The Culver City Rock and Mineral Club will present its 61st Annual Fiesta of Gems Show on Saturday, June 29, 2024 from 10 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 30, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 4117 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90230.  This year the featured gemstone is Turquoise.  Admission and parking are free.  For more information contact Janice Metz at culvercityrocks35@gmail.com

The Fiesta of Gems is a free educational event for the community which provides fossils, gems and mineral exhibits, demonstrations, and children’s programs.  We also offer jewelry making demonstrations, gem, mineral dealers, tools, and books sales.  This event helps several community programs in Culver City and helps to educate and inspire elementary students in Earth Science activities.  It also enables the Culver City Rock and Mineral Club to provide donations to other various Culver City organizations. 

Fiesta of Gems Show offers over 35 gem and mineral dealers from California, New Mexico, and Arizona who will sell minerals, gems, slabs, cabochons, beads, and jewelry findings.  The Culver City Rock and Mineral Club members will exhibit gem and mineral works of art, jewelry pieces, and private collections of gems and minerals.  There will be workshops throughout the weekend introducing various techniques of jewelry making.

According to geologyin.com, with depleting mines, turquoise, the most sacred stone to the Navajo, has become increasingly rare. A Sky-blue colored stone with a gray and gold spiderweb matrix sits melded into an intricate silver ring with engraved feathers along the sides. This one piece of jewelry may have taken years to make and is worth thousands of dollars, but the story it tells is priceless. It’s the story of a stone, of a culture, a history and of tradition—the story of the Navajos.

For more information on the 61^st Fiesta of Gems Show or the Culver City Rock and Mineral Club, contact Janice Metz at culvercityrocks35@gmail.com or refer to our website http://www.culvercityrocks.org/.

ABOUT THE CULVER CITY ROCK AND MINERAL CLUB

The purpose of the CULVER CITY ROCK & MINERAL CLUB is to bring together persons interested in the earth sciences, to engage in research and study in this realm, and to assist members in the collection and preservation of rocks and minerals and in the study of lapidary and related arts.