Newsletter | Calendar of Events

Calendar of Events

  • 12
    12.July

    Mysterious Geodes

    2:00 pm-3:15 pm
    07.12.2025
    Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art
    1220 Kensington Road, Oak Brook, IL 60523

    Did you know that ordinary looking rocks can hide dazzling crystal worlds inside? Geodes are nature’s hidden treasures – spherical, hollow wonders lined with sparkling crystals! Join us as we explore the fascinating theories behind how geodes form and discover where these natural marvels are found around the world. After the presentation, you’ll get to crack open your very own geode and uncover the mystery within! Bring your own rock hammer and an old sock to collect the pieces. Each participant gets two crack open geodes.

    Lecture/Activity – 2:00 p.m. – 75-minutes
    Ages 7 and up
    Fee: $10 per Person
    Museum Members $5
    Reservations Required
    Register here

  • 19
    19.July

    The First Cut: Soap Carving for Future Stone Artists

    2:00 pm-3:00 pm
    07.19.2025
    Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art
    1220 Kensington Road, Oak Brook, IL 60523

    Many great stone carvers begin with soap. Join Jyl Bonguro, Italian marble carver from Chicago, for this hands-on workshop. Jyl will introduce the basics of carving using soap a soft, accessible material. Learn essential techniques, practice tool control, and start developing the skills used by professional sculptors—all while creating your own mini masterpieces.

    2:00 p.m. – 60-minutes Ages 8 and up
    Fee: $25.00 per Person – Museum Members 10% off
    Limited Capacity – Reservations Required
    Register at here

Special Exhibit
Fan Favorites

We asked and you chose!

On display are the Fabergé-style flowers and Fabergé-style animals, all carved in Idar-Oberstein, Germany;
the stone butterflies created in Oregon using stones from the Pacific Northwest;
and Sylvia’s Rock Café – a collection of rocks and minerals that look like food!

Come see your favorites by Labor Day!

 

Regular Museum Admission | Regular Museum Hours

What’s in a Name?
The Many Faces of “Quartz”

By Sara Kurth

Quartz is one of the most well-known and beloved minerals, making up about 20% of the Earth’s crust. While simple in composition, just silicon and oxygen, it is incredibly varied in appearance. While many recognize quartz as “rock crystal,” amethyst, or citrine, it also forms the foundation of other popular stones like jasper and agate, a variety called chalcedony. Chalcedony is formed when water rich with dissolved silicon and oxygen flows through rocks, precipitating out microscopic quartz crystals into cavities within the rocks. Jaspers are opaque to slightly translucent chalcedony, typically colored by miniscule amounts of other chemical elements. Agates are a banded variety of chalcedony characterized by their distinctive concentric color bands. While most mineralogy classes lump chalcedony into one category, rock and mineral dealers have come up with clever titles to distinguish these stones from each other. These trade terms are commonly recognized in rock shops, including our Museum Shop! To help dispel the confusion, we have selected a few of the most common trade terms for popular “jaspers” and “agates” to explore their formation and appearance.

Ocean Jasper

Ocean jasper is mineralogically described as orbicular chalcedony that occurs in volcanic tuff and rhyolite flows. Spherical aggregates called spherulites form as mineral-rich fluids flow through the volcanic rocks and change the volcanic glass into orb-shaped crystals. Mineral impurities including iron oxides and manganese oxides give ocean jasper unique colors, including blue, green, brown, red, and yellow. While there are many so-called jaspers that demonstrate these orb-like patterns, Ocean Jasper is specific only to Madagascar.

Leopardskin Jasper

While similarly formed as Ocean Jasper, Leopardskin Jasper is not a jasper at all as it lacks chalcedony. It is a spherulitic rhyolite. Glassy particles in the rhyolite form spherulites and give the stone its spotted appearance.

 

Dalmatian Stone

“Dalmatian Stone,” also called “Dalmatian Jasper,” is a white to cream-colored material with black spots. It is an igneous rock, composed of a small amount of quartz and albite, a white plagioclase feldspar. The black spots are an amphibole mineral called Arfvedsonite. Scientists debate whether the stone forms in an intrusive or extrusive igneous setting. Although commonly referred to by its trade name, Dalmatian Stone is not considered a true jasper because it lacks chalcedony.

 Crazy Lace Agate

Crazy Lace Agate, also called Mexican Agate, Dogtooth lace agate, and Red Lace Agate, all originate in Chihuahua, Mexico. The lace agates found in this area formed during the Cretaceous Period 90-65 million years ago. The intricate patterns appear as delicate pieces of lace, along with tubes, bands, and eyes. Pieces of calcite can be seen as inclusions, broken off during formation of the agate. It is found primarily in veins where water passed through the rock.

Moss Agate

This agate looks like moss growing within the stone. The tubes and holes within the agate are filled with the quartz polymorph cristobalite. Cristobalite has the same chemistry as quartz, but forms spherulites in obsidian (snowflake obsidian) and the dendritic tubes found in agates. While the colors of Moss agate can be highly varied, green is the most preferred color to collectors.

 

 

The names given to stones can often be misleading. Commonly used classifications don’t always reflect how the stones were formed. At the Lizzadro Museum, we use trade names for many of our specimens, but we strive to be as clear as possible about the nature of each stone and to translate every unique story they represent.

References

Parting Shots: A Closer Look at Ocean Jasper, Mineralogical Society of America Elements, 2014, 10(5): 398. 5/29/2025.

Powolny, T. and Dumariska-Slowik, M. True Colors of Dalmatian Stone. Gems & Gemology, Fall 2017, V. 53, N. 3.

Zenz, Johann. Agates II. 2009.

 

 

 

Field Trip Assistance Grant
now taking applications!

Applications for the Field Trip Assistance Grant 
are now available online here.

This program will provide transportation and tour costs
to eligible students in the Chicagoland area.

Wintrust is providing $10,000 for eligible Title 1 schools and a
Museum Board Member is sponsoring field trips for schools of the Diocese of Joliet.

Interested teachers and school districts should reach out to our Educator, Sara Kurth.

 

 

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From the Curator’s Corner