Santa Clara Valley Gem and Mineral Festival

This year offers some new and exciting vendors, displays, speakers, and activities for you and your family.  Visit our club website, www.scvgms.org for discount coupons.

Highlights of our festival include:

• World renowned paleobotanist, Walt Wright will be displaying some of his vast collection of petrified wood. 
• Mr. Richard Wade, a children's science speaker, will be presenting different interactive talks.  Richard is wildly popular with children and has a way of explaining scientific principles while making them fun and memorable.  Richard will be speaking at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM daily. Topics will be the "Last Days of the Dinosaurs" and "Volcanoes" for ages 4 to 104. 
• Fluorescent Rocks and Minerals will also be on display in a darkened area and available for purchase at our festival.  This is a must-see for children and adults. 
• Lapidary Arts demonstrations will be happening throughout each day.  Rock tumbling, intarsia, cabochon-making, sphere-making, stone setting, silversmithing, wire wrapping, beading and more. Come see what make this hobby fun.  A demonstration schedule will be posted at our hospitality table.
•  Donna Kelley will be demonstrating the ancient art of flint knapping throughout both days of the festival.  She makes arrowheads from a variety of different materials including obsidian and agate
• Children will love our Kids Area.  It is a hands-on, interactive area where children of all ages can learn about geology, rocks, minerals, fossils, volcanoes, and more.  With their entrance fee of $3.50, children will get a worksheet to complete, a rock bag with 5 specimens, and a show patch, in addition to a fun learning experience. There are special programs for Cub Scouts, Webelos, and Girl Scouts.  For more information on the Scouting programs, please see our Kids Area webpage .
• Our Scholarship Booth helps support Earth Science and Geology students at local universities. This area has an eclectic mix of minerals, rocks, magazines, and a spinning wheel for children to win a prize.  There will also be a station where geodes of various sizes can be selected for purchase and then cut in half by club members while you watch.  This year, we will be giving four San Jose State University students and one University of California at Santa Cruz student a $1000.00 scholarship each.  Don't miss this, there are lots of interesting things for sale and all of the purchases support our future scientists and geologists.
• There will be 30+ individual display cases  from collectors all over California. 
• There will be over 50 dealers with a variety of materials and items for sale including gems, beads, rocks, minerals, jewelry, fossils, lapidary equipment, books, and so much more.  We have many returning dealers, but some new and interesting dealers, too.