Hi Again from sunny Tucson,
It cooled down a bit today to somewhere in the mid seventies. Tomorrow is going to be our last day of hitting the shows and we'll be back to the hotel early to pack up and get our luggage ready. Tomorrow morning's also the last we'll be able to ship out packages via USPS Flat Rate as we'll be hitting the road before the Post Office opens so if it won't fit in the luggage or on us, it'll have to stay in Tucson. As usual, there wasn't enough time to see everything but that's going to be the same with every Tucson gem show. Today, as I mentioned last night we were hoping to get the 22nd St. show, the JGM show (which is smaller but still interesting) that's just North of the 22nd St. one, and finish the N. End of the frontage road show that would take us from the Ramada Inn up to Congress St. That wast the plan. The actual turned out to be more modest but at least we finished 22nd St. So if you come to Tucson, make your plans but be flexible enough to make changes on the run. Truth is, Leslie and I could stay another 2 weeks beyond this one and still not see all of the show. So here;s how today went
The first stop was at a dealer from Brazil. This place usually has some exceptional Rhodonite specimens but not this year. Instead, there were a bunch of Amethyst and Citrine geodes along with some Kyanite, Angel wing carvings and something green we couldn't identify but it looked like it had calcite formations on it. Here's the pic. Take a guess
Since we weren't planning to buy one (It was heavy and my back hate me right now) we moved on and found a place with Calcite Geodes from Morocco. We'd handled them a few years back and decided to bring them back if we could get a decent price for them. We did and picked a nice selection and left them to bick up when we were done with the show. Forgot to get a pic before they were packed up but we'll bring some to the members meeting later this month.
Want to learn to facet? Just look at all the good stuff that awaits you
This guy had some Mali Garnet which has been very hard to come by of late so, borrowed his penlight and gleaned through a big tray of them for about 45 minutes to come away with maybe a dozen stones. I find it a pain to bring my optivisors along on these trips so when we make our supply run to Walmart, I buy the most powerful and cheap pair of reading glasses that they have.
Here's a shot of another thing you can do with the right rocks
The stuff on display down here is near endless and great project ideas abound. While going through the show we came across a guy who designed and built the nifty-est possible reciprocating saw for rocks. I'll have a brochure for it at the meeting but in a nutshell, it uses diamond wire on a hacksaw-like frame with a continuous water flowing over the stone being cut. You can loop the wire around in the frame so you can do several cuts in a stone at once with thicknesses of as little as 1/8 of an inch. It's slow and very gentle so it treats your stone with love Lol.
Another thing that's neat about Arizona is their Petrified Wood and there was a display of BIG pieces in the food court between the two buildings of the 22nd St. Show. The second building is a continuation of the show in the first tent. There's no theme or logic to the placement of dealers so it helps to look in every nook and cranny. If you don't, you might miss something
Now on to the second tent. Right off the bat we found a specimen dealer that had one of the nicest Canvasite pieces I've seen but when he gave us the price, Leslie said "Too much" and we walked away. He promptly lowered the price and Leslie took her time before giving the same answer. In the end we got it for a little more than we wanted to pay but he got a lot less money than he wanted. A perfect deal! He had it wrapped up quickly and I never got a shot of it.
But I did get a shot of some Imperial Topaz and I rarely use the term "Imperial" since most of the time it means nothing but more money. The third piece in the photo from the left is the one I'm talking about and if I'd have had a $2000 dollar bill in my pocket, I'd be bringing that stone to the meeting. As it is, I'll be bringing some of its little brothers and sisters. He also had some very nice rough Blue Topaz which I've been looking for since we got here.
One day left and then it's back to Hoodsport and shoveling snow it looks like. But the different roughs we picked up, the people we met and the stuff we've seen all make this trip worthwhile. Btw, the second day we were here (Saturday) we hooked up with a friend and fellow faceter from Ohio. This was his and his wife's first ever Tucson. He was so happy to have someone who's done the show before since they were deer in the headlights as he said. This years show makes the 17th time we've done Tucson and I still remember that feeling from the first time we were here. If you can get someone who knows the shows, so much the better but if not, don't try to do too much in your time there. Tucson will be there next year, Pandemics willing.
We'll wrap this up tomorrow and hope to see you all soon,
Pete and Leslie
It cooled down a bit today to somewhere in the mid seventies. Tomorrow is going to be our last day of hitting the shows and we'll be back to the hotel early to pack up and get our luggage ready. Tomorrow morning's also the last we'll be able to ship out packages via USPS Flat Rate as we'll be hitting the road before the Post Office opens so if it won't fit in the luggage or on us, it'll have to stay in Tucson. As usual, there wasn't enough time to see everything but that's going to be the same with every Tucson gem show. Today, as I mentioned last night we were hoping to get the 22nd St. show, the JGM show (which is smaller but still interesting) that's just North of the 22nd St. one, and finish the N. End of the frontage road show that would take us from the Ramada Inn up to Congress St. That wast the plan. The actual turned out to be more modest but at least we finished 22nd St. So if you come to Tucson, make your plans but be flexible enough to make changes on the run. Truth is, Leslie and I could stay another 2 weeks beyond this one and still not see all of the show. So here;s how today went
The first stop was at a dealer from Brazil. This place usually has some exceptional Rhodonite specimens but not this year. Instead, there were a bunch of Amethyst and Citrine geodes along with some Kyanite, Angel wing carvings and something green we couldn't identify but it looked like it had calcite formations on it. Here's the pic. Take a guess
Since we weren't planning to buy one (It was heavy and my back hate me right now) we moved on and found a place with Calcite Geodes from Morocco. We'd handled them a few years back and decided to bring them back if we could get a decent price for them. We did and picked a nice selection and left them to bick up when we were done with the show. Forgot to get a pic before they were packed up but we'll bring some to the members meeting later this month.
Want to learn to facet? Just look at all the good stuff that awaits you
This guy had some Mali Garnet which has been very hard to come by of late so, borrowed his penlight and gleaned through a big tray of them for about 45 minutes to come away with maybe a dozen stones. I find it a pain to bring my optivisors along on these trips so when we make our supply run to Walmart, I buy the most powerful and cheap pair of reading glasses that they have.
Here's a shot of another thing you can do with the right rocks
The stuff on display down here is near endless and great project ideas abound. While going through the show we came across a guy who designed and built the nifty-est possible reciprocating saw for rocks. I'll have a brochure for it at the meeting but in a nutshell, it uses diamond wire on a hacksaw-like frame with a continuous water flowing over the stone being cut. You can loop the wire around in the frame so you can do several cuts in a stone at once with thicknesses of as little as 1/8 of an inch. It's slow and very gentle so it treats your stone with love Lol.
Another thing that's neat about Arizona is their Petrified Wood and there was a display of BIG pieces in the food court between the two buildings of the 22nd St. Show. The second building is a continuation of the show in the first tent. There's no theme or logic to the placement of dealers so it helps to look in every nook and cranny. If you don't, you might miss something
Now on to the second tent. Right off the bat we found a specimen dealer that had one of the nicest Canvasite pieces I've seen but when he gave us the price, Leslie said "Too much" and we walked away. He promptly lowered the price and Leslie took her time before giving the same answer. In the end we got it for a little more than we wanted to pay but he got a lot less money than he wanted. A perfect deal! He had it wrapped up quickly and I never got a shot of it.
But I did get a shot of some Imperial Topaz and I rarely use the term "Imperial" since most of the time it means nothing but more money. The third piece in the photo from the left is the one I'm talking about and if I'd have had a $2000 dollar bill in my pocket, I'd be bringing that stone to the meeting. As it is, I'll be bringing some of its little brothers and sisters. He also had some very nice rough Blue Topaz which I've been looking for since we got here.
One day left and then it's back to Hoodsport and shoveling snow it looks like. But the different roughs we picked up, the people we met and the stuff we've seen all make this trip worthwhile. Btw, the second day we were here (Saturday) we hooked up with a friend and fellow faceter from Ohio. This was his and his wife's first ever Tucson. He was so happy to have someone who's done the show before since they were deer in the headlights as he said. This years show makes the 17th time we've done Tucson and I still remember that feeling from the first time we were here. If you can get someone who knows the shows, so much the better but if not, don't try to do too much in your time there. Tucson will be there next year, Pandemics willing.
We'll wrap this up tomorrow and hope to see you all soon,
Pete and Leslie
