Those with an affinity for rocks will be both entertained and educated during Lapidary Day at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Oak Brook.
The museum’s slate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 8, includes ongoing demonstrations and activities for all ages presented by members of the West Suburban Lapidary Club. Museum admission will be free that day.
Mary Prosek, the club’s school director and newsletter editor, who has been a member of that organization for around 25 years, reported that 10 to 15 WSLC members will be doing demonstrations at the museum on Lapidary Day. One involves rocks being cut and polished with a wheel.
“We have a guy that’s going to be doing faceting,” Prosek said. “We have a lady that works with wire. Someone that likes beads. We have a guy that does chainmail, which is kind of cool.”
Another younger member will be displaying and selling the jewelry that she creates.
Visitors will be able to safely try some of the skills involved in lapidary art.
They can also talk to club members, Prosek noted. “A lot of people don’t know what the lapidary is and what we do as a club,” she explained.
There will be craft projects for kids and even a little surprise for some of them. “One of our instructors, Jose (Ponce), always brings real soft rock that’s cut quickly and he makes little hearts for little girls,” Prosek said.
“I’ve been a rockhound since I was a little kid,” Prosek declared. “This hobby keeps me busy. I think it’s important for everyone to have a hobby that they enjoy.”
She recommends lapidary.
Museum educator Sara Kurth said the museum presents Lapidary Day every year because, “It’s a way to provide for the general population a chance to see lapidary in action.
“It’s not an artform that most people are familiar with.” She added, “It gets people in the door.”
Kurth said Joseph Lizzadro, founder of the museum, was one of the founding members of the WSLC. “We’ve had a very close relationship with the Lapidary Club ever since,” she said.
Kyle Brill, the museum’s executive director, said the demonstrations at Lapidary Day will showcase honed skills as well as an opportunity to “explore all the different facets of lapidary art.”
“It’s a very difficult art if you’re not initiated into how all these pieces in our museum are created,” Brill said. “Having Lapidary Day is at the heart of what our museum and mission is. Most of our collection is either created naturally by Mother Earth or from materials that were already beautiful but were then shaped by human hands into something even more spectacular.”
Brill observed that lapidary is one of the oldest artforms in the world. “You think of the Stone Age,” he said. “People were taking stones, and polishing them, and using them as tools.
“In a world where everything is digital and transitory, when you’re dealing with lapidary, you have something solid and real in your hands making it into something more beautiful.”
More information about the museum, 1220 Kensington Rd., is at 630-833-1616 or lizzadromuseum.org.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.