The 53rd Annual Gem, Mineral, Fossil & Lapidary Arts Show of the Ventura Gem & Mineral Society (VGMS) is happening all weekend long, March 7-8, 2015, at the Ventura County Fairgrounds (10 AM - 5 PM, Saturday; 10 AM - 4 PM, Sunday).
Admission is FREE and this event focuses on kids and education, lapidary arts and jewelry-making, and California rocks and fossils.
Admission is FREE and this event focuses on kids and education, lapidary arts and jewelry-making, and California rocks and fossils.
On entering the show kids will be given a free polished stone at our Welcome Booth, where they'll also have free rock samples and educational packets for teachers who bring their teacher ID cards. At the Kids Booth, children of all ages will enjoy sand-sifting for gems and fossil shark teeth, a “Spinning Wheel” with rock prizes, and a “Paint-a-Fossil” activity with plaster casts of fossils.
Join in on the dinosaur-related activities: “Feed Fred the T. rex” and a coloring contest for kids from pre-school through 6th grade offering an assortment of prizes. Overlooking the Kids Booth will be a fierce Allosuarus dinosaur skull cast, along with information about the society’s two-room museum in Ojai, where teachers, home-schoolers, and Scouts can arrange tours by appointment.
This free show will feature 60 displays of gems, minerals, fossils, and award-winning handcrafted jewelry. Among these will be an educational exhibit of “Meteorites: Rocks From Space”, fossils collected locally in and around Ventura County, as well as a display of our State Rock, Mineral, Fossil, and Gemstone (which includes a gold nugget and the Ice Age saber-tooth cat).
Other displays will show how stones collected locally have been crafted into jewelry. Demonstrations throughout the show will give visitors up-close looks at lapidary artists pursuing their skills in-person, including gemstone cutting and polishing, silversmithing, beading, colorful glass bead forging, and other arts. Raffle prizes and silent auctions for jewelry, minerals, and fossils, as well as a white elephant sale, plant sale, and over 15 dealers selling beads, opals, jade, gemstones, crystals, fossils, books, jewelry and jewelry-making supplies, and gift items are part of the festivities.
VGMS was founded in 1944 to encourage interest in geology, mineralogy, paleontology, the lapidary arts, jewelry-making, and related areas through education, activities, and exhibitions such as this annual show, which is open to the community. The society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization and welcomes new individual and family members. VGMS hosts monthly lectures on earth science topics and lapidary arts, makes presentations to area schools, and conducts field trips for members and guests that often involve collecting rocks, minerals, and fossils in southern California and neighboring states.
The show is the society’s major fund-raising event, helping to underwrite educational activities, including their annual college scholarship.
For further details, call VGMS Show Chair Krishna Juarez (805-323-6725) or Society President Diane Cook (805-647-8517), email us at vgmsshowchair@gmail.com, or visit the show online at www.vgms.org
For further details, call VGMS Show Chair Krishna Juarez (805-323-6725) or Society President Diane Cook (805-647-8517), email us at vgmsshowchair@gmail.com, or visit the show online at www.vgms.org
