Canadian Rockhound: Canada Day 2003 - Edmonton Tumblewood Lapidary Club Display at Edmonton City Hall

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Canada Day 2003:
Edmonton Tumblewood Lapidary Club Display at City Hall Draws Huge Crowd

By Ed Zeschuk,
Edmonton, Alberta

The Edmonton Tumblewood Lapidary Club (ETLC) was fortunate to be invited on Canada Day 2003 to have a booth at the Edmonton City Hall. Four club members, Lorn Bendall, Neil Mikkonen, Pauline and Ed Zeschuk set up and looked after the display booth.

Fig 1: Crowds were at the booth constantly. Ed Zeschuk photo.

Fig 2: Tumblers to show public how stones are tumbled. Ed Zeschuk photo.

The city provided 1000 professionally printed cards to the club upon which tumbled Canadian stones such as petrified wood, amethyst, rhodonite and various agates were glued on. Imprinted on the card were Canada Day 2003 celebration details, the ETLC name, and the website address for the club. One card was given to each person who showed an interest in lapidary in general.

The Canada Day activities were on-going throughout the day with short intermissions, which enabled the attending public to visit and view the various booths at City hall. Activities included ethnic music and dancing along with various dignitaries presenting speeches. Our booth ran out of the 1000 cards and tumbled stones near the end with only about 20 persons not getting any.

The ETLC booth had two tumblers: one drum type operating to show people how stones are tumbled and one vibratory tumbler in static position. There was a very nice display of the steps involved in producing cabachons starting with the rough stone and ending with a nicely polished one. A display case showed some very nice wire wrapped stones, some stones set in silver or gold and then some jewelry pieces made by the club members using various settings. The booth had a continuous crowd around asking all kinds of questions.

In four hours we were able to tend to about 1000 persons, and we felt that this was a very successful way to inform the public as to what lapidary and its associated areas are.

Fig 3: These cabinets were set up to show cabachon development from rough stone to finished. Ed Zeschuk photo.

Fig 4: Case showing finished jewelry pieces. Ed Zeschuk photo.

Fig 5: People of all ages showed a great interest in lapidary. We felt that our display at City Hall was a very successful and effective way of informing the public about lapidary and jewelry-making. Ed Zeschuk photo.

Web Links:

Edmonton Tumblewood Lapidary Club
http://www.geocities.com/etlc99/
Official website includes club information, and meeting dates and times.
Canadian Lapidary Supplies
http://www.canadianrockhound.com/dealers.html
Canadian dealers and suppliers of minerals, fossils, lapidary supplies and equipment.

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