Category Archives: Tucson Rock & Gem Shows

Tucson Gem Mineral and Fossil Shows 2014-Giant Wholesale Shows and “Hair” Jewelry

A view from atop "A" Mountain looking down on the GJX tent and The Tucson Convention Center to the right of the tent and across the street.

We recovered a bit this morning and did not go exploring until 11am. We decided to see what the parking situation was around the convention center. The lots were full, even though they raised parking to $10. I was leaving the area and a miracle happened. An empty, metered, on street parking place appeared. I backed right in and paid for 2 hours ($1). Later we gave it another $1. A lot better than $10!

Entry to the Tucson Convention Center

The red carpet welcomes Wholesale buyers.

The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) in a massive show (Wholesale Credentials required). The show has massive amounts of common faceted gemstones (as you would expect from a gem trade show) with dealers from around the world. I’ve found better bargains at lesser shows, but walking the aisles at the convention center is interesting.

Security is tight, very tight. When millions in gems are sitting out and in cases, you need this police presence. The gem show provide overtime pay for police protection, and the Tucson Police does a great job.

This is not my niche show, but it is indeed the best place in the world to buy gemstones. The really big deals take place in the hotel rooms, but big deals take place on the show floors and in the case of the giant tent across from the Tucson Convention Center that harbors the GJX (Gem & Jewelry Exchange).

AGTA Credentials will also get you in to the GJX. Even though there are loads of gems, there are also several dealers of interest to me and many others. One dealer in particular, my friend Gary Wilson is consistently one of the busiest booths. He specializes in one-of-a-kind cabochons and his excited clientele include wire-wrappers, silver and goldsmiths, and other jewelry designers. Gary also has a business in our home area of Traverse City, Michigan.

Photos are banned on the Convention Center Floor, but I took this a couple from the observation window on the upper level so you can get an idea of the set up.

agtafloor2

My observations at the Tucson shows is that there is a mixed bag about price, where some things at the wholesale show have skyrocketed prices. One Russian dealer had some fantastic Staurolite that used to be priced reasonably, but it seems that over the last couple of years grade “A” Staurolite has had a large price increase. I bought some today because they were a good quality, but he assured us that in a few years this is likely to not be even available. Opals and Jade were other stones we looked at and passed on because the prices seem to have soared.

The funniest moment of the day was when Bonnie was asking a Brazilian vendor about the blue Tourmaline from Paraiba. She assured Bonnie that is was “very hair”. Hmmm. What? “very hair–not very much of it”. Oh, Rare! Bonnie tried to coach her to say “rare” not “hair”, but didn’t have much luck. We saw many vendors with beautiful pieces of the “hair” precious gemstone.

If you read my blog last year, I mentioned purchasing a very nice Thomsonite This year the same vendor had three little trays of cabochons with fair prices, and we had fun rooting through these little trays. Tomorrow in daylight I will take some pictures of the finds of the day.

The GJX also has three smaller side areas of special interest One features special gems and Jewelry, one is Brazilian ,and one features the German jewelry makers. If you know anything about the history of cutting gemstones the Idar-Oberstein gem cutters were considered some of the best in the world. They became famous originally for working and carving agates. We saw a special display of two large carved blue/white agates (maybe 8″) with high detail, and shown with some other fabulous, creative mixed-gem jewelry.

I tried to get my hand blocking a carved Sonoran Sunset octopus. I wasn’t quick enough to keep Bonnie the Sonoran Sunrise (we’ve seen both names here) lover from spotting it. Another favorite carving of the day was a chess set carved out of ruby part of ruby-zoisite. The king and queen were whimsical with golden crowns, and each of the other pieces had golden musical instruments they were holding-harps, violins, etc. The board was black onyx and white onyx. Sorry we couldn’t take a picture, it was very cute.

Another favorite item of the day was a pink tourmaline necklace. It was comprised of several pink hearts maybe 2 -3 inches each separated by smaller pink beads. Several as is 5-7 of them. Each one would have made a great necklace by itself, together it was just jaw-dropping. We have some friends in our rock club who treasure tourmaline and we thought about them when we saw this.

These were the shows of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, tourmaline, ruby, tanzanite, and in general sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. But you may know that a good agate interests me more, so I hope to get back to see my kind of rocks tomorrow.

Tucson Gem Mineral and Fossil Shows 2014-Pink & Green=Lots of Green

The blue is Paraiba Tourmaline.

A room full of Quartz

Today we started out at the south end of the I-10 strip, at the Clarion and Howard Johnson Gem & Mineral shows. These are both typical hotel shows, with vendors in tents and in the courtyards in addition to all the vendors in the rooms. We bought some beautiful rhodochrosite beads and cabochons (Bonnie likes pink), and I found some great ammonite cabochons with wonderful iridescent reds, greens, and yellows.

Cavansite in Granite. Some call this K2

I purchased some other small slabs including some Cavansite encased in granite. These will be re-cut later. Some call this “K2” for the mountain which this alledgedly is mined near in Pakistan.

Happy me looking for the perfect Brazilian Tourmaline.

Careful searching=Treasure

I was pawing through an inviting tub of rutilated quartz looking for good pieces when I was advised by the vendor that he was looking for a single purchaser. He wanted someone to buy the whole 40 gallon tub for thousands of dollars. That left me out and I wandered on down the line.

Bonnie discovered a large rose quartz sphere that she really liked until she was told that it was $20,000. This exceeded her budget, even with all the spending money I have given her! (LOL)

We saw a man replenishing his tub of watermelon tourmaline. Unfortunately almost the whole tub was bits and pieces without complete green rinds which are so coveted for jewelry. A diligent search down deep in the tub provided a surprising, large watermelon with a full green rind and lovely pink all through it. This was approximately 3 inches long and 1 1/2″ wide. After verifying that we could buy just one piece, and not have to take the whole tub, we became excited. I haven’t seen this much rough anywhere at the show, and after speaking with the vendor, I became the proud owner! I know what your question is: A LOT!

Sphere of Rose. Got an extra 20G?

Tonnage of rocks.

tonsofrockstents

The pictures don't do these Rainbow Obsidian beauties justice. They were just spectacular in the sun.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-You can’t Tell A Book By Its’ Cover

A small number of vendors at "The Rock Show".

It has cooled off a bit here in Tucson, but low 60’s is still good for us. We anticipated big crowds today, so we headed off to The Hotel Tucson City Center early, got a great parking space, had coffee, and got busy looking around.

I learned something new..Some Dino's were Chrome; Cool!

No comment...

feedthedino We love the Orange Trees in the courtyard and found the dinosaurs feeding on the fresh fruit.

$17,500

Meteorites for my buddy Chris.

I marveled at beautiful Ammonites as usual. It seemed there were more of these Ammonites than usual. I was told there indeed were more because it is Chinese New Year and the Chinese seem to favor these fossils. I saw several with “Sold” on them.

The main room at the HTCC is where you will many major fossils, including large impressive Ammonites. I saw a 9′ long fossil Swordfish called a Protosphyraena nitida (Late Cretaceous). The room seemed to be busy, but not overwhelming. We had a great time at this show and will return.

I have a couple very special things I found today.

As usual I had to curb Bonnie’s lust for Sonoran Sunrise, but I did allow her to look at some, so I did solve her addiction for another day.

Vendors occupy rooms as with other hotel shows.

No telling what may be in a room.

The vendors occupy rooms at the hotel, many with amazing displays. One of the oddest contained carved Mammoth Tusks. If you are a specimen collector, or meteorite collector, this is the show. I saw Geoff Notkin (The Meteorite Men), selling assorted meteorites, including Muonionalusta slabs from meteorites actually found on the show. There were loads of space rock to be had here.

I saw my buddy Ken Flood at his Keeweenaw Gem & Gift Booth. He was very busy as usual. He had something very special to show me. This is one of the items I have to show you tomorrow. I have been hunting rocks in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for many years , and have never encountered anything like I purchased from Ken. NOW you’re curious, I’ll bet.

After lunch we drove about 10 miles north of the city center to a new show called The Rock Show. The Rock Show used to be adjacent to Electric Park (now Kino), but the property was sold, and the show went seeking a new location. We were glad someone at Quartzsite told us about this which was good because is isn’t even listed in the big book of shows. We did find it in a small brochure, so decided to head out to see what was there.

Bracciated Mookaite

Bonnie getting her fix. Her comment "Someone put a lot of time into polishing this, so I should admire it."

The Fossil Fish.

A nice selection from someone's cast off pile.

My gently used new saw.

Aspenite and Mexican Crazy Lace.

Check out the Thomsonite I found.

The most amazing Larimar I've seen. I mentioned it yesterday. I think the soft yellow with the Larimar Island is remarkable and unique.

A small group of vendors comprised the show, some who previously sold goods at the old Rock Show, and some new vendors. This is a dirt lot, east of I-10, we exited at #251. It looked like about 10-15 tents, a few RVs, sparsely populated. It didn’t look real promising, but since we drove out there, we decided to look around. This was a Sunday afternoon and only a handful of shoppers were around. Vendors were friendly, and there was good conversation and relaxed personal attention. No imported goods, and hardly any beads. It was like a tiny version of Desert Gardens at Quartzsite. One vendor had a tub filled with random slabs and rocks, many agates and jaspers that I like. Digging through the water in this tub produced some real surprises including gem silica, Condor Agates, shadow agates, picture petrified wood, Queensland Agates, and other “good stuff”. So far this was my favorite few minutes of the day–I love to look through other people’s discards. I ended up with about 5 pounds of treasures.

Another vendor had something I have not seen before, called Aspenite. it is a silicated limonite with chrysocolla from Oro De Conception in north central Mexico. Some of this rock had been sent to the GIA for identification, and they identified the minerals, but said it had no name. Not much has been found, and I splurged on a single small cabochons because the orange and green colors were so striking! And I love the unusual. I also bought the Crazy Lace Agate cabochon that you see in the picture because I liked the colors.

One vendor had an assortment of lapidary equipment on his table, some new and some used. I was attracted to a used 6″ Wizard rock saw. These are sturdy little units from Diamond Pacific. This one had been gently used and was in good condition, and included a saw blade. This was my equipment purchase for this year. Even though I have a few saws (maybe 7 or 8), each one has key attributes. I might have to sell off another old 6″ saw.

I guess the moral of this story is “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” You never know when treasures might be lurking in out of the way places. I hope this show succeeds, but they will need to do much more publicity in future years.

Tucson Gem Mineral and Fossil Shows–Electric/Eclectic Park

The line forms early at the Gem Mall-Just get out of the, or get bloody from a "Bead Lady's" luggage.

The line forms early at the Gem Mall-Just get out of the way, or get bloody from a "Bead Lady's" luggage.

At 9:30 we were in line to start shopping at the Gem and Lapidary Wholesale (GLW) Show at two giant hard sided tents that are referred to as the Gem Mall. We got a mild soaking of rain before the opening time of 10:00, so everyone was a bit damp, and very eager for the anticipated bargains inside. We can always tell the people we call “Bead Ladies” because they have wheeled luggage of assorted sizes, up to the size of a small Volkswagen. I have no love for Bead Ladies blocking aisles, but it is a necessary evil for a show that is primarily beads, piles and piles of beads. Also, there are numerous booths full of gaudy and tacky imported goods. I am not saying that there are not quality goods at the show, but in general they are few and far apart. Most of these vendors are from various Asian countries, where apparently only cash is accepted. Do you think there might be some tax avoidance involved?.

Pictures are not allowed at this show and there are signs and security guards (picture police) on hand to enforce this rule. It’s a shame there are not the number of tax police as there are picture police. The country could use the extra cash.

I was alone in my quest today, as Bonnie went on adventures with our daughter who lives in Tucson. I walked down every aisle of these giant tents and saw very little of interest for myself. The Bead Ladies seemed happy in their frenzies at the bead tables. However, one dealer at this show had the most beautiful Larimar I have seen (and there has been a lot). I thought the price was quite high, but Larimar jewelry is very popular , so I did buy a couple pieces because they are so distinctive.

1979 Lincoln Town Car (18,000 original miles). Amazing things you see at a rock show!

Need a log?

Another one I'd like to get in my RV.

Art with rocks.

A Giant rock I noticed filled with Tourmaline Crystals, some Watermelon. See the size of this rock. It is at the far end of the petrified log standing tall.

TACKY!!!

This woman not passing up Sonoran Sunrise (again).

Sure; You can buy hides here.

You saw this in a previous picture of rock art. Anybody know what it is? It as the Tourmaline coloration, but I need input.

You saw this in a previous picture of rock art. Anybody know what it is? It is the Tourmaline coloration, but I need input.

I would have never thought of making an Amethyst Geode Bug-way cool.

I liked this statue.

Now this is my kind of show.

Calcite lights and Tables

Nice Chrysoprase.

The Collin's Petoskey Stone booth.

Bonnie & I met up later at the Kino Gem and Mineral Show (better known as Electric Park). Happily, these shows are not far apart. I don’t know how to describe this show, it is so eccentric. This year many vendors were here who previously had been in the RV Rock show across the street, since that piece of property has been taken over by the hospital for a helicopter pad and whatever else they have planned. You can never tell what you might see at this show. Everything from tacky foreign imports, guns, rugs, steer skulls, statuary, rough rock, slabs, gemstones, tables, shirts, arnica lotion, rock & gem tools, machines, and of course giant amethyst geodes. And massive amounts of Beads. Beads. Beads.

This show is both inside large tents and outside in show tents. I think I love this show because the treasures are so well hidden and I am so happy when I find something! We saw our good friends from the Traverse City area, Mary and her son Hubert Collins, selling Petoskey stones as usual. Mary is a long-time friend from our Grand Traverse Area Rock and Mineral Club.

I took a a variety of pictures to allow you to get the feel of this show. I took one picture of some beautiful malachite and realized that another friend from our Michigan rock club Dave Perry was in my picture! Later Bonnie met up with Karen Perry in the parking lot. It is a small world, bringing people together through a love of Rocks!

At a rock show??

Like this is a natural fossil...

Nice D-Bone and crap at Wade's

Yes there are antique guns...

Low crowds and piles of rocks (bags of geodes)

What a small world. I took this picture and saw my friend from our little rock club appear. in it

What a small world. I took this picture and saw my friend Dave from our Michigan rock club was in it!

Printstone from Australia

Gaspieite Australia Obicular Granite. I need new kitchen counters, but how do I take this home in the RV?

This is odd. A jade dino guarding buckets.

This is odd. A jade dino guarding Turkish Olive buckets and a pack saddle. Only at this show.

As usual Wade’s Wood and Rocks had wonderful dinosaur bone and a large pile of coprolite if you wanted some “crappy” stuff. Bonnie got some petrified wood beads here, which you seldom find. I found a small gemmy dinosaur bone which I bought for future jewelry-making.

We wandered around Kent’s Tools, which is always an interesting spot to look for things that you didn’t know you needed. They have more specialty pliers than you can imagine! Always busy, the line was pretty short today. Enjoy the picture from today’s adventures. We appreciate all the positive feedback we are getting on Facebook! Stay tuned…

Oh I almost forgot. The Lincoln is stored in Phoenix and is only brought out for the rock shows every year. So its a rock getter.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-Finding Something New

lightedcrystals

So far the largest Geode.

Today, all the shows at the hotels on “The Strip” opened. This is a row of hotels on the service road on the West side of I-10. We favor a parking lot south of the Riverpark Inn. (all day $5). We walked all the way north,then headed back toward where we parked. Experience has taught us that the rock bags get heavier as you go, so start light and work back as they fill. crystals

As we walked from the lot I spotted Mike Carlson, the author of the fabulous and beautiful book, “The Beauty of Banded Agates”. We chatted a while, catching up on various topics. Snob Appeal Jewelry participated as vendors at the past two International Agate shows, where we met Mike.

Nicely carved (and curved)

I did stop to say hi to my buddy, and agate dealer, Jeff Anderson of Dwarves Earth Treasures at his booth at the Rapa River Show, before walking north.

The first show we visited was the Globe X show at the Days Inn. As with all hotel shows vending takes place in rooms, tents, and courtyards. The aisles are crowded with an array of rock and non-rock goods. It is not uncommon to see rugs next to gemstones. It’s all part of the fun.

Saw lots of Lapis.

I’ll attempt to remember what I purchased and where, but as anyone that comes here knows, the mind gets overloaded, so I apologize in advance for my “oldsheimers”. Bonnie says she can’t help much..”Where did you buy those little opals?” Bonnie: “I don’t know, it all runs together.” That made me feel A LOT better.

Kammereite

I was very excited about a couple items. I was just wandering along and on a table outside a room was a rock I did not know. It was a reddish-purple and light green, a very striking and unusual combination. I asked the man in the hotel room, and he said in was Kammererite, a stone from a new secret locale in the mountains in the northern part of India. It also can be found in Turkey and California, among other places. It is a red form of Clinochlore– I liked the stuff. We always like the rare and unusual, so I bought a piece of rough.

Watermelon plus a blue filled Tourmaline.

The priciest purchase today was a Watermelon Tourmaline slice. I bundled it with a piece of Blue Tourmaline inside pink Tourmaline. A couple real stunners.

Hotel Courtyards are filled with rocks.

Bullseye Malachite I selected.

After the Globex show we continued south to the Rapa River Show and the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show (Riverpark Inn), looking at and purchasing random items of interest. The RiverPark show is alsways interesting because they feature massive quartz crystals and large amethyst geodes as well as amethyst furniture (tables). At some of these vendors you would think you were in Bedrock. The most impressive thing was a large Jade table with 6 rock benches that you could take home for $12,000. If I had the money to buy it, reinforce my house, ship this tonnage, and try to find someone foolish enough to put it in my house, I would have bought this in a heartbeat. Oh wait–I think that was lawn furniture!

A gem grade amethyst table. About 3' across.

A cursory look at these three shows took about 4 hours. We will go back later to look at hallways and items we missed I had to go back to J.O.G.S. and pick up a parcel of Bullseye Malchite and some assorted Craft Stones.

Even though the Tucson shows are exciting and fun, they are also quite mind-numbing and wearing, especially on aging bodies. Where I used to go from daylight to dark, I really need to quit early in the afternoon now. This is why we spread out our shopping over the two weeks of the shows. Though there is a certain frenzy to get there first and have the “best pick”, you just can’t do everything the first day!

Real rocks & fake rock blocks.

A skull carved in Pyrite. It really shined in the sun.

What is Don studying?

What was Don looking at? A patriotic, Chinese manufactured, picture made of multiple tiny rocks. This just sparkled in the sun.

What an awesome Smoky Quartz.

Casadonia Agate looks suspiciously like Blue Lace. I was told it's from Namibia.

Amazing Ruby/Zoisite was more like Zoisite in Ruby. Fantastic color.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-Hot buys and Hot Miners

A nice group of Raptors. Triebold Paleontology always Impresses.

Another Triebold Specimen: This one a Thescelosaurus Neglectus (65 million years ago)

We were really excited today to get on with our buying and exploring at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows. There are some 41 official shows and several bandit shows scattered all over Tucson. They open and close at various times. You need a show guide (a large catalog) that lists the locations of shows, dealers, and dates for shows. Some shows require dealer ID, while others are Wholesale/Retail.

Buckets of Turquoise at J.O.G.S.

Turquoise Bead picking.

The J.O.G.S. Show opened at the Tucson Expo Center and we were near the front of the line. We were not really looking for anything in particular, so we Freestyled, looking for things we did not know we needed. Bonnie looked at, and purchased some beads. We look for quality and bargains, but were conservative in our purchases. The crowds were not large, but people were spending some money. I would call the J.O.G.S. show “busy”.

I saw buckets of Turquoise in the usual spot, some nice cabochons and much gem material. Perhaps pictures were frowned upon, but I ask several dealers, and they said I could take a picture. One dealer that we deal with every year again had great stuff. I purchased a Moss Agate cabochon and a wonderful slab of Maw Sit Sit.

Maw Sit Sit from Burma (Now Myanmar)

Maw Sit Sit is a cousin of Jade, but not really Jade. It is considered a rock and not a mineral. You can look it up on line. A very interesting stone indeed. Good stuff is also quite valuable. I looked over on the counter and saw three pieces of Elbite Tourmaline. Are you kidding three pieces of fairly good Tourmaline for a give-away price? This must be a mistake. It was not. The largest piece was 2 1/2″ X 1 1/4″. The buy of the day.

Blakes Guard...Don't mess with the silver dude!

Blake Brothers' Guard...Don't mess with the silver dude!

I saw a very intimidating guard at the Blake Brother’s booth.

A scary skull available for purchase. Bumblebee is not jasper. It is a sulfur rich volcanic Tuft from Indonesia. It can be made into some very colorful Bumblebee jewelry.

We proceeded on to the 22nd Street Show. Last year we were promised an additional tent and a paved lot, but that did not happen. Half the show was fossils and dinosaurs, and the other half random gems, jewelry, cabs, and carvings. If your kids are into dinosaurs, do take them here!

Amanda Adkins has to be the "hottest" Miner around.

The entire cast of the Weather Channel Show “The Prospectors” was there. I asked Amanda Adkins for a picture. She graciously agreed. She is very tough on the show, but very nice in person. It doesn’t hurt the eyes to see her either. I enjoy the show and everyone was taking turns in the booth and selling their wares from Colorado.

A great Dendritic Agate I could not resist.

Tourmaline for four bucks. Nice buy Don.

Tourmaline bargain. Nice buy Don.

Smilodon Skull and Petrified Wood.

Check in tomorrow for more adventures from the Tucson rock shows.

Tucson Gem Show-The BIG Show-Featuring Flourite

back-of-conctr

Inside the TCC before the show opened.

The 59^th Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show opened at the Tucson Convention Center today. There was so much of this year’s featured mineral I literally got tired of looking at it. flor1 flor2uk flor3 flor4 flor5 flor6 flor7 flor8 flor9 flor10 flor11 There are big Fluorite fans out there, and although I like it, I find agates a bit more to my liking. Some of the best Fluorite specimens from around the world were on display; China, England, Switzerland, Illinois (of course), and several other locations. I’m only going to show you a few of the over 100 pictures I took, but the rock club will be amazed at the April meeting.

I found one dealer at the show that had some exceedingly rare Wingate Agate Slabs, from Wingate Pass near Death Valley. Years ago, this California material was hunted on what is now Edwards AFB. So it really would be a dead end if you attempted to hunt on the China Lake bombing range. Not many people were recognizing the stuff, but I think it is arguably some of the finest plume agate ever found.

It pays to be one of the first to a trough of slabs. Not only Wingate, but a dino bone slab with a fortification agate in it; and RED for Valentine’s day.

In years past it has been the tradition of the

smithsonianjewel Smithsonian Institution to loan a piece of value to this show. You can tell you are approaching because you will see the police officer there guarding it. In the case was a necklace of 374 diamonds and 15 Columbian emeralds, The necklace was purchased by Harry Winston in 1948 from the Maharaja of Indore and became a part of Winston’s “Court of Jewels” traveling exhibition. In 1955 the necklace changed ownership and was later bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution.

silverdog

Besides Fluorite there were other minerals displayed. Bonnie’s favorite was the huge chunk of silver dubbed the Silver Dog. We saw beautiful gold specimens, some fantastic gemstones including blue-capped tourmaline, and several dealers brought out their premium specimens for purchase and viewing. My favorite was a giant fish skeleton puppet of a normally 5 inch fish expanded to eight foot, with a fellow walking around inside. Look at the picture and imagine a guy inside it.

Foot carving.

Turquoise from Canana Mine in Mexico.

Dolphin carving

Fish Puppet-Normally a 6" Cockerellites liops. This bog one was named "Spike"

Wingate.

D-Bone

When the “Big Show” opens, we know this year’s show is drawing to a close. This will be my last blog until I get home and unpack all the boxes I’ve sent home. I’ll take a picture of the pile and show you the highlights.

I appreciate all the nice feedback, so I know you have been enjoying my stories.

See you back in the cold and snow. YUK.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Crystals & Crashes

Winter in am then sunny & 55

Frost in Tucson!

The skyline of Tucson enhanced by Petrified Wood-very cool.

I can see owning this nice coffee table.

A spectacular Quartz pocket-Ron Coleman specimen $600k

End detail of Coleman Specimen.

9K for this one.

10K for this one.

There was heavy frost this morning in Tucson folks. This caused major headaches, as the normal Tucson resident has little experience with icy roads like us northerners. The lighted sign on the freeway said “Winter Driving Conditions”. We waited for the sun to melt the roads, and the wrecks to clear. We then dropped in at the JG&M (Jewelry, Gem & Mineral) Show. We like this show housed in a medium sized hard-sided tent on Simpson Street. There was not a crowd and I chatted with several dealers to pick up rock trivia I use both to make your blog-reading experience more rewarding!

One of my favorite movies is Finding Nemo. I saw a fossil relative of the absent-minded Dory and I got a “gneiss” laugh. Sometimes I might act just like Dory. Don:”Hey Bonnie what is this rock??” Bonnie: “That’s Quartz you dummy”. Don: “I KNEW that.”.

This is actually a Gyrodus Frontatus fossil from Germany.

I took some photos at the JG&M Show. There were some great fossils, specimens, and cabochons, but we were quite thrifty today.

The rock hunt was called early today. We may or may not go out tomorrow. The Main Event, the big show starts Thursday featuring Flourite.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Bear Traps & Beads

Cold 50, cloudy, and rain Yuk!

Here’s a hint for you. If you need good parking at the Tucson Rock shows, try going on a weekday that is cold and rainy. No problem with parking at Electric Park today.

This, by far, was the neatest stack of Tiger Eye we have ever seen. (Electric Park)

We started at a small show at the Grant Inn. There were few dealers there, but Bonnie had seen an ad for Arizona stones and beads, particularly peppermint jasper. (She does keep coming back to pink). He also had some somewhat rare Lightning Quartz beads that when rubbed together create an effect called triboluminescence. We saw him demonstrate the effect when two pieces of this quartz were rubbed together it produces a light eminating from the stone. These stones have a long history of use by medicine men, and are involved with rainmaking.

Triboluminescence: The property that some materials become luminous upon being scratched, crushed, or rubbed. Examples of substances exhibiting triboluminescence include the minerals fluorite (CaF₂), sphalerite (ZnS), and wintergreen LifeSavers! There are two types of triboluminescence. The first type results from the storage of electrons which have been ejected by the penetrating gamma radiation of ⁴⁰K decay in lattice defects. A small mechanical shock is then sufficient for these electrons to overcome their energy barrier and cascade down to ground state. The second type is observed most frequently in sugars (including wintergreen Life Savers), and results from the breaking of certain bonds. This breakage creates free bonds, which immediately absorbs and ionize nitrogen from the atmosphere, producing a characteristic green or blue-green flash. Maple syrup sucrose produces an especially strong effect. (From Wolfram Research)

We witnessed it in a darkened room and it was like lightning in a stone. The closest thing you may be able to relate it to is the effect we sometimes get when grinding a Quartz, or agate on a diamond wheel. I guess just go buy some Wintergreen Lifesavers and be amazed.. This is the wacky sort of trivia I like.

We visited other dealers including Daniel Lopacki that has been our source for saw blades for many years, but had never met him. He is also a great fan of Victoria Stone, and I enjoyed seeing his personal cabochon collection that was very colorful and reminded us how beautiful this stone is for handcrafted jewelry.

Weirdness-traps & beads (and rugs)

Rhodocrosite. Bonnie likes pink!

We were driven inside and saw a Mountain of beads at one dealer.

: You know I like unusual jewelry. Here is something really cool: a piece of a Mastadon tooth from S. Carolina. I promised the dealer I would make a pendant from it, and so I shall.

We returned to Electric Park with darkening skies and shortly after we visited with Mary and Hubert Collins from our rock club, it did start to rain and we had to go inside to tour around again. We found some really nice large drilled amethyst focal beads that we hadn’t seen previously. Also, I went back to the Diamond Pacific tent again and ordered a new set of wheels for my Xpert that I purchased last year.

We left Electric Park and went to the International Wildlife Museum which kept us out of the rain and reduced spending to only our admission fee.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Stripping for Skulls

Sunny 55

"A" Mountain, Sentenil Peak dominates Tucson. The "A" is for University of Arizona

Rutilated Quartz

I covered the Freeway Strip today from one end to the other looking for odd stuff. I went out by myself early, and was at the shows when they opened. It was cold enough the car was frosted, but the sun came out and it seemed warmer than the 55 degrees it registered later in the day. It was cool in the shade.

Gems looking good in the sun.

Chrysoprase

A Rockhound with a Rockhound

Quartz in the morning.

Rainbow Obsidian

Specular Hematite and Iron Ore was $3 a pound, but the dealer would sell it for $2 if you took a 1000#

I started at the Clarion Inn and worked my way north to the Howard Johnson, then all the way north until I got to the Days Inn, this incorporates 5 shows. Some of the vendors were on their last day. This means sellers were motivated to sell (bargains+). Later I drove further north to the Ramada Limited for the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show. The Clarion Gem and Mineral Show has a wide variety of merchandise and in the rear is a large open space and tent where El Paso Rock Shop has the largest selection of rough rock in Tucson—by the barrel or by the piece. You can find almost any type and quantity there, making it a great place to dig around. I couldn’t help but choose several several of the Royal Imperial Jasper cabs that I have seen at the shows. This stone makes beautiful quality jewelry. I looked through the piles and barrels of rock and discovered a few fifty-gallon drums of crap! Coprolite you might call it.

The finest Quartz skull in Tucson.

It is always interesting to see the skulls at Skulls4U. Ivo Fuykschot from the Netherlands represents Leandro deSouza, a famous stone carver from Brazil. I saw the largest carved quartz skull in Tucson, around 315 pounds of clear smoky and yellow quartz available from Skuls4U for $150,000. It is the practice of Skulls4U to name their major skulls. This one is named Akator. He had numerous other large and small skulls, but none in the class of Akator. Ivo was a real nice guy, so if you have some spare change, this would be a good place to spend it.

TRILOBITES

the "blimp" of Tantric Shiva Linghams.

I briefly looked over what was left over at the other shows and bought some really nice tourmaline-in-quartz and lapidolite from a Brazilian dealer. At the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show I found a dealer on his last day who had Teepee Canyon and Dryhead Agate. I bought a nice selection from Tom Wooden of Fairburn Agates from Rapid City, SD, and he had hunted all the Teepee Canyon material himself. He told me that mechanized digging that they employed years ago is no longer allowed in this area. It is much more unusual to find these agates by only using surface collecting. Tom had a beautiful collection of Fairburn Agates at the Celebration of Agates display last summer.

I found some other small surprises that I intend to make jewelry out of, and I will show them to you later. Bonnie showed up later and we looked at the Tantric Shiva Linghams in the back tents. The grand daddy black one was 8’3″ and reminded me of the Goodyear Blimp, grounded! It is my Odd Stuff of the Day winner.