Tag Archives: Rock shopping

A Good Thing Happened on the Way to Kino…Tucson Gem Shows 2017

I love reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. Reacher is always figuring the odds for everything, but even Reacher could not figure the odds of what happened yesterday. On our way to the Kino Sports Complex to buy a new Titan from Diamond Pacific, we stopped at the 22^nd Street Show just kick around. I saw a small sign that a dealer at the show was going out of business and liquidating his stock, including a used Titan lapidary machine! It turned out to be a great buy, and he had some extra tools, wheels, and add-ons that he had used. This morning we returned to pick up the “monster” that needed the whole back area of our little car.

My new (used) Titan takes up the entire back of the Tracker

Azurite Malachite from Morenci Az

Pretty nice D-Bone

If you are in town, be aware that the big Show Guide has been unreliable this year about dates that shows are open. This has been disappointing because this has always been the “bible” of when to visit the 45 shows!

Lots of Turquoise arond this year at Kino.

Turkish Stick Agate

Rock painting by A.Znaniecki

A. Znaniecki

Boulder Opal-Queensland

What’s inside?

Chrysoprase Australia

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tigereye

Mexican Carnilian

Rose Quartz

Asking $22,000????

Typical Vendor at Kino

We headed over to Kino with no particular plans now that I have my new/old Titan. Kino is always an eclectic variety of vendors. You never know what you might see here. In the farthest back tent I always find something of interest. I bought some Turkish Stick Agate that I am told is quite rare from Eskisehir, Turkey. Nearby were more buckets of Turquoise, and some vendors just getting set up. We sell agate pendants from many world locations, you can see them on our Agate Treasures web page.

By the door were some painted rocks that I liked by A. Znaniecki. He takes rock slabs and matches wildlife scenes onto the rocks. Amazing, creative and realistic, he was featured in a past Rock & Gem magazine.

A flea market of tents is set up in a large lot at Kino. A tent full of beautiful Malachite was one of the first things I saw. Nearby I bought some pretty Morenci azurite/malachite. Meanwhile Bonnie was talking to a miner of Queensland boulder opal. He had some pieces that were separated at the seams of opal, like puzzle pieces. He demonstrated how thin the seams of blue, green, and white colors are, hidden throughout the boulder matrix.

I had a nice talk with Bo Bohannon from Utah who has lots of dinosaur bone slabs and yellow cat petrified redwood. You may know that I really like both of these and have made various pendants from them, but I have some more ideas…stay tuned!

There are always sculptures, geodes, tabletops of rocks, and huge rock chunks. We saw some great chrysoprase. We skip past the hodge-podge imported goods from India and China, and stop to admire the rock cabochons and piles of rock. Note the pile of buffalo skulls. What would you do with one of them?

Rose quartz skulls were offered for $22,000, but maybe you could get a better deal, if you are in the market. Irridescent ammonites were $50-$2000, and other Morrocan ammonites were less expensive. See our ammonite pendants and more on our fossil page.

We left a lot of Kino unexplored, and left early to pace ourselves!

Tucson Gem Shows-JOGS and 22nd Street Show

A few of the Tucson shows are open earlier than the weekend, so here we go. JOGS and 22nd Street Show are two of the early open shows and they both have free parking. As the days progress the other shows will open.

JOGS used to be a wholesale show, but is now wholesale and retail, with various IDs issued. The JOGS has around 800 vendors, with some not rock-related. We saw garments and gift store items from India, wood carvings, purses. Primarily we saw rocks, geodes, beads, silver, and finished jewelry. We always shop for druzies here. After having fun sorting through these druzy piles, the rest of the time is hunt and seek things we didn’t know we needed. You never know who you might see. While selecting opal doublets, we ran into a gentleman from back home also carefully picking through the opal doublets. Often we see opal triplets, but seldom doublets, which have a thicker opal layer than the triplets. It was nice to go through the unsorted boxes of opals. So many opals!

After sorting opals I looked up and saw a man I recognized, but couldn’t place him. I finally remembered I had seen him on TV selling jewelry. We have a friend who often talks about the information she learned from Jay King. I often watch the Jewelry channels which are famous for women gushing over the jewelry. Jay knows the history of the rock as well as the manufacture of jewelry. Our friend Beth often comments on what she learned from Jay, so I collected an autograph from him for our friend. He commented on the triple Dinosaur Bone pendant I was wearing. He mentioned that he has sold Dinosaur Bone on a limited basis before. You never know who you might see at the gem shows, so keep your eyes open.

JOGS does not allow picture taking, but some of the dealers were agreeable, so you can see a few things we enjoyed. My policy is to always ask if I can take a picture. Beautiful carved jade sea turtles were the first things that caught my eye. Later I was impressed by gem grade rhodochrosite, some including galena. They had great slabs, carvings and fascinating stalactite rough. They had some rough stalactite pieces with beautiful eyes. I was inspired by a couple small slab pieces and purchased them. Much of their rhodochrosite was solid crystal, dark pink and interesting quality.

This show is a good source for turquoise, including buckets from various closed mines. Treated and untreated turquoise, finished jewelry, cabs, and lots of rough are available. Bonnie was wearing the untreated Sleeping Beauty piece I recently made, and we didn’t see any that color verifying that it is a rare beauty! Even the dealers were amazed at this old stock piece.

A big dog bone

Natural Topaz rough

Boxed of Moroccan Ammonites

Friend Jacquie and Bonnie looking for a knight in shining armor at 22nd stree.

Lots of petrified wood

A Really unusual fossil

What you’d see if you were about to be attacked by a Romanian cave bear.

This booth had everything from mastadon tusks to a megaladon mouth.

Bonnie in a sea of fossils and geodes.

Beautiful iridescent Canadian ammonites

Beautiful butterfly displays in abundance at this booth.

After lunch we moved on to the 22nd Street Show. The tent has grown again, and is packed full of vendors, has new lighting, and a wide variety of stuff. Major Fossil dealers are selling large dinosaurs, lots of Moroccan sellers, high quality Australian rock, crystals, cabochons, hand made jewelry, knives. I also saw the miners from the Prospectors TV show, and spoke with Geoff Notkin from the Meteorite Men. If you are bringing kids, this show has a wide variety and prices covering the gamut.

I was lucky to find something today that has been on my wish list for a few years. This hint is some bait so you’ll come back for tomorrow’s blog where I will show you what I bought!

Tucson Gem Shows 2017-Almost Here

Although most of the Tucson shows don’t open until January 27th, some dealers are open for business early. We visited a couple, the first is The Gem Shop from Cedarberg, Wisconsin. They feature some great rough from Eugene Mueller’s claims, in addition to more. This is always a great place for a couple designer Cabochons. I cut most of my own Cabs, but also purchase exceptional pieces for our Jewelry. You can see how nice these are. In this case I nabbed an exceptional Morrisonite and a colorful shadow Laguna.

Turkish Agate and A fine Sonoran Sunrise

A colorful Shadow Laguna and an amazing Morrisonite.

In addition Bonnie found a Sonoran Sunrise Slab with red, black and green, and I found a good, solid slab of Turkish Stick Agate.

The Gem Shop

Mostly fine Mexican Agates at The Gem Shop

Mookaite

Mostly Tiger Iron

Peanut Wood

Even the smallest town has strip malls with salons, coffee shops, and banks. Here in Tucson they skip those stores and have a “rock mall” this one is called the Tucson Showplace. So next door was another rock shop, Soklich where you will find a great selection of Australian material. They have some nice stuff! Pretty much all the semi-precious Aussie stuff is there; carvings and great rough, and lots of it, mookaite jasper, peanut wood, fossils, black jade, fuschite, zebra jasper, and shiny tiger iron. Clear quartz crystals were in the window of the next store front, but they weren’t open yet. This is a small show by Tucson standards, but open to anyone and fun to shop. We will go back again to catch the other side of the parking lot where Archy’s shop is (he’s always chatty), and fossils and other stuff down the line.

Downtown, The Strip

22nd Street Show grew up

All the show tents are set up and ready to get underway. I went up on “A” Mountain (Sentinal Peak) to see the difference from a couple weeks ago. Noticable was that the 22nd Street Show was just a vacant lot, but now there is a large hard-sided tent there. The tent seemed twice as large as last year, I do not know if it is twice as large, but indeed it is a much larger show than when it first started. All the shows at the “Strip” (the Hotels along US10) are set up and ready to go.

Shows opening up on the 26th, include the JOGS (wholesale and retail show) at the Tucson Expo Center on Irvington, The 22nd Street Show, and the SRGJ (Silk Road Gem & Jewelry Show) at the Grand Lux Hotel on Grant. I understand also that there are several new shows along main Street.

The show guides will not be available until the 26th, and I have yet to see the usual article in the local paper that always mentions what’s new, but I’ll keep you informed when I know.

New attendees to the shows usually are overwhelmed. Where do you go, where do you park, what shows can non-dealers go to, what shows are wholesale (business license required)? I’ll attempt to give you a few hints.

We love JOGS so we’ll go and fight the crowds on the 26th. There is free parking. it’s a wholesale-retail show. The wholesale buyers, guests, and such are ID’s by the badges (tags on lanyards they wear). the dealers might give a better deal to the wholesale buyers, but they are happy to sell to anyone!

We try to find free parking and take the free shuttle buses if we can. If I go to the strip and expect to be buying and carrying rocks, there are a couple parking lots that you have to pay around $10 for the day, but this may be worth it to you, as you can dump your load as it gets heavy. Remember to park, walk to the furthest venue and work you way back to your car. It makes no sense to start near the car, buy stuff and have a full bag at the furthest point, then have to lug it back to the car. Shop smart!

Some dealers will haggle with you on price. Often cash talks and the price is cheaper if you buy in volume. The prices you will pay on the first day of the show is most often more than you would pay on the last day. Many buyers sweep in for the weekend then they leave, so they cannot take advantage of this phenomena. The best selection is when the show opens though, and in may cases I like to get to the quality stuff and my customers expect the quality stuff from us.

There is a hugh lot across from the Mercado Mall at 6332 E Broadway Blvd, but if it rains, it’s a mess. You can take the local transportation (trolley) Sun Tran or walk to a shuttle bus stop.

it took me about 5 years before I felt comfortable at the shows; it really is overwhelming, but worth it when you find that hidden treasure.

Our first stop on Thursday is JOGS. They discourage picture taking, but I always ask dealers if I can take a picture; some say no, but some say yes; anyway ALWAYS ask.

Our adventure will continue daily, so check back. You never know when the internet will work properly at the RV resort.