Jade and agates and Petoskey stones, oh my!
The annual Rock and Mineral Show featured a range of stones for all ages Saturday and Sunday at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center. Hosted for the fourth year by the Grand Traverse Area Rock and Mineral Club, which is based at the Heritage Center, the event attracted more than 600 people who came to look, learn and shop.
Exotic rocks and minerals, finished jewelry, art pieces, stones carved into miniature sculptures and raw materials were all up for grabs.
"This is my first time here, it's really a nice set up and I think we'll be getting some gifts here,” said Joe Thomas, who stopped by on Sunday afternoon with his two sons, Aiden, 4, and Keagan, 2. "We love rocks!”
For club members and event organizers, the key facet of the attendance figure was the 126 (free for age 12 and under) children's admissions. This number, they hope, represents a growing interest in rocks and minerals among the younger generation.
Organizers deliberately set up the Rock and Mineral Show every year to be kid friendly.
Downstairs, a children's activities area swarmed with enthusiasm as kids sifted through free beach stones, checked out rocks for sale cheap (priced for kids only from 10-75 cents) and made bracelets using polished stones. A small room next door buzzed while club volunteers polished one side of a rock for each child, most of whom mounted a convenient stool to watch the process with wide-eyed wonder.
"We want to get them interested so they join our club,” said Beverly Jusick, a member of the club staffing the area Sunday afternoon. "We've got some Apache tears from Arizona and they look like candy with sugar on top and then when you polish them the look like black jelly beans.”
Thomas Van Winger, 5, was just one of the excited attendees already enraptured by rocks — and eager for more. He and his mother, Jennifer, filled a small paper bag with treasures to take home. She also toted along an old toothbrush to scrub wet rocks and bring out patterns.
"Thomas loves rocks, he has a collection and a rock tumbler at home,” said Jennifer as the pair sifted through a tray of small polished stones while compiling a bracelet. "We go up to an agate beach in the Upper Peninsula and he picks up rocks. The whole beach is agates and they're beautiful when they're wet and you bring them home and they don't look that much different.”
At the other end of the children's spectrum was Bailey McDonald, 11, a budding entrepreneur selling her jewelry creations. A veteran of area art shows but a first timer at the Rock and Mineral Show, McDonald designs her own beaded earrings and necklaces. She displays her earrings on an old window with a screen, which draws the eyes, and questions, of passersby. McDonald also offered sachets and pencils made of recycled newspapers for sale.
"I've been making jewelry for three years,” said McDonald, whose show profits were earmarked for a trip next year to perform with Company Dance Traverse at Disneyland. "The ideas just come to me, I like the way the pieces fit together and then when you're all done, you're like, 'Wow!'”