PATRIOTIC PRIDE
Jerry Muchna Salutes America in Faceted Gem Quartz
Quartz is one of many common gem materials that can be faceted. With a Mohs hardness of seven, found in crystals of enormous size, and often water clear, quartz is an excellent material to use in learning the art of faceting because it is inexpensive and forgiving.
Quartz does have a small problem, a conchoidal fracture. Though quartz will fracture, its hardness allows it to forgive a mistake so that a cautious artist can work the mineral with care. One real advantage is that quartz is inexpensive and available in crystals of excellent size and quantity. The cost of equipment would be a more significant deterrent to faceting.
PATRIOTIC INFLUENCE
With November upon us, it’s a time when patriotism is even more robust; as the country practices the right to vote, and we honor military veterans on Veteran’s Day. These things and more also make it the perfect time to share the story of Jerry Muchna, a long-time
rockhound and revered faceter, whose patriotic gemstone carvings are unmatched. He was born in 1905 and sadly passed away in 2000, at the age of 94. Although he was too young to serve in World War I, “the war to end all wars,” he developed a very strong sense of patriotism as a teenager, growing up in a small Midwestern town.
During World War I, Jerry and his family participated in various patriotic events at home and in nearby Chicago, attending parades and celebrations. On one such visit, he saw a wooden statue of the German leader Hindenburg. During the event, people were invited to pay 25 cents for a chance to vent their anger by hammering a nail into the wooden Hindenburg statue. Jerry paid a dollar for a nail, which allowed him to hammer the nail into the statue’s head. This is one of the many stories Jerry shared with me over the years.
After finishing high school, he went to business college, and in 1928, married Libby, his true love and the woman who would become his lifelong companion. Before the Great Depression, he tried his hand at various jobs, including working at a jewelry store, leather goods store, and a tea company, but with the Depression, jobs were scarce. Eventually, Jerry went back to college to learn mortuary science. By 1938 he was working in the family business with his father, as a funeral director.
When World War II broke out, Jerry, like all men, was issued a draft card number, but his number was never called. Nonetheless, his patriotism remained strong, and he continued to work as a funeral director until his retirement in 1961. Up until that time, he was unaware of the mineral hobby.
It was upon moving to Arizona in retirement that Jerry unexpectedly became a rockhound. His neighbor, geologist Bill Bugman took him rock hunting to Saddle Mountain, an ancient volcanic area known for its agates. During their first of many hunts, Jerry found a lovely agate, which led him to buy a rock tumbler to see the real agate’s beauty.
IMMERSED IN ROCKHOUNDING AND LAPIDARY
In no time, Jerry also joined the Maricopa Lapidary Society, which put him in contact with several rockhounds, many of whom were expert cutters. I know, because I was probably the only member of the club who did not do lapidary work. Soon Jerry had a complete lapidary shop where he made slabs, cabochons, jewelry, and the like. Jerry learned from the best, as many of his fellow club members were among Arizona’s most skillful artists. As many know, sharing your knowledge with
any newcomer is what you do in a rockhounding club.
As a fellow member of the Maricopa Club and the Mineralogical Society of Arizona, I got to know Jerry very well. He was a meticulous lapidary, always striving for perfection and continually trying something new. It didn’t take long for Jerry to try his hand at faceting, and what a wonderful thing that he did. He immediately began taking faceting lessons from senior club member Martin Koning. Martin was long recognized as one of Arizona’s most skillful faceters. Examples of his superb work reside in the collection of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum west of Tucson. The group boasts a superb selection of Arizona semi-precious gems, personally collected and cut by Martin. Headlining the collection was a marvelous 300 carat faceted amethyst from the world-famous Four Peaks, Arizona amethyst mine. Martin personally collected the crystal in the mine and faceted the stone. Martin donated his lapidary gems and the superb faceted Arizona amethyst while I was serving on the Museum’s board. The amethyst, with intense violet color, is the largest faceted Arizona amethyst gemstone.
After Jerry had developed his faceting skills under
Martin’s guidance, he too became well known for his faceting skills; even rivaling his mentor. His creativity moved him from just faceting gems to faceted objects creating symbols of his early life. At one point, he made an entire village of faceted gem quartz. It was only natural that his creations began to reflect his patriotic spirit.
His symbols of patriotism became almost an obsession. His work was so good it was exhibited at American Federation of Mineralogical Societies national show and regional, and state gem shows across the west, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and major centers in the Midwest. As one would expect, his quartz gem figures and objects were featured in many magazines, including Rock & Gem, the Lapidary Journal, Arizona Highways, and the important National Geographic magazine, to name a few. Near the end of his career, Jerry was paid the ultimate compliment as a faceting artist and invited to exhibit his best works in the Gem Hall, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, his age was such Jerry could not accept the invitation in part because he did allow anyone to set up his quartz display except himself. It was my privilege to handle the pieces during photo sessions.
SPOTLIGHT AT THE SMITHSONIAN
By the time Jerry was invited to the Smithsonian, he had created an incredible array of patriotic images in Brazilian quartz. Among his many creations, Jerry was especially proud of faceted pieces of the Liberty Bell (549 carats), the Minute Man with a musket in
hand, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, and his three Spirit of ‘76 figures. He also did simple subjects familiar in American culture, like a circus elephant, a trained seal (889 carats), Easter eggs, an American Rose, and a carving of the figure of Jesus Christ.
Traditional Americana was one of his favorite subjects, and Jerry’s faceted quartz creations reflected the country’s development. Examples of this are represented in his faceted carving of a complete small country village, a railroad train and railroad station, a covered wagon (496 carats), and even a phonograph with a morning glory horn.
Two of Jerry’s most popular patriotic presentations of America as a democracy and a great world power are his “Spirit of ‘76” and the “Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima” carvings. Jerry and Libby were honored by Arizona’s Marines when Marine Brigadier General James Day invited them to be honored guests in the Marine Corp Arizona parade of 1977. Jerry’s Spirit of ‘76 figures also appeared on the cover of Arizona Highways magazine in 1976! Not surprising, Jerry’s exhibited work earned him countless awards during regional, state, and national shows, and in 1990 Jerry was elected to the Rock Hound Hall of Fame for his faceting skills.
PRACTICING PATIENCE
Jerry was always careful when he selected a piece of quartz with which to work. Any crystal or mass that showed a hint of a flaw, stress, or inclusion was passed up, and he never worked with anything but Brazil quartz. He was convinced Brazil quartz was the best for his purposes. I watched him at a show checking large pieces of quartz. He handled each piece as if it was a valuable treasure. Using a 10x loupe, Jerry checked each piece as carefully as he could before deciding. When I asked him why he selected a particular piece, he said he had an image in mind and thought the chosen piece was just right.
The art of faceting requires an amount of patience I don’t have. Jerry’s patience and caution were worth watching. While he worked, he would continuously check each facet, check the angle he wanted, and swing his hand across the machine while talking about his work. He would speak of any part of his work, where he got his ideas, and how he selected his quartz. The only thing he would not talk about was what he called his negative facets.
Anyone who knows faceting knows facets are flat and set at a proper angle to maximize the stone’s light. When Jerry was doing circus animals, he ran into a real problem with the seal. He wanted to do a seal balancing a ball on its nose. With that, the seal would need to stand in the way its head and nose were bent straight. That meant the seal’s neck would be concave. He would never describe how he accomplished the curvature of the neck. He simply said he did negative or sometimes concave faceting. I looked and looked at the seal but was never sure
I saw anything but tiny flat facets on the neck.
I was fortunate to know Jerry and Libby very well as club members and friends. Jerry was self-effacing but a very skilled artist who willingly shared his faceting knowledge with all who were interested. I still treasure a small mushroom he faceted for me, which is just one of the many mushrooms he made for friends.
Jerry’s work got so well known in the southwest that he was a mainstay of American Federation of Mineralogical Societies shows and many regional federation shows. His work encouraged other faceting artists to learn, create, find their style, and do major facet objects, so all these years later, we are still benefiting from his influence. Jerry was one-of-a-kind in the lapidary world, and fortunately, we are able to continue enjoying his creations.