While so much of our day is spent sitting, reading, typing away at a computer or staring at a bright screen, chances to learn while doing something other than sit are often forgotten. Some students take solace in working out or playing a sport, a small group of students put their minds at ease while working and crafting pieces of rock into beautiful pieces of art. The lapidary club will close at the end of the term, after almost 50 years. The club has been a student org since the 1960s, when College master carpenter Sid Burelle, who did lapidary as a hobby, started up the club with students.
It is currently lead by Bill Wordsworth, who has been a member of the club for many years. Wordsworth, a retired foreman, is a self-taught lapidary, specializing in silver-smithing. During his tenure as head of the lapidary club, Wordsworth replaced the torches so that students could work with silver, and updated the equipment in use, from older models to diamond wheels, which cut faster and cleaner. While the club gets some funding from SGA, a larger portion of the club’s funds comes from dues. Students pay $25 a semester to use the tools and supplies in the workshop. Sarah Goodby-Botting ’11 has been a member of the lapidary club for the past three years. “I found out about Lapidary Club when I complimented a friend on her ring. It was very pretty, but she told me that it was the first piece that she had ever made! Her response convinced me to try it out.”
Wordsworth was informed by John Laprade of student programs in the beginning of the year that the club was going to be dismantled by spring, but gave the club an extra semester so students could finish off the year. The club workshop is held in the Wilder Hall basement, and the College decided that it needed the space for offices, and because of the equipment that students use, sees it as a liability.
The club advertises at the fall org fair and Wordsworth has held a January term class, which takes up to ten students, and always fills up. Most students who take the J-term class stay on for the rest of the year. Wordsworth teaches students the craft of lapidary as well as silver-smithing. Club projects use and jasper to create jewelry like rings, pins and brooches.
The club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wordsworth appreciated students’ dedication to the club, who often had other assignments to do after club meetings. But both students and Wordsworth have found it rewarding. “The look of pride and satisfaction on their faces when they’ve taken a dull-looking stone to a polished, finished piece of jewelry in shining silver or brass or copper is priceless,” said Wordsworth.
“I will definitely miss the club,” said Goodby-Botting. “Going to Lapidary Club was a great way for me to take a break from homework and feel productive at the same time. Over the past three years, I have given my jewelry to my mother, my roommate, my closest friend from high school and my mother-in-law-to-be as gifts. Lapidary Club has been one of my favorite parts of my college experience, and certainly my foremost opportunity to express my creativity and explore a non-academic interest. I do think that students still need the club, and I will be very disappointed if the College isn’t able to accommodate its modest needs and make Lapidary available for next semester.”
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