How to start a rock shop business can be a rockhound's dream. For Velma (nee Medley) Stockton-Henken, she grew up living this dream in her mother's rock shop learning all things rock and lapidary. As she prepares to sell her "rocky" inheritance, here's a look back at a childhood and young adulthood like no other.
STARTING A ROCK SHOP
Isobel Medley was an only child and was raised in the early 1920s on a prairie farm in Carberry, Manitoba. She attended a one-room school with one teacher for first through 12th-grade students. Isobel developed a strong interest in rocks and geology in those formative years. She eventually moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1945 she married Al, for whom she waited eight years for his return from the War. She became the mother of three children while studying geology. Her love of rocks ultimately inspired her to open a rock shop.
The Fraser Rock Shop opened in 1960 and it became the place her daughter Velma spent most of her childhood every day after school. Velma holds many fond memories of her experiences there. For instance, the original shop was located next to a Chinese market - one that Velma frequented when the fresh produce was being delivered. She remembers the shop had an apartment upstairs and she often played with children who lived there.
This story is from the April 2023 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
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This story is from the April 2023 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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MORGAN HILL POPPY JASPER
In California, there are very few places to collect semi-precious stones. Many locations from the past have been either exhausted of the material or the land has been developed.
THE ACORN
The briolette gemstone has the same design attributes of a regular gemstone, however, the pavilion is elongated and the crown is usually domed. This is perfect for an elegant pendant, earrings or a pendulum.
HOW TO PUT A PROTECTIVE CAP ON A CAB
To protect a specimen cab, often a cap is needed. In my case, I had a slab with the because of the color of the background and the pattern. This background had a more silicified consistency than most sandstones. It had no graininess like most sandstone, so I'm inclined to compare it to a jasper. The pattern was typical of a dendrite.
The Resilient Revival of Anne Brontë & Her Stones
For the first time, the Anne Brontë rock collection underwent complete description and identification, and along with Professor Hazel Hutchison of Leeds University and Dr. Enrique Lozano Diz at ELODIZ (a company specializing in spectroscopy analysis), an analysis of that collaboration, Anne Brontë and Geology: A Study of her Collection of Stones, was published in April 2022 in Volume 47, Issue 2 of the peer-reviewed journal, Brontë Studies & Gazette.\"
Amazing Women with Rock-Solid Careers
Explorers, Geologists, Educators & Jewelry Makers...
The Case of the Bleeding Glacier
It's a gory sight called Blood Falls. Ever since British geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor first noted it in 1911, it has been a mystery.
Asteroid Samples Are Said to Hold Invaluable Secrets
If Only Scientists Can Pop the Lid!
Paleontologists Embrace a New Method for Seeing Fossils within Rock
Fossil bone can be delicate. Attempts to remove it from a hard rock matrix by picking and scratching or etching with acids can be time-consuming and/or may end up obliterating that which you hope to study.
Need a Map of the Ocean Floor?
Call in the Seals!
A Step Closer to Hydrogen, the "Climate-Friendly Fuel"
As I reported last June, the world is racing to find sustainably renewable, nonpolluting sources of energy to replace our carbon-based reserves of coal, oil and gas.