ROCK HOUNDS.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

There's something so elemental about rocks that it sometimes grabs a person and won't let go.

Alise Lundmark, for instance, quit a successful career as an orthopedic X-ray technician to start her own gem business, Lundmark Lapidary, one of nearly 100 exhibitors at the 18th annual Gem Faire taking place this weekend at the Lane Events Center.

"I loved being an X-ray tech, but it's a different group of people," Lundmark said.

Now, she said, her job is hunting rocks, making jewelry and sharing her knowledge of gems and geology.

The Gem Faire, featuring gems, crystals, beads, jewelry, silver and tools for hobbyists, continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. The event is expected to attract up to 4,000 people during its three-day run, organizers said.

Elana Martir of Eugene was among those who came to check out the goods.

"I love coming to the gem show," she said. "I'm a bit of a bead junkie. And I have a bit of a thing for moonstone and opal glass."

Pieces on display range from inexpensive beads and unfinished gemstones to beautifully carved gems and rare pieces, such as a glimmering aquamarine crystal Farooq Sawal was offering for $4,000.

The crystal came from a mine in Pakistan, the only place that such material is found, he said.

Steve Andruss, owner of Opalcolors Oregon in Hood River, mined his collection of rough and finished opals closer to home, at Opal Butte in north-central Oregon. He said he first went there as a child, and when he grew up, he and his brother spent 10 summers mining the butte for 65 million-year-old thunder eggs, or geodes, looking for the one in a thousand that would crack open to reveal high-grade stone.

Among their finds is a 3,500-pound thunder egg, which Andruss said is the world's largest geode, now on display at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro.

Rod Riel, who runs Blue Willow Jewelry in Springfield, started collecting rocks in 1967, turning his hobby into a business after retiring from his machine shop in 1994. His booth offers a wide variety of materials, from gems and beads to foreign coins, shells and antlers and jeweler's tools.

``When I met my wife, her uncle was into it,'' he said. "He got me off rock hunting."

Lundmark, who lives in Gaston, said she got hooked on rocks by her grandmother, Blanche Grafe, who taught in Marcola schools for 45 years and taught geology to 4-H kids. Lundmark remembers going on rock-hunting adventures as a child with her grandmother along the Mohawk River.

She was a hobbyist for 20 years before she decided to go into business with her husband, DeWayne, after she "got him into rocks," she said.

The couple travels around the West, attending shows and hunting rocks. Compared with doing X-rays, her new vocation requires a bit more heavy lifting, Lundmark said.