Lubbock, Texas: Gem Show 2023 &
Museums
By Helen Serras-Herman
The city of Lubbock lies in the
windswept plains of West Texas. Thousands of cows and sheep roam freely beneath
the incessantly running oil rigs and windmills that dot thousands of acres of flat
farmland. It is a region known historically and geographically as Llano
Estacado (Staked Plains) that encompasses part of eastern New Mexico and
Northwest Texas. With approximately a quarter million residents, Lubbock is the
county seat for Lubbock County and a center for economic, educational and
health care services in the region.
Lubbock is home to
the Lubbock Gem and Mineral Society (LGMS), which was formed in 1958. The
society holds an annual gem and mineral show, and my husband and I have been privileged
to have participated as dealers since 2017. I have also given three lectures
there.
The Lubbock Gem & Mineral Society (LGMS) 65th
Annual Show will be held this year on September 23 and 24, 2023
The
Lubbock Gem & Mineral Society Show
The Lubbock Gem
& Mineral Society (LGMS) 65nd
Annual Show will be held this year on
September 23 and 24, 2023, at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, 1501 Mac
Davis Lane. Current LGMS president is Greg Roberts, and the very energetic
Walter Beneze - a past LGMS President and SCFMS President, continues to be the
LGMS show chairman.
About 22 dealers participate in the show, selling jewelry,
loose gemstones, lapidary rough, cabs, slabs, geodes, beads, mineral specimens,
fossils, spheres, and lapidary tools. I enjoy getting farther away from
Arizona, where I meet new vendors. The club hosts a fantastic dinner on Friday
night for all dealers and club members, and after a long day of setting up, it
is a wonderful opportunity for dealer-member camaraderie.
A truly impressive
part of the show is the non-competitive exhibits. There are usually more than
60 cases filled with extraordinary specimens and displays. That number
demonstrates a high level of member participation and their willingness and
enthusiasm to share their finds and creations with others.
Over 60
non-competitive exhibit cases like this “Man-Made Lapidary Materials” fill the
hall.
This
non-competitive exhibit case shows the differences between tiger’s eye, hawk’s
eye and Tiger iron
During the show,
lecture presentations are given by geology experts. Educational cabbing and
sphere-making demonstrations given by club members attract lots of people watching
and inquiring about techniques and classes. The fluorescent display of minerals
is always a favorite attraction. At the wonderful
club-sponsored area young visitors have fun spinning the Wheel of Fortune and
playing educational games. At the LGMS club information table, members run a
silent auction with many beautiful specimens and award hourly door prizes. At
the club’s merchandise booth, bright T-shirts and coffee mugs (my favorite)
with dinosaur graphics are offered for sale.
Cabbing and sphere-making
demonstrations by club members attract lots of people watching and inquiring
about classes
Young visitors have fun spinning the
Wheel of Fortune, and playing educational games
At the LGMS club booth, bright
T-shirts and coffee mugs (my favorite) with dinosaur graphics are offered for
sale.
If you live in the
Lubbock area, I definitely urge you to become a member of the LGMS (http://www.lubbockgemandmineral.org). There is
so much knowledge shared among members, with opportunities for learning,
rockhounding, networking, and sharing your artwork.
The LGMS
annual show is a great community outreach event, and proceeds help fund the
club’s projects. I look forward to returning to the Lubbock gem show this September
and seeing all my friends. Hope to see you there!
Helen with Walt
Beneze, LGMS longtime show chairman, at the 2022 show
The beautiful new
Frida Kahlo mural is very close to the LGMS show venue
The Lubbock
Museums
Lubbock is a city where out-of-town
visitors can discover the area’s rich history from the age of the
dinosaurs to recent ranching in a multitude of museums. The Museum of Texas
Tech University (TTU) and the Lubbock Lake Landmark are superb museums. We also
enjoyed the American Wind Power Center and the Buddy Holly Museum.
The TTU Museum consists of the main
museum, the Moody Planetarium, the Natural Sciences Laboratory, the Lubbock
National Historic Lake Landmark, the Val Verde County research site, and, since
1970, the National Ranching Heritage Center.
A skeletal replica of a Columbian
mammoth is one of the many exhibits at the Museum of TTU in Lubbock
Visitors can see fossil remains and
replicas of the great animals that lived during the Ice Age and learn about the
Southern Plains cultures that have inhabited the area for the past 12,000
years. Skeletal replicas of full-size Tyrannosaurus
rex and Triceratops horridus
dinosaurs welcome the visitors as they enter the museum. An impressive skeletal
replica of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus
columbi) is prominently displayed in the center of the Ice Age On the
Southern Plains exhibit. These Columbian mammoths weighing 8 to 9 tons and
standing 10 to 13 feet tall at the shoulder inhabited the Lubbock area and
their remains were found at the site of the Lubbock Lake Landmark.
The Diekemper Gallery of
Pre-Columbian Art had some amazing artwork from Colombia and Panama: handmade
pottery with incised designs dating from between 300 AD to 1400 AD, gold
necklaces and earrings with figurative design elements, and beaded jewelry from
the Tairona and Sinú people of
Colombia. This gold jewelry was made of an alloy of gold and copper called
tumbaga, a name given to it by the Spanish conquistadors.
Tumbaga shaman earrings made in Panama around AD 700-1200 are on exhibit at the TTU Museum’s Diekemper Gallery
The Museum of Texas Tech University
(www.museum.ttu.edu ;
806.742.2490) is located at 3301 4th Street in Lubbock.
It is open every day except Monday, and admission is free, except for the shows
at the Moody Planetarium.
The Lubbock Lake National Historic
Landmark is an important, active archaeological excavation site and nature
preserve. It sits on 335 acres with three trails, and is a protected state and
federal landmark. Large bronze sculptures of elephants, bison, bear, and an
armadillo — guardians of the nature preserve — welcome the visitors.
Large bronze sculptures welcome
visitors at the Lubbock Lake Landmark.
The site contains evidence of
almost 12,000 years of occupation by the ancient peoples of the Southern High
Plains, from as early as the Clovis Period. Exhibits show artifacts accidently
discovered in 1936. Among them, Folsom points, made out of Alibates chert,
chalcedony and obsidian found at Lubbock Lake, and a wonderful exhibit on flint
knapping.
The Lubbock Lake Landmark (http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/lll/) is just
minutes away from the TTU museum and is open every day except Monday.
Helen Serras-Herman, a 2003 National Lapidary Hall of Fame
inductee, is an acclaimed gem sculptor with
over 40 years of experience in unique gem sculpture and jewelry art. See her
work at www.gemartcenter.com and her
business Facebook page at Gem Art Center/Helen Serras-Herman
All photos By Helen Serras-Herman
