Tucson Gem Shows-Westward Look-Part 2

82 sunny

Today I continue on part 2 of our visit to the Westward Look Resort for their specimen show. The most prestigious dealers in the world come there every year to sell what arguably are the finest specimens in the world. I hope my information and spellings are correct on the pictures. I took a lot of time trying to get them correct.

Tourmaline and Lepidolite-Minas Gerais

Sugalite-South Africa ($7500)

Rutile with Hematite-Brazil ($13,500)

From right-Spodomene (Minas Gerais), Aqua with Albite and Mucovite (Pakistan), Halite & Selenite (Thuringia, Germany)-$10,000

From right clockwise: Dioptase -Namibia, Crocoite-Austrailia, Plumbogummite & Pyromorphite-China $85,000

Amethyst with Calcite-China ($12,500)

Aquamarine & Flourite-Pakistan

Stibnite-China (I wondered how the hell this did not break)

Flourite-China

Rhodocrosite-Sweet Home Mine, Colorado

Gelena & Marcasite (Reynolds Co., Missouri)

Tourmaline on Quartz-Minas Gerais

Plumbogummite (Pyromorphite)-China ($85,000)

Bonnie says this is a fine show for several reasons. 1. Amazing specimens, 2. Free parking, 3. We spent no money (because we could not afford anything), 4.The scenic views as we walked out of the rooms and 5. It kept us out of other shows (Where we spend money)

Datolite from Russia

I could have taken a thousand pictures at this show, but I’m just baiting you. Come to Tucson and look for yourself. Tucson should be on every Rockhound’s bucket list.

Tomorrow we return to the Miners Co-Op show and are stunned to see 3 times the vendors that were there a week ago.

Tucson Rock, Mineral, & Fossil Showcase-Westward Look

Sunny and 80!

Tourmaline-Minas Gerais. About 1 foot long. $75,000

smokey:aqua and?, aqua and morganite-pakistan

From top clockwise-Smokey Quartz, Tourmaline, Aqua and Morganite

Azurite/Malichite

From right-Tourmaline, Morganite, Liddicoatite( ($54000), Tourmaline, Topaz (Myanmar)

Flourite, Calcite, Pyrite (Peru) $14,000

Guindel Quartz (Switzerland)

Since I am not a specimen collector, I tend to avoid shows that specialize in them, and have not ever taken Bonnie to the Westward Look Resort in the foothills north of town where the classiest specimens can be found. I have been there in the past and enjoyed it, so today that is where we went to look at the eye candy.

Emerald (Beryl), Laguna Beach, California

Rutile with Hematite and Quartz (Brazil) $10,000

Native Copper (Surprise-it’s from New Mexico)

Westward look at the Westward Look Resort

Both foreign and domestic dealers are represented at this show. They advertise 40 dealers, many selling to museums and discriminating collectors worldwide. Each dealer has a room at the Resort and it looked at though purchases were being made, where we saw gaps in the cases and saw many conversations going on between knowledgeable people. We wandered from room to room looking at their beautiful specimen displays. The cases are illuminated professionally, with special true-color LED lights. Due to the number of photographs, I will divide this and give you more photos tomorrow. Each specimen is museum quality, and it was hard to choose favorites to take pictures of, with thousands of premiere specimens to see. I did not note who each of the owners were, but hope you enjoy seeing the photos.

Tucson Gem Shows-JGX

75 and gusty

Steam-punked Water Buffalo was very bizarre.

We began today at an interesting smaller show, the Jewelry, Gem & Mineral Exposition (JGX in the tent you can see from the Interstate) on Simpson Street. Parking is good there, and the crowds are not as thick, there on the weekend, like some other shows. We recommend this show if you have walking issues or handicap issues and want to participate in the gem shows. They have a variety of products here, solid parking, a firm floor, smaller crowds, open to the public, and not such a huge venue.

Happy picking small cabs for earrings.

Good Chrysocolla seems to be in poor supply this year.

Pyrite crystals.

Atocha Treasures

A couple of dealers there always get some of our interest.

Very fine Yowah Opal.

Jeff and Kerry Chappell sell the most beautiful Yowah Opals which they mine and process in Australia. This booth is a marvel with purple, blue, green opal glistening up at you. He knows his work and is helpful and informative, and has lots of eye candy.

Bonnie made the rounds of the whole building, and then settled in with the first things we saw when we entered the tent! She proceeded to spend a long time choosing well-matched gemstone earring sets. Now she has plenty of work to do, but is excited to have such nice items to work with! I talked with a lot of vendors while she was there.

I discovered Lasco Diamond Products. They had a great selection of rotary tool bits. I purchased a couple of new slicer bits that just came out. I will definitely put these to use with my Dremel and Foredom when I get back to my shop. If you need a rotary tool bit, they will have what you need, and I found them to be very friendly and knowledgeable.

Feeding frenzy at one table.

A mechanical Gorilla swingnging a sighn in a circular motion. Hey it’s better and cheaper that a guy dancing in front of a pizza joint!

hese girls are so happy; “Look, we found seed beads”.

Turtle shells in a tub. I don’t explain em, I just sees em.

Bufallo skull pile is shrinking

The whole booth for sale.

My best find of the day was a coffee cup featuring Wingate Pass Agate. I was promised these would be available at the Tucson Gem Shows while at a street fair earlier in December.

We went back to the Kino show again, for some afternoon shopping adventures, with our daughter. Inside the tent, and outside in the vendor areas, we took another look at the normal quirky things there, including a reduced pile of buffalo heads from the last time we were there.

A large tent way in the back had vendors selling slabs of rare rocks. One vendor had slabs of Larimar. He had more Larimar than other vendors I have seen, and of good quality. He advised us that rough Larimar chunks are no longer coming out of the Dominican Republic, but only slabs are being shipped out. I picked out a special piece, and will likely go back to study his pieces further.

I bought a piece of Dinosaur Bone of an unknown color. I plan to cut it tomorrow and will show you the colors after I cut it. I love the gamble.

Ammonite Fossil Plate

A fine fossil plate containing ammonites, probably from Alberta Canada, as many of the fossils had an opalized exterior. I thought this would be a wonderful item to put bright lights on and trip over in your home.

Squid Tree

I saw a tree trunk carved into a giant squid, fish, and what not. I took a picture, since it is hard to explain.

Another quirky thing was a Steam-punked Water Buffalo skull, again hard to explain! We even saw a whole booth for sale for $1800. You could get right into business!

The weather returned to the mid 70s today, sunny, beautiful. It was a Saturday and very crowded and busy at Kino, so we decided to take off and return to shopping after the weekend is over. We like to shop, but not risk our lives doing it. We’ll take the day off tomorrow. We want to do a little work on some of those items we have acquired, so stay tuned!

Tucson Gem Shows-JCK, AGTA, and GJX

64 sunny

AGTA Show at the Tucson Convention Center

A couple big wholesale shows were on my agenda today. After parking at the Marriott Starr Pass, and checking out a very small JCK show, I took the shuttle bus to the AGTA (America Gem Trade association) Show at the Tucson Convention Center, and also the GJX (Gem & Jewelry Exchange) across the street from the Convention Center.

AGTA is a serious gem trade show with high-end gemstones everywhere. Faceted Gems are not my forte, so I usually just skim this monster show.

I do keep an eye out for a hidden bargain though. As I was strolling the show and sort of doing the fast scan, what should my eyes behold but four small pieces of Rhodochrosite. Not just any Rhodochrosite, but Rhodochrosite from Inakuraisi Mine in Hokkaido, Japan, a mine that I last saw Rhodocrosite from many years ago. This mine closed perhaps 30 years ago. I will attempt to take a picture of the piece I purchased. I think it is solid and pink with an amethyst tinge. Again, the quest for old material made my day.

A couple of special gemstone pieces were on display from Smithsonian. One was the Logan Sapphire, at 42.3 cts, the largest mounted gemstone in the National Gem Collection! It is surrounded by diamonds, and mined in Sri Lanka.

GJX across from the AGTA Show

At GJX, the finished fine jewelry trade and fine faceted gemstones dominates. A highlight was visiting Gary Wilson Lapidary Design where Gary has a large presence. Gary is from Traverse City and Tucson so I have known him for many years. His cabochons are fabulous and many buyers flock to his booths every year. He will also be at the Main Event Show next weekend.

Gary Wison and Amy

I was able to find a couple Datolites with wonderful color from the Keweenaw Peninsula. The colorful Datolites are becoming scarce as waste piles are rapidly being crushed for road fill. Finding good Datolite always makes my day.

On the way back to the RV I stopped at the Tucson Showplace and bought some Purple Passion Agate from the Gem Shop. This a new find from Mexico. I showed you a piece in an earlier blog that Jeff Anderson had, and am hopeful mine will also be good stuff.

I have confusion sometimes identifying Picture Jaspers from the Northwest,

so I was happy to find a new book of that name by Hans Gamma and Lauritz A Jensen. The book has great pictures and loads of information on these Jaspers.

The day ended at JCK with the world premiere of the new documentary film, Shaping the Rough. This movie followed a beautiful Tsavorite Garnet from the mine to a piece of finished jewelry. We enjoyed it and any time I can learn new things, I’m happy. We were wined and dined and treated like we were something. We met many others in the gem trade from around the country. The movie had some Michigan connections as the gemstone was cut in Royal Oak.

I had good fun today, and the evening date with Bonnie was also great.

Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Shows-Beads and G&LW

55 sunny

Gary at Caberlight sells his innovative LED lights.

A pleasant day but a bit cold (icy cold for the locals, T-shirt for me). We started at The Best Bead Show (that’s the name of it). I needed a couple new LED lights and Bonnie was in need of some supplies for kumihimo, a braiding material she has been playing around with. We were surprised to see that there were no outside tents like there was when we were here 2 years ago. We thought they might have expanded their space inside, but no, it turns out it was half the size of when we were there last.

Bonnie wanted to go there because this show has lots of seed beads, including new shapes that they keep coming out with. Who knew that those little things come in rectangles or triangles with two holes, or superduos or miniduos or rizos, or just plain o’s. Anyway, I was happy to find coffee and a bench, and she was happy to buy “stuff”.

The piles of beads abound.

After the Bead Show we hopped the Gem Show Shuttle over to the Wholesale Show at G&LW’s (Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers) giant tent, that I showed you on a previous blog. Really you are not suppose to photo anything, but I had a friend that took a couple; That’s my story anyway.

I was sitting in a “Guy Chair” waiting for Bonnie to get through this line.

These were really “Bling”. I did not enhance this photo.

The G&LW show has much buy/sell merchandise from China, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Austrailia, and many other places with vendors being of many nationalities. I have trouble understanding many of them, and they sometimes have trouble understanding me, but they all understand CASH! Most dealers at this show take credit cards and/or checks. We stocked up on ribbon and leather necklaces and some other premade items. There are few rough rocks at this show other than faceting rough, so I can move pretty fast for a guy with a bad leg. Tables stacked with beads, with the Bead Ladies attacking them with a furor reminiscent of piranha attacking. It seems the more Bead Ladies at the booth, the more it attracts other Bead Ladies. The show was busy even though it was midweek. I took a picture of a line Bonnie stood in. What was nice was a handy corral of resting chairs in the next aisle, and I was not the only guy there!

Shiny beads seem to be the product of the day, both faceted, manufactured simulates, and true gemstones. Even I was able to recognize that there were many more shapes and designs than in previous years. Dealers were in full competition to attract CASH!

Skulls with their heads blown off like that add on TV.

One funny thing I saw were carved skulls but these were different in the top was blown off like the ad you see on TV where the top of people’s heads get blown off. I found some very nice Botswana cabochons and that was about all I bought.

Here are a few things from the shows the last few days. It pays to have a loupe and a light, as there are many surprises in some show treasures. Quartz with inclusions come from Mina Gerais, Brazil (AKA Lodelite), and often contain hidden treasures, if you can find them and you have the CASH!

Lodelite (notice the Quartz Crystal in the Quartz) Very awesome?

Red Rutile in Quartz

Notice the crystal in the grass?.

Inclusions in this are probably Manganese.

Nice Ametrine

Star Rutile is very coveted.

Lodelite with Manganese inclusions

Sphalerite with Galena.

Nice colors for Botswana Agate.

Colorful Botswana Agate

I know a guy who has these hidden in his room. I cannot tell you where!

Tucson Gem Shows-Kents Tools

If you attend the Tucson Shows you expect Kent’s Tools to have a large display at Kino. This year the have only a small display of shop tools and assorted things for shoppers like small plastic envelopes and such.

Have no fear Kent’s fans. You can drive to their own new tool shop located at 2745 N. First Avenue, not far from their old permanent location in town. The have hustled and bustled to move their normal inventory that was always on display at the Kino show, so if you still need those hard-to-find drills, buffs, bags and boxes, pliers, tools, whatzits and doodads, go to the store. It is located at a separate show in the Tucson Show Guide.

This blog is a short version of my normal adventure blog, but I had to rest up from all my exploring! Besides it was cold again yesterday, and we tried to stay inside. Bonnie found a bead show. Luckily I finally found a “guy chair” there. (Yawn.) I promise a new blog tomorrow.

The reason they had to move from their original locale is their store was on one side of the road and their storage on the other. They are widening Grant (?) and the storage building was being removed as we understand it.

See you later today.

Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Shows-The Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show

45-50 Sunny (The natives wearing Winter Parkas, me OK in a sweatshirt.

Shiva Lingams’ outside front entrance

Waiting by one of the orange trees for one to drop off (or ready to leap for one)

The day was spent roaming and exploring The Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show at the Hotel Tucson City Center.

Another little Bastard wiring by the pool. I suspect it is easier to eat people without so many clothes on, or not wearing Parkas.

The rooms are filled with vendors, as is the upper lobby and Ballroom. I love this show for its wide selection and variety of things. I got there early so I could get parking. You can park elsewhere and ride a shuttle if you can’t arrive until later in the day.

Before you enter the hotel, you can view Shiva Lingam from India, which are considered to increase fertility. The big ones are in the five foot range. Most of these are worked into perfect melon shapes using lapidary methods.

Upper lobby area dealer rooms

Many rooms feature meteorites, mineral specimens, jewels, slabs, cabs, and mine finds from around the world. The ballroom always features fine fossils and beautiful ammonites abound. The hotel rooms both upper and lower levels are filled with more rocks, minerals, fossils brought and sold by foreign dealers. United States miners, and collectors are also in abundance. I saw the Dorris family from the Weather Channel’s Prospectors show, selling Colorado treasures in two rooms, and the Meteorite Men were selling their finds in another room.

Horrendous carnage in the courtyard.

Ken Flood-Keweenaw Gems & Gifts

This show is fun because of the fiberglass dinosaurs scattered around the grounds. I saw a raptor waiting for an orange to fall, baby dinosaurs, and a horrendous fight where two raptors were ripping pieces of meat out of a large beast. Very gory. A couple reproduction t-rex heads were lying in the courtyard as well as a raptor waiting for fresh meat to emerge from the swimming pool.

By exploring other dealers in a couple larger tents in the rear of the hotel, I saw a beautiful display of back-lit onyx and agate. I chatted with Ken Flood, a friend who sells Keweenaw materials, speciallizing in copper items. He said he was having a good show.

This one was sold

This was like a coffin for the person that has everything

This one $500,000

Inside the giant Geode

Even further behind the hotel I discovered Aurora Minerals in a more permanent building (called the Granada Avenue Mineral Show) featuring shockingly large amethyst cathedrals. One was sixteen feet long (that’s a stretch Limo!), possibly the largest ever found in Uruguay. I’ve never seen the likes of this. The pictures of this give you an idea of how nice it is–the cathedral was filled with gem grade amethyst. It had a long journey by train, ship, and truck. It can be yours for $500,000, if you are inclined. If I’d won that Lotto, I could have had a petrified wood table, a triceratops, AND a prize amethyst cathedral. I might even let my Facebook friends in to see them for free.

These Ammonites are always the most colorful things at the show

Backlit agate and onyx

I guess that giant Amethyst being sold by Aurora Minerals was really todays highlight. It ofter pays to have a look out back in these shows. A couple years ago I found A T-Rex loitering way out back in this same show.

Tucson Gem Shows-Beads and Bones

Miles of Beads at IGM

55 Rainy, snow sprinkles in the air (No kidding)

Three hours to just skim the surface here. The more we looked, the lighter our wallet.

Our day started earlier than usual at the International Gems & Minerals location at the Gem Mall. IGM is the largest bead dealer we’ve seen here in Tucson. Strictly a wholesale dealer, they open early, so they can sell to other vendors in town before they have to open at 10. It is really large, and not super well organized, so you might find something at one side, and they later find something similar that you like better several aisles over. And you have to ask for all prices (which is a pet peeve of Bonnie’s). But they had a large team and numerous people assisted us while we were there, and even though we are not a big buyer, they treated us very well.

In the Los Angeles area they have a shop and warehouse, with bead cutters and lapidarists that they employ worldwide. I chatted with Abdel Khattab, the owner of IGM, who has been in business for over 40 years. Bonnie shopped while I discussed products with him. It’s amazing the things you can learn by picking the brain of a someone that is a pioneer in the gem trade.

Bonnie loves her new “Bead Lady” Cart

You recall me speaking “lovingly” of Bead Ladies toting van-sized suitcases so they may deposit all their beads. Because we were such good customers today, IGM gave Bonnie a pull-behind two-wheel cart of her very own. Now she has a small cart like a Bead Lady wanna-be.

After lunch we had time for a quick stop at the Grand Luxe. This has some rocks, but mostly ethnic products, dresses, antiques, dragon sculptures, etc. Dan Lopacki has bead relics as well as hand crafted cabochons. We have often talked Victoria Stone over the years, and he has a pretty selection of them.

This show was so busy that I observed one vendor asleep in his room, apparently equally as excited about this show as we were. With cool temperatures, Bonnie was the only shopper in the courtyard.

Fine Amethyst in one gallery

Pictures for the wall

A 20′ Kings’ Table of Arizona Petrified Wood.

Coloroful Coffee Tables

Wall Decorations

Spheres anyone?

Bob

The worlds largest Mammoth Tusks

Around 1.3 million will put this in your home or office.

This Mamouth looks alive (at least one of them does)

From left: Baby Mammoth, Wooly Rhino, Mammoth

We left that excitement, and afterward stopped at the Mineral and Fossil Co-op. We read in the Arizona Daily Star about a rare Triceratops skeleton nicknamed Bob. One of the largest Triceratops skeletons ever assembled with original bones, this is 65% original bones, and was found on private property in North Dakota. It was found, and excavated from 2003-2014, when it went on display at the Barnes County Historical Society in North Dakota. A decline in oil revenue resulted in Bob being put up for sale. Everyone involved hopes Bob can continue to live in the US. It is for sale at GeoDecor inside the Mineral and Fossil Co-op. If you have a spare million plus, please buy him so he can continue his life in the Americas.

Here’s the Rhino sans fur (Buck Naked)

Where’s my mama?

A randon Raptor

Even though this co-op is a wholesale venue, the public can still go in and look at the fossils, including Bob. Other highlights here were wooly mammoth and mastodon fossils, a baby mammoth, a wooly rhino. A wooly mammoth skeleton was rebuilt with added fur, resembling what he probably looked like, as well as a wooly Rhino and a baby Mammoth with fur.

The largest pair of Mammoth tusks ever found (around 250 pounds each) is here. They were found by gold miners north of Fairbanks, Alaska, and were carefully preserved over six years before being ready to be shown.

Down the hall is a gallery featuring petrified wood furniture and décor. Most impressive was a 20 feet x 4 feet table slab from the Arizona Petrified Forest. Wall hangings, bright colors, browns, cut table slabs, this place has some real eye candy.

Almost eaten by a Megalodon

A Megaladon Mouth reproduction with real teeth hangs in one gallery. The real teeth are attached in their respective locations. These teeth were collected over many years with the intent to build an authentic representation. The largest tooth is over 7 inches. Measure that out and be in awe! We have seen this “guy” several times over the last few years. Each time I am reminded of how fortunate we are not to have these fellows filling our seas today. They had a voracious appetite!

If you can, you should stop into this interesting place, and if you can, be sure to buy “Bob”!

Tucson Gem Shows-The REALLY Big Show

76 Sunny Windy

Our day started off with the same question we ask every morning in Tucson; ” Where are we going today?” We look at the Showbook and today we decided on the largest combined shows at one location, The Holidome Marketplace and the Holidome Pavillions as well as a quick stop at Intergem which is in the Clarion (used to be Holiday Inn). The Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers (GL&W) is also on the grounds and is comprised of another two enormous hard-sided tents. These are wholesale shows.

So you have 4 giant hard-sided tents, so large it is impossible to fathom, sort off in a circular formation, like spokes, with an end of each tent tied into a central outside courtyard where assorted food is prepared and sold.

The Intergem Show is quite small consisting of dealers inside the hotel, both in the ballroom and halls as well as in a tent next to the Hotel. Bonnie found some very fine beads, and I mostly just sat in the lobby and waited. I liked the strands of faceted Unakite beads that we had not seen in other shows, as well as Tigereye. Sodalite, and banded Agate.

Bonnie selects stones for earrings

Our car was left in the Clarion where you can take the free shuttle to most other Gem Shows around town.

Inside a giant tent

You have heard me expound on my love (NOT) for bead ladies with big suitcases in crowded aisles where they run into your ankles and block traffic. You may have doubted me, but here you can see a vendor offering “Free Parking” for the suitcases while the Bead Ladies pick out their treasures. I talked to one Bead Lady who said she had a small suitcase, but I told her she was not a true Bead Lady.

The Holidome tents are maybe 60% finished jewelry, mostly imported from Asia, which is not of interest to us. Beads at the shows also tend to be from China or India, and the sellers are of these nationalities. We see quite a few foreign buyers at the shows, but not as many as there used to be, due to similar shows overseas. While Bonnie was looking at beads, I found faceted bicolor Lemon/Smokey Quartz with a phantom smokey crystal in it. I will be making this into jewelry soon.

Here are a few chic beads we found today.

Faceted Unakite

Sodalite, Tigereye

Ocean Jasper

Together we selected several pairs of matched cabochon beads for earrings. It was fun sorting through a large assortment of these.

We only went through the Holidome tents today. We have two more (bigger) tents left at this site!

Tucson Rock, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase-Kino and The Strip

77 and Sunny

Fossil Books (Literally they are made of fossils)

We had a short stop at Kino, took a few pictures, and covered a little more of that show. The treasures of the day were several small Lodelite Cabs, as well as discovering a very fine small, Star Rutilated Quartz in a $30 pile. This one was worth at least five times that. I’ll get some pictures of these fine gemstones later. Bonnie found some very fine Turquoise Beads and I picked out a strand of Dino Beads for a future project.

Nice thick Tiger Eye at Wades (Kino)

Guards outside Kino Show

Smokey Quartz

Lights are great behind Quartz.

Gibeon Meteoite skull. Really amazing and a foot tall

Somebody placed little skulls in the eye sockets of this big skull.

Ruby in Zoisite

The largest quartz sphere we’ve seen (Riverpark Inn)

New parking lot next to the Pueblo Show. $10 all day. There is cheaper, but it is handy.

Front of Riverpark

Notice the Lapis Table

Green on Red

Purple Passion Agate

Jeff Anderson showing his agates.

Hotel Courtyard

Sphalerite/Gelena

Orange happend when Amethyst is heated up.

Close on the Citrine

Pyrite shining in the sun.

After a break, we spent the rest of the day searching through the shows at the strip. Yes, we found many treasures at these Hotel Shows. I bought some Sphalerite/Galenite; this stuff is very cool. I just skimmed the surface of these Hotel Shows. For those never having attended these shows, all the hotel rooms and the courtyards are filled with rocks, gems, and fossils. I also found an Owyhee Agate Cab that looks exactly like Sleeping Bear Dunes.

The shows we attended were The Rapa River Show where our friend Jeff Anderson sells agates. He showed me a spectacular Purple Passion Agate. I bought some Blue Lace Druzy, and a couple of colorful agates from Patagonia (Not Condor). I hope you enjoy all the pictures from today.