The Saddlebrooke Silversmith and Lapidary Club was formed in the early 1990’s with a grand total of seven members. This “Magnificent Seven” consisted of Jerry Tuttle, Walter Beck, Fred Sanders, Tom Moncure, Bud Werhane, Jim Sondheimer and Werner Luhman. Pat Schifano became the first woman to join a little while later. Their original workshop was in HOA-1, behind the Gift Shop in a room now used by the Pottery Club. The club later moved over to HOA-2 in the Craft Center when they found that they needed more room for their growing inventory of equipment and growing number of members.
These days, the club has two kilns, a soldering bench complete with all the supplies necessary, a hydraulic press, an engraving machine, a large variety of saws, grinders and buffers both for metals and lapidary stones, a faceting machine, a rolling mill and two vibrahones, along with a large variety of hand-held tools.
We also have an extensive library of books and magazines full of ideas and instructions, and each piece of machinery has a reminder of how-to’s mounted by each. When someone wishes to become a member, they must first sign-up for and take the Beginner’s Class, where all the machinery is explained and they each create a piece of jewelry. Once they join, they can see first-hand the various skills represented by the members. Various members periodically offer classes in such areas as etching, enameling, Precious Metal Clay, wire-wrapping, cutting and polishing stones, cuff bracelets, chain-maille and many others.
Another venue we have been using for years is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. For many years we have reserved and filled a showcase at the original and biggest show at the Convention Center. This has proven to be a huge arena to showcase the talents of our metal workers and lapidarians right here in SaddleBrooke. Unfortunately, this year we will be unable to participate as the show has been cancelled for 2021. Hopefully it will be back in 2022, and we will also get to resume taking a bus for SaddleBrooke shoppers to the show—always a popular trip!
We are based in the Turquoise Room of the Craft Center on Wednesdays and Fridays, with Saturdays and Sundays open to all 3 clubs which use this room. We are in full compliance with COVID-19 protection guidelines and we have a monitor in the room. In order to join (or even see what members are doing), there is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board. Starting Friday, January 1 we will have online sign-ups available. We will also use this online calendar to sign up for various classes being taught by members.
For more information, contact our president Gloria Quigg by email at g14maz@centurylink.net or go to our website at https://tinyurl.com/SSLCHomepage. Come check us out and join in!
Original ChopShop is making its Tucson debut this summer
