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.
- The reason for the title of this blog is evident in the photo that I took here. Where else can you shop for antique bear traps and beads together in one store?
- 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.