

Basic Lapidary: Linda Page,

Susan May, Lorna Miedema,

and Linda Johnson.

We will staff our booth all 4 days of

the fair, Thursday through Sunday,

August 21 - 24. Our booth will be

indoors. We will need people who

can demonstrate lapidary, faceting,

chain maille jewelry making and

wirewrapping. We also need people

to tell the public about our organi-

zation and what we have to offer,

and answer questions about Mid-

land Gem and Mineral Society. If

you have questions or want to vol-

unteer to help out any time during

these 4 days, call Herman Jones at

(432) 694-2142 or (432) 520-7313.

Please remember to WEAR YOUR

GREEN VEST & NAME BADGE

Sunshine Corner By Herman Jones 694-2142 or 520-7313

PAGE 2 MGMS NEWSLETTER

The Midland Horseshoe

Arena Complex

August 21 - 24

Thurs. & Fri.: 5 pm - 10 pm

Saturday: 12 noon - 10 pm

Sunday: 12 noon - 7 pm

Anna Richardson fell on Tuesday,

June 17 near a store entrance and

received cuts & bruises on her

eyes and face. She has just about a

complete recovery from it.

David Richardson can get into a

wheelchair and move around in it

now. He has a little improvement

in his voice. He is still at Madison

Medical Resort in Odessa. You

may send cards and letters to this

address: 1448 Tanglewood Lane,

Odessa, Texas 79761

Carmen Lopez had a follow-up

check-up on her other hand sur-

gery on Wednesday, June 25 and

found everything doing fine.

Craig Tellinghuisen had right hip

replacement surgery on Tuesday,

July 8 at Midland Memorial Hos-

pital. He went home Thursday,

July 10 and is recovering nicely.

Join us as we bid farewell to

MGMS members Jeffrey and

Katrina Cornell, who will be

moving to Deming, New Mex-

ico. They will be the new own-

ers of the Red Roof Rock Shop.

This contest is open to all currently paid members. There are 4 catego-

ries: Lapidary, Silversmithing, Wire Wrap and Chain Maille Jewelry.

There are no specific project requirements of making a certain item.

NOTE: Silversmithing, Wire Wrap & Chain Maille entries are not re-

quired to have a stone or stones as part of the piece, however, if a stone

or stones ARE a part of the piece entered in the contest, they must have

also been worked by the person making the piece. You can enter all four

categories, but only one entry in each category per month. EACH

MONTH there will be a winner for each category chosen for which there

has been an entry. MGMS members will vote on the pieces entered dur-

ing the refreshment break of each monthly general meeting. All monthly

winners will have their names entered into a drawing for the Grand Prize,

which is a TBA. Contest runs May - October 2014. QUESTIONS? Call

Bill Halepeska at 432-694-5945.

MGMS Lapidary, Silversmithing, Wire Wrap and Chain Maille Jewelry Contest

Bob

Turner

Lapidary

Thomas Bauer

Chain Maille

Jewelry

June Contest Winners

MIDLAND COUNTY FAIR

MGMS 2014 Member List

The 2014 Midland Gem & Mineral

Society member list has been sent

out to all currently paid members

by e-mail. Copies are also avail-

able at meetings. If you didn’t get

a member list by e-mail:

(1) Check your “Junk Mail” or

“Spam” folder of your e-mail pro-

gram. The e-mail containing the

member list was sent by Daniel

Jones from mgmstx@gmail.com.

(2) Make certain that we have your

up-to-date, correct e-mail address.

Send your e-mail address to Daniel

Jones at mgmstx@gmail.com.

(3) This time, the list was sent as

both a “Word” and a “PDF” at-

tachment. If you cannot open the

PDF file, you can download

“Adobe Reader,” free of charge,

from http://get.adobe.com/reader/

TREASURER NEWS On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, Mid-

land Gem and Mineral Society’s

board installed Michele Seymour

(Burns) as Acting Treasurer. Note:

On Monday Night Open Shop, see

Mike Burns, who’ll give payments

to Michele Seymour (Burns).

MGMS NEWSLETTER PAGE 3

Welcome New Members!

Welcome to new member:

Dennis Edwards...welcome!

ATTENTION: FACETERS Midland Faceters Guild will be

meeting at Craig Tellinghuisen’s

home at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday,

July 31. Questions? Contact Craig

at (432) 697-7668.

A great big “THANK YOU!” to

Andrew Kerr, who donated mate-

rial collected from Eagle Pass and

the Gravel Pit rock hunting sites.

MGMS Scharbauer House Project Report

Electrical rough-in is progressing and continues on all floors of the Clarence

Scharbauer House. Thomas Bauer (at left) and James Darby check out

a new recessed light fixture. With a lower ceiling than the ground floor, the

second floor will have recessed light fixtures, as in photo where James

Darby is looking at all of the recessed light fixtures located in the second

floor hallway. As soon as all of the electrical rough-in is completed (it’s

about 85% complete) and passes inspection, we will then begin putting up

the sheetrock for the walls. Have any questions about the Clarence Schar-

bauer House Project? Would you like to volunteer to help? Then call Project

Coordinator James Darby at 432-218-6300.

1

2

Show & Tell: If you have

something that you have made,

collected or need identified,

please bring those items to the

general meeting.

Monday Night Open Shop All members are welcome to stop by

our new shop at 602 South Main

Street on Monday nights to social-

ize, or to volunteer to work on items

for the show, or to work on your

own items. Any member who has

satisfactorily passed any of the

classes is qualified to use any of the

equipment and tools he or she has

used in the classes. In addition, a

qualified member wishing to use

shop equipment must pay an annual

fee of $15.00 plus an hourly fee for

each piece of equipment used.

“BARGAIN NIGHT” is on Monday

nights, with use of ALL equipment

(except 24” saw) only $2.00, from

6:30-9 pm. The Monday night shop

supervisor opens the shop by 6:30

pm; with equipment shut-off at 8:50

pm, and clean-up to follow, so as to

vacate the shop by 9 pm.

Midland Gem & Mineral Society’s

52nd Annual Gem and Mineral

Show will be held Saturday and

Sunday, November 1 & 2, 2014 in

Midland Center at 105 N. Main St.

Visitors are always welcome at

Midland Gem & Mineral Society’s

monthly general meetings, held

from 7:00 - 9:00pm on the 4th

Thursday of each month (except

July, November & December).

The July 24th meeting will be

our annual Summer Social, held

in the Mabee Hall of the Junior

League of Midland building at

902 West Dengar Avenue.

MGMS NEWSLETTER PAGE 4

June 26 General Meeting President Bauer called the meeting to order. Since there

were no corrections or additions, the minutes of the May

22 meeting stood approved as published in the newsletter.

Michele Seymour (Burns) gave the Treasurer’s report for

David Richardson. Guest Dennis Edwards was recog-

nized. Clarence Scharbauer House Project Coordinator,

James Darby, gave the Building Committee report. He

said that the rough-in electrical work in the walls should

be finished soon. He reported that they are about 95% fin-

ished on the framing. He also said that they have a pre-

liminary kitchen layout and a preliminary cost on it, too.

He also reported that our Construction Consultant, Tony

Valles, is looking into getting better prices on the nine

windows that were approved for purchase and installation

by the board. Shop Co-Chair, James Darby, reported that

as soon as they get the table finished and installed, they

will get the other 12” saw out, clean it up and put it next

to the 12” saw that we already have so that more members

will have access to the popular 12” type saw. Herman

Jones gave the Sunshine Chairman report. President Bauer

introduced the second and third 2014 MGMS Scholarship

Award winners, Adam Ball and Levi Bryand, to the mem-

bers present and awarded them with the first of two in-

stallments of their $1,000.00 MGMS Scholarship. Presi-

dent Bauer handed out diplomas to members who had

completed Basic Lapidary: Linda Johnson, Lorna

Miedema, Linda Page and Susan May. President Bauer

reminded everyone present to vote on the pieces entered in

the Lapidary, Silversmithing, Wire Wrap and Chain

Maille Jewelry Contest during the break. Katrina Cornell

announced that she and her husband, Jeff, will be moving

from Odessa to Deming, New Mexico, where they will

become the new owners of the Red Roof Rock Shop. Mid-

land College Kids’ College Pebble Pups/Geology 001 in-

structor, Bill Halepeska, reported that they had two full

two-week classes of students this year, with great parent

participation on Parent’s Day on the last day of the

classes. Bill also thanked David Edens for helping with

working on the mineral specimens that had been donated

to our organization. Andrew Kerr of the Blakemore Plane-

tarium said that since he will be moving soon, he will be

donating material he collected from the Eagle Pass and

Gravel Pit rock hunt locations. He said that he really en-

joyed being a part of our organization. The members pre-

sent thanked Katrina Cornell, Jacqueline Darby, Herman

Jones and Mary Tellinghuisen for bringing refreshments.

After the refreshment break, Bill Halepeska announced

that in the Lapidary, Silversmithing, Wire Wrap and

Chain Maille Jewelry Contest, Bob Turner won the lapi-

dary category, and Thomas Bauer won in the Chain Maille

jewelry category (there were no entries in the

silversmithing and wire wrap categories). President

Bauer turned the floor over to George Price, who pre-

sented the program, “The Staffordshire Gold Hoard.”

Winners of the door prizes were Mark Burgess,

James Darby, Amy Boswell, Ron Wingo and Jacque-

line Darby. Meeting adjourned.

So, you happen to have some nice polished slices of

agates that you haven’t figured out just quite what to

do with. You have one that has a very small hole in

the middle. Why not turn it into a suncatcher? Just

put some fishing line through the hole, tie it in a knot,

and you’ve got a suncatcher! Or, if you would like to

be a bit more artistic with your sliced agates...

You can certainly go all-out and make something that

looks like a combination of nature and stained glass!

Both items pictured are from MGMS member Linda

Page, who brought them for Show & Tell at a general

meeting. Photos by Amy Boswell.

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