Sunny and 63
This gives you an idea of how things look at AGTA. Sorry, no photos allowed on the floor.
Before opening-AGTA
Today we started out at the Tucson Convention Center and walked the aisles at the AGTA (American Gen Trade Association) show. This is a wholesale show and credentials are checked carefully. I have found in the past that this is primarily a high end gem and jewelry show.
Dealers specialize is selling wonderful pieces with much bling, mostly using facetted precious jewels. Many more vendors were peddling a very large assortment of precious facetted stones. This show has an excellent reputation for quality. No photography is allowed due to the proprietary nature of the jewelry and gemstones. I cannot begin to describe the amount and beauty of the gemstones at this show. Security for this show is very tight. The show pays the local police to have a large presence.
The largest show in Tucson is the GJX Show (Gem & Jewelry Exchange). There may be 400 vendors at this one show alone. Also a wholesale only show, it is held in a huge hard-sided tent across from the Tucson Convention Center. We had a shopping list of small, facetted stones, and found most of them. You will begin to see them in my work when I return home.
I think the busiest booth was Gary Wilson. He is from Traverse City, Michigan (near where we are located), and winters in Tucson. Gary always has high quality cabs of unusual materials. His four-sided booth was packed with people filling their trays with cabs. Most wire-wrappers do not cut their own cabs (unlike me), so they love Gary’s stuff.
OK here is my rant of the day. Good: We found some nice titanium vapor treated druzy.
BAD: The people from a large foreign gem-reknown country only wanted cash. We have found that most of these foreigners cannot get a credit card machine in America. Why do they even bother with these large trade shows? They must feel that most people carry around piles of on hunred dollar bills. You can bet that they claim a lot less than they take in when income tax comes around. Oh wait, they don’t pay tax. And guess what? They didn’t have any change! A cash only business with no change? They wouldn’t let you split up their packaging, wanting folks to buy 24 of the same color and size. Not surprisingly, they didn’t seem to have a lot of business. Anyway, this is my rant of the day.
Giant GJX Tent
Sentinel Peak (The locals call this "A" Mountain). Taken from Convention Center.
A couple side rooms off the main floor are interesting, as they are separated into groups from different places. One room is the Idar-Oberstein gem cutters. If you know anything about gem cutting and carving (especially agate cameos), you know the rich history of this area.
A second area contains the Brazilians, The Sri Lanka delegation, The Nigerians, and the Pakistan group, among others. We were most impressed with some of the remarkable agate cameos. It is unfortunate that the photo police are so strict, or I would share photos with you!
We just wore ourselves out today. When you get so tired that all the booths start looking the same, you better leave, which is what we did.
Rock Art-the cat in the foreground was carved by Jeff Schaezle from Billings, Montana (A Heart For Stone). Nice guy, I enjoyed our talk.
I KNOW we're in Tucson when I see orange trees at a hotel.
On the way home we stopped again at the Arizona Mineral & Fossil Show at the Hotel Tucson City Center. I picked up a high-pressure rock cleaner. I have wanted one of these for some time. This device resembles a spray gun and is capable of a stream of water at 1600 psi. It’ll put a nasty cut on you or take your finger off if you don’t watch it. I’ll test this out on some quartz crystals in my shop. If you see me with fewer fingers, you know I messed up.
A guy likes a power tool, and this is a good one.
A fair-sized Campo Meteorite.
And also fair-sized amethyst geodes.
We have a couple classes we want to take tomorrow at the AGTA Show. Look forward to this and our continued adventures. Thanks for reading my blog, it’s been quite popular.