Hello again from the desert Seriously! It hit 86 degrees here today which is a bit of a midwinter shock to us Northwestern folk. Not too many pics today as some of the dealers in GJX can be a bit shy about cameras around their stones.
Toady's goal was to score some Congo Tourmaline facet rough. As color and brightness go, it's incomparable. As a facet rough buyer, I always am hearing "Our Tourmaline's the best because it's from (Fill in the nation of your choice)". Bunk. The best (and most expensive) is from the Congo these days. Anyway, to spoil everything, I couldn't find any at GJX or anywhere I've been at the Tuscon Show. I do know some of the dealers that probably have some in the quality I'm looking for but since I don't have the defense dept. Budget at my disposal, I'm putting the Congo tourms on the back burner now.
So, where we are now is that we've got about 15 pounds of smokey, crystal and citrine points packed away and ready to ship. Leslie threatened me with bodily harm if I unpacked them or the Blue Zircon Rough, we picked up so being smart (and a coward too) they'll stay packed.
We did see some nice displays of Malachite rough in one part of the tent along a lot of first rate colored gemstones. The sign behind the Emeralds in the second pic says "Oil Treated". It's common to see oil used to fill in inclusions in rough and cut Emerald since most of them come out of the ground kinda gunky. It's NOT common to find a sell who will admit it so here's an example of what a legit dealer will do. Later today I looked at some Emerald rough that had so much oil on and in it that it was literally dripping and coating my hands in gunk. To bad my car didn't need an oil change.
Pic three is the same dealer with Padparascha Sapphire. Some of you may remember my showing some lab create Sapphire of this same color stone that sells (If you can find some) fo about $300-400usd/ gram. This is the real thing and the smallest at 4.5carats was going for $38,000usd. Now you know why lab created stones like this, diamonds and hydrothermal Emeralds are getting so popular
So if you want to see the Blue Zircs, the Crystal Points, the Blue Moonstone and oh yes the pariba blue, Tourmaline spray that Leslie picked up, plan on hitting the Feb. Meeting of the SRAMS
After GJX we picked up our Crystal points and called it an early day since we were both hot and tired and wound up with packing 15 flat rate boxes to be shipped out tomorrow morning. After that, we're doing another round of the JOGS show and then hitting the Electric Park show at the KINO Sports Complex. Lot's of pics tomorrow
Pete
Toady's goal was to score some Congo Tourmaline facet rough. As color and brightness go, it's incomparable. As a facet rough buyer, I always am hearing "Our Tourmaline's the best because it's from (Fill in the nation of your choice)". Bunk. The best (and most expensive) is from the Congo these days. Anyway, to spoil everything, I couldn't find any at GJX or anywhere I've been at the Tuscon Show. I do know some of the dealers that probably have some in the quality I'm looking for but since I don't have the defense dept. Budget at my disposal, I'm putting the Congo tourms on the back burner now.
So, where we are now is that we've got about 15 pounds of smokey, crystal and citrine points packed away and ready to ship. Leslie threatened me with bodily harm if I unpacked them or the Blue Zircon Rough, we picked up so being smart (and a coward too) they'll stay packed.
We did see some nice displays of Malachite rough in one part of the tent along a lot of first rate colored gemstones. The sign behind the Emeralds in the second pic says "Oil Treated". It's common to see oil used to fill in inclusions in rough and cut Emerald since most of them come out of the ground kinda gunky. It's NOT common to find a sell who will admit it so here's an example of what a legit dealer will do. Later today I looked at some Emerald rough that had so much oil on and in it that it was literally dripping and coating my hands in gunk. To bad my car didn't need an oil change.
Pic three is the same dealer with Padparascha Sapphire. Some of you may remember my showing some lab create Sapphire of this same color stone that sells (If you can find some) fo about $300-400usd/ gram. This is the real thing and the smallest at 4.5carats was going for $38,000usd. Now you know why lab created stones like this, diamonds and hydrothermal Emeralds are getting so popular
So if you want to see the Blue Zircs, the Crystal Points, the Blue Moonstone and oh yes the pariba blue, Tourmaline spray that Leslie picked up, plan on hitting the Feb. Meeting of the SRAMS
After GJX we picked up our Crystal points and called it an early day since we were both hot and tired and wound up with packing 15 flat rate boxes to be shipped out tomorrow morning. After that, we're doing another round of the JOGS show and then hitting the Electric Park show at the KINO Sports Complex. Lot's of pics tomorrow
Pete
