WHITE SILVER COLD FORGE The Silver Spoon: Lapidary and PGMC

I have recently joined the Lapidary club in Pretoria, Pretoria Gem and Mineral Club (PGMC). 'The best thing I have done in a long time.

Since childhood I have been collecting stones and pebbles for their shape and colour and often wondered what they look like on the inside. Between the ages of 6 and 10 we lived on a farm where my interest was kindled in conjunction with receiving a gift from my half brothers' granddad - a lovely stone from his farm.

In areas, the countryside was scattered with small heaps of soil - the result of the 'diamond fever' many years ago in South Africa. My dad told me, that if I find a stone that looks like a diamond (only found out what a rough diamond look like in the last year!), I should hammer it - if it breaks, it is not a diamond (heard recently that that is a myth... how many diamonds have I shattered in my life?). And there my curiosity and addiction for stone collection began.

I gathered the most interesting pebbles, but they are all lost now - I was given the opportunity to have them tumbled. I had to put them in old coffee tins with sand in and that would be hung on a wind mill so that it will be swung around and around when the wind pick up. That was the last I saw of my two coffee tins packed with stone.

- Lapidary clubs promote popular interest and education in lapidary, the craft of working, forming and finishing stone, minerals and gemstones. These clubs sponsor and provide means for their members to engage in all forms of jewellery making, cabochon cutting and faceting, carving, glass bead making and craft work. The clubs also promote and facilitate healthy outdoor activities in the form of field trips to various fossicking locations for the purpose of collecting gemstones or mineral specimens. - (Text sited From Wikipedia, Lapidary clubs)

In becoming a member of the PGMC, I have access to the workshop on Thursday evenings and Saturdays where I can engage in planned 'silversmith' courses or do my own thing in the metal workshop on open evenings, or I can grind cabochons. On Saturdays I can also make use of the service of slicing stone.

The South African Lapidary Magazine, the official publication of FOSAGAMS, is posted to me when released with a rich compilation of news, articles and supplier details. Additionally I get a monthly newsletter via email called Pretoria Rockhound Digest.

How could I resist taking home 52kg of stone?

I have already joined two outings which are also arranged on a monthly basis by the club. The one was to buy stone and did I buy. I walked away with 52kg of various stones including Ocean Jasper from Madagascar, Carnelian, Tiger's Eyes and the beautiful blue Sodalite, as well as green, red, brown stones that I, as a novice, still need to find out what they are called. The other was an educational outing to the Tswaing Meteorite Crater just North of Pretoria, with Marcus van der Neut, a professional geologist.