Rockwerks Lapidary Forum

Spacegold · by **Spacegold** on Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:00 pm

I am taking my camera and hope to do better with it this year than last, when I got a lot of pictures of Ricardo's shoes. Will definitely get pictures of The Birnies' and Harry's displays.

Don't worry about the weather, Harry. Temps will be in the low 70s and high 60s, and not much chance of rain.

I was over to see Shain this week and he sounds too busy to go, so I will probably be staying overnight.

I will report back with pictures when I get back.

Spacegold · by **Spacegold** on Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:52 pm

I just spent two hours composing a report with some neat pictures, and when I submetted it, I got "no post mode selected", and the entire report was lost. I may try later.

Sirjess · by **Sirjess** on Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:15 pm

Oh man sry to hear that. How about you just throw all the pictures up, you know all people want to see are the pretty rocks anyway. HEHE

Spacegold · by **Spacegold** on Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:15 am

I can't delete the double post because the "delete post" X button is missing.

Spacegold · by **Spacegold** on Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:10 pm

Well, we'll try this again, and see if we can get it posted this time. I left AJ forTucson a little after 8 a.m. on Thursday and got to Inn Suites about 10:30. Very soon, I found that it was a mistake to go two days before the show was to officially start.

I went directly to Ricardo and Claudia's room , to find them in then same setup process as two thirds of the rest of the vendors. They were trying to get set up while at the same time being as gracious as possible to the steady stream of visitors interfering with their efforts. They got me out of the room for awhile with a bag of cutting stone they brought with them this time. I took it out in the sunlight to unwrap the pieces and view them individually. How I would love to have taken that material to cut. It was all jem grade agate. But there was about thirty pounds in the lot and the price was a little more than I could handle without a store for marketing it, especially with the move I have coming this summer.. It would be a great haul for a serious cutter, though. I left them without taking any pictures of their stone, because they did not need visitors at the time.

Then I went around the Inn Suites Hotel looking at displays by vendors who had finished setting up displays. Here are some pictures of a few things I found interesting.

This is a piece of pet wood about 1.5 inches thick and 45" inches high. Asking $15,000.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... etwood.jpg

For you crystal enthusiasts, here is a natural Uruguayan amethyst bowl about five feet high, lined solid with deep purple facet grade crystals. I did not even want to know the price on that one.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... G_0015.jpg

This is a closeup of a nearby, slightly smaller bowl in which amethyst crystals were growing on large quartz crystals that had growm out of the underlying amethyst bed. The quartz crystals are about 2-4 inches long.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... G_0016.jpg

And finally, an 8" wide cluster of rhodonite crystals. The "3000" is the weight in U.S. dollars.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... G_0017.jpg

For the fossil lovers, here is a box of rolled up trilobites from 3/8" up to a few around ¾". Next to it is a box of 1" dinosaur teeth.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... olites.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n196 ... eeth-1.jpg

And lastly, but certaily not the least, was probably the most beautiful piece of stone my eyes have ever rested upon:

That is 31 kilos of polished gem grade lapis lazuli, standing about 18" high in one piece. There was no tag on it, but one about two thirds that size next to it had a tag of $15,000.

A cabochon note: As usual, there were several vendors displaying cabochons, and I examined quite a few beauties. But on not one did I find a girdle. All had the crown rolled down to an angle of 90° or less to the back face. This apparently allows a metal edge mounting to be rolled in such away as to hold the stone firmly.

The same as last year, I did not plan to part with any money. But I went into an Australian vendor's room and was looking over all his mookite and .really colorful petrified algae. This vendor had a lot of near gem grade chrysoprase rough, too, at $150/kilo. But it was almost all less than ¾" thick and quite rugged, which would make for considerable waste and cutting limitations. I would probably have bought some if it had been a bit thicker. When I asked about Agate Creek agate, he showed me a small display of it. Most of it was collector grade and priced accordingly, but a couple of smaller pieces with fracture were reasonably priced. Well .... it's only money, it's not like it was arms and legs. Haven't decided whether or not to cut them.

I screwed up and forgot to take the location information for Harry from India, so I could not find him. I had forgotten his vendor name, as well. Perhaps he will come on here with some pictures after the show.

From what I could see at the early stages of setup at the Inn Suites, the Tucson show promises to be an even bigger extravaganza than last year. About twenty locations, each of which would take the better part of a day to peruse, and the visual overload is frightful. The show goes for two weeks, and I wish I could afford to take a room there for the entire time and see more of it. Even what little of it I got to see was fantastic. Any rock person who could possibly visit the show should do so. I only stayed the one day, though I had originally planned to overnight. I got to feeling a bit poorly in the late afternoon and along with being too early to the show, I decided to head home in the evening. It was a memorable day, though.

Ricardo and Claudia, I enjoyed seeing you again and chatting with you however briefly. It just did not work out for me to return the second day. Great good fortune to you for the show. What I did see of your stuff looked really good, and so I think you should do well. By the way, I saw a lot of display cases like the one you were trying to set with lights. Everyone was removing the backdrop and just clamping the light directly to the top glass.

Rockwerks · by **Rockwerks** on Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:54 pm

Nice report, and great photos. That Lapis is making me drool. How many people do they estimate attend the show every year?
Thanks for the report and pix
Dan

Spacegold · by **Spacegold** on Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:39 pm

[font=Comic Sans MS]I have not seen any attendance estimates, Dan, and I am sure that is a difficult metric to measure considering the number of sites, the range of displays at each site, the duration of the show, and the international flavor. I am sure it is in the tens of thousands of visitors, at least. I know beds are hard to find in Tucson right now, and there are not many bargains. [/font]

tonyterner · by **tonyterner** on Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:23 am

Thanks for the report and photos Ken. I think my mind would have a meltdown if I ever went to a show that big. LOL

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