StSteve Christopher is a local artist who specializes in lapidary work. He recently joined the Arts Council after seeing how much his wife enjoyed becoming a member. Steve is an active member of The Vernon Lapidary Club and volunteers as a supervisor. He also helps with instruction for new members looking to learn a new hobby. Through this club, he enjoys working closely with local lapidary artists in the Okanagan area, and appreciates the opportunity to exchange ideas and techniques, with others. Steve’s rock jewellery consists of pendants, belt buckles, broaches and rings.

He procures much of his raw rock from British Columbian venues such as Midway, Monte Lake, Squilax, Revelstoke and Prince George as they all have outstanding geological histories. While he likes using local rock, Steve also travels extensively and collects or purchases amazing raw rock that he finds during his journeys. His motto being “all beautiful stone needs to be seen.” He enjoys travelling to Tucson in the winters where he attends the Tucson Rock and Gem Show. This enables him to view and purchase exotic rock and view a large variety of the latest settings, bales, materials and tools, all in one place.

Steve has always been an avid arts and culture enthusiast. Locally, he enjoys the Art Walk in Lake Country, the changing pieces in the Vernon Art Gallery, and events at the Caetani Culture Centre. When travelling internationally, art galleries are always an attraction. He still enjoys walking around downtown Vernon and enjoying the murals, even though he’s seen them a thousand times.

Steve has always had an interest in rock, sculpture, geology, and forces of nature. In 2002 he attended the International Sculpture Symposium which took place in several Okanagan communities, including Vernon’s own Polson Park. The symposium inspired him to want to someday create objects with rock through sculpture and manipulation. He’s realized sculpting large pieces was not where his talent lay, but in creating smaller pieces of jewellery from raw rock. He has been selling his work locally for the past 2 years, mostly by word of mouth or by creating commissioned pieces. While he sells online, he insists that actually seeing the finished product up close and personal, is what sells the customer.

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