Lapidary Arts

If you knew what the title of this post meant, I am impressed.

If you are like me, however, and happen to pass a small building in a small suburb outside of Chicago and see a large sign that says "Museum of Lapidary Arts" you would be slightly confused. That is until you see a large rock outside the museum and realize that yes, you did stumble upon a rock museum. As I see it, there are two ways to respond to this finding

1. Chuckle and walk away, never again to think of the lapidary arts

2. See when its open and make plans to go

Obviously I fall into category 2 and I did go back and I am happy to say that:

1. Lapidary arts are much cooler than they sound (they carve all sorts of amazing figures out of precious stones, and fit together pieces of stones to make incredibly intricate pictures)

2. I now know what a snuff jar is

3. I have visited the ONLY museum in the United States completely devoted to the lapidary arts (or so said the lady that greeted us)

Above is a picture taken by Joe, who I should also credit for planning the outing to the museum :)