Wednesday, October 16, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11
Rocks help pay for student's schooling
Harold Taylor displays his merchandise.
Harman will speak Oct.21 on problems in education
Rick Harman, Republican gubernatorial candidate, will speak at the fifth annual fall conference of the Kansas Association of School Administrators (KASA) at the University of Kansas Oct. 19-21.
Harman will appear at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 21 in the Kansas Union Forum Room and will discuss "Education Problems in Kansas," the KU School of Education announced today.
Dean Kenneth E. Anderson of the School of Education will welcome the administrators, who meet each fall. The conference theme will be "Benchmarks of an Effective School System."
Special events will include an open house at Robinson Gym, attendance at the KU-Oklahoma State football game and a conference dinner honoring all past KASA presidents.
General conference sessions will consider leadership problems, administrative staffing practices, superintendent-board relationships, community relations and the administrator's role in teacher militancy, said a spokesman for the School of Education.
Patronize Kansan Advertisers
He finds most other rocks, such as jade and tiger eye in commercial establishments—rock shops and rock and mineral shows. "It just isn't profitable to dig goggles for gems," he said.
By REBECCA MASSEY
Kansan Staff Writer
Arold Taylor helps pay his way through school with rocks. Taylor, a Mulvane sophomore living in Stephenson Scholarship Hall, cuts, polishes and sells gemstones to students, who then place the stones in mountings they make in jewelry and silversmithing classes.
Although he has a variety of stones, which he carries about in a tattered black suitcase, his favorite stone is opal. He said he usually orders opal from Australia. "It costs $40 an ounce—at least that's the most I've ever paid for it. You can get it for $2 a pound. But I thik the more expensive is worth it," he said.
"I started collecting rocks about eight years ago," he said. "Then about three years ago I was allowed to use some cutting and polishing equipment in a privately owned rock shop a couple had in their home. They showed me how to use it, then turned me loose with their equipment."
Taylor described a ten-step cutting and polishing process which takes about 30 minutes to $1\frac{1}{2}$ hours, depending on the size of the stone.
Colloquium is today
"Opals take longer to cut and
Felix Moos, professor of anthropology, and Maynard Shelley, professor of social psychology, will be featured speakers at the first anthropology colloquium at 7:30 p.m. today in 411 Summerfield Hall.
They will discuss rapid acculturation in Asia and Micronesia.
polish than many other stones," he said. It is one of the very few gemstones of which man has not made a substitute. He can produce rubies and star sapphires . . . it's not that he can't create opals; he just can't create one with fire (color) in it."
Taylor said some opals are light, and in order to make the colors in them more pronounced, he puts them on a black jade background. He said he accomplished this process with the use of epoxy. The jade is planed and sanded to fit perfectly on the back of the opal. Then the two stones are glued together.
Taylor does not have his equipment here, but collects orders at school, then works on them during vacations in Mulvane. "That way I'm not tempted to let my studies go," he said. "Besides, I don't have a place to keep the equipment here."
buyer $50. Had it been purchased in a commercial shop, it would probably have cost around $100, he said.
Taylor would not put prices on some of his stones. He did say that just a few weeks ago he completed a ring that cost the
When asked if he planned to earn a living polishing rocks, Taylor said it was unlikely. "Though my major technically is physics, I'm looking forward to a career in oceanography,"
"Anything I have, if I've never seen anything nicer—I just won't sell it. That's a policy of mine," Tavier said.
I'm on my way to the Red Dog for Dollar Nite Fr, with the Reneaes.
Discover Custom made Leather Watchbands
812 Mass.
Primarily Leather
Open: 12-6 Weekdays VI 2-8664
Late Thurs. Nites
Open 10:00 Saturdays