San Diego County Fair – "The Fab Fair"

GEMS, MINERALS & JEWELRY

 

The Fab Four greet visitors arriving at The Fab Fair.

 

 

SDMG members had stunning entries and walked away with many awards yet again!  Above: 2nd Place, Constructed Jewelry, with stones – Amateur, awarded to Denny Turner for his Silver Spiral cuff with five stones.

 

 

Anne Schafer with Greg Anderson in the exhibit hall.  2014 marked Greg's 34th year as Chairman of the Gems, Minerals & Jewelry Department.

 

 

The "Fab Fair" set its second best attendance record in its 50-year history – before the closing 4th of July weekend, visitors had already exceeded last year's final tally.   The 2014 theme categories highlighted Minerals of Great Britain and "Fab" jewelry.  The theme inspired some really creative entries.  More than 75 display cases featured beautiful fluorescent minerals, extra-large pieces of petrified wood, "cairngorm" from Scotland, and sparkly gems.

This year, there were lots of SDMG member entries in the Gems, Minerals & Jewelry Competition.  It was great to see such enthusiastic participation from our Club members.  Their work was seen by as many as 1.48 million visitors through closing day on July 6th.  SDMG instructor Denny Turner, who took 2nd place in the Amateur Constructed Jewelry with stones category, observed, "There were quite a number of pieces in the competition that were made using chasing and repoussé – with and without stones.  This reflects the hotbed of chasers now growing in the San Diego area.  I am so proud of all these current and former chasing students of mine and that their chasing work swept the "Constructed Jewelry, All Metal – Amateur" category, and we took two out of three places in the "Constructed Jewelry, With Stones – Amateur" category!"

Congratulations to all the artists who submitted entries.  The complete listing of winning entries is available on the sdfair.com website (links below), arranged by class and by name.

 

Year in and year out, SDMG has had a strong presence at the annual San Diego County Fair.  For 34 years Greg Anderson has chaired the Gems, Minerals & Jewelry Department at the Fair, leading a crackerjack team of SDMG volunteers to mount fabulous exhibits and guide visitors through the exhibit hall, enthralling literally millions of Fair attendees.  The "Fab Fair" of 2014 was Greg's last season as Gem, Minerals & Jewelry Department Chairman.  We are indebted to Greg Anderson for his many years of service, for his vision, for his experience and for his terrific management.  With heavy hearts but much appreciation, we thank Greg and wish him well as he steps down.  The silver lining in losing Greg's leadership is that Anne Schafer, having been Assistant Chairperson for the past 12 years, will assume his role as Chairperson for the 2015 Fair.  We have been placed in supremely capable hands as she leads a great group of volunteers.

 

 

 

 

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