Tucson Gem Show Day 4, part 2

Our Monday morning adventures continued as we met up with Bob of Really Old Rocks and his friend Gary Johnson.  I got some turquoise (of unknown origin - old from the estate of a bead shop owner) and apache tears from Gary.  Here's Gary and the pretties I got from him.

Gary Johnson

Apache tears and turquoise

I always have fun checking out Bob's things because he has different rocks every year.  This year he had a lot of Yellowstone Ash Agates.  He had these tested and they are 630,000 year old amygdules most likely from the Lava Creek explosion.  They're pretty cool looking and a bit different.  I got some banded iron (aka genesis stone) and some ash agates and my mom got a piece of dinosaur bone!  Here's Bob and his rocks!

Bob of Really Old Rocks

Dinosaur bone (top left), ash agates (under dino bone) and banded iron (everything else)

Ash agates

Banded iron

After we finished up at the Miner's Co-op show we did a quick stop at JGM so I could put aside some amber chips for a friend of mine and then we headed back to the Pueblo Show to get some half drilled drops at Yau Shing Gems.  On our way in I took pictures of some of the cool and BIG minerals and gemstones you'll see at all the hotels along the freeway.  I have no idea what either of these is - but they look cool!.

It took a while to sort through the various packs of half drilled drops to make sure I can match up pairs and here is the pile I ended up with and a picture of the two people who helped me - brother and sister!

As we were leaving the Pueblo show I saw one of my gemmie friends, Robyn Hawk and not far behind was another friend!  What a coincidence!  Here's a picture of us gals with one of the many crystal skulls you'll see at the freeway shows.

Our next stop was the 22nd Street show.  I was in search of an ammolite pendant for a friend of mine. As I looked and looked for what I thought I saw 2 days ago I found a man, DavidOtteson,  selling ribbon turquoise cabs. I can't believe I missed him 2 days ago since I love ribbon turquoise!  It's hard to find since it has to be just a thin ribbon of turquoise in some hard rock like quartz or jasper.   I did forget to take a picture of David, but here are the gorgeous cabs I got.

Aren't they purty!  Then I did a final check for the ammolite pendant and found it in a booth I didn't even look in before.  I have no idea what I remembered seeing on Saturday.  Well it took a bit of back/forth messaging on facebook, sending pictures of various pendants, waiting for an answer, ... but in the end here is the pendant she'll be getting and the fun folks at Morning Sun Jewelry from Grass Valley, California!  I just keep running into Californians all over the place.

Susan, Peter and Mom

The booth gang at Morning Sun Jewelry

The next stop was dinner with Toyo Feng of Feng's Trading.  I've been buying for him for as long as he's been selling on his own - amazing!  This is the first time our schedules meshed so we could have dinner together.  Here we are at Sachiko's enjoying sushi, sashi, tempura and teriyaki beef.

Mom, me and Toyo!

Now I'm 2 days behind in posting - but Mr. Sandman is telling me it's bedtime - so good night for now!

Tucson Gem Show 2014 - Day 1

I'm back in Tucson (along with my mom) for the fun and interesting gem shows!  We arrived this morning, had some lunch at Las Margaritas, mom got a Starbuck's mocha and then we hit the shows!  Our first stop was the GIGM show at the Howard Johnson motel.

I found some beautiful lapis at Afghan Gem Jewelry.  I don't know if I got the best price around but I liked Aman and found some nice polished and faceted lapis beads.  Here's Aman with some of his beads in the background.

Aman from Afghan Gem Jewelry

My favorite turquoise dealer/miner Shellbone and his dad are at this show every year.  I have a camera that works indoors this year so my pictures are better.  Here are Shellbone, my mom and his dad (and I did not remember his dad's name and didn't think to ask! silly me!)

Shellbone, owner of Nevada Turquoise Co. (on the right), his dad (on the left) and my mom

Shellbone has some BIG gold nuggets he and his dad got while panning in Alaska.  This year they went panning in northern California and found a few more nuggets which he showed us, but they don't compare in size to Alaska nuggets.

Next we wandered around the show some more and met this very nice man, Ibrahim, from Morocco.  I got some Orthoceras pendants (also from Morocco) from him.

 

And I just thought the size and color of this gemstone ball was stunning ... I didn't ask what the stone is and I'm not quite sure.  It resembles rhodocrosite but may be pink quartz - I really should ask when I take pictures of things like this.

Our next stop was the 22nd Street show.  I didn't remember if we ever went to this show but once we got inside we did see some familiar companies like Wyoming Fossils.  This is a great show for fossils - all shapes and sizes.  We also saw this neat art by John T. Benedict of Some Distant World.  He uses parts from cars, nuts, bolts, steel and all kinds of other metal things.  Where possible he designs his pieces so the moving parts can still move!  He even has a button you push on that lantern fish to the right of his head so the lantern lights up!  Very cool!

John T. Benedict of Some Distant World in Tucson, AZ

I stopped by Pangaea Industries to see what they had for interesting fossils and stones.  I got some cool herkimer quartz rough (for a sterling or copper sandwich - details below) and an Orthoceras coaster to replace one that got broken last year at home.

We made one final stop at the Pueblo Gem show to see my favorite larimar sellers, Jens and Cynthia of Larimar Conlight.   I did get some round larimar beads ... I have a soft spot for the beautiful, Caribbean blue color of larimar!  I did a quick check at Yaushing Gems but none of the brios/drops pulled me in.  Then I checked in at Thomas Schneider Gems and found some cool roughs in amethyst and citrine and some tumbled peridot that I'll mount in a sterling washer sandwich similar to this:

And here are the stones (not the best pictures, but they're taken in a hotel room) ...

 

Brazilian amethyst and citrine, Arizona peridot

Herkimer quartz

And below is a sampling of some of the pretties I got today ...

Afghan lapis

Orthoceras

Rhodocrosite

Turquoise and spiny oyster

Larimar

Tucson Days 2 and 3

Day 2 we got a bit of a late start but we began the day at the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show. 

My first stop is always Larimar Conlight for their beautiful larimar stones.  Here are Jens and Cynthia...

Some of the beautiful larimar and some pink opal brios I got from Larimar Conlight.  The brios are a beautiful pink - but I don't have the best lighting setup here in the condo so they look a bit orange and ick ...

My mom and I at Larimar Conlight

Some of the fun crew at Yaushing Gems

Me at Yaushing Gems - I did not get this gals name - bad me!



Some meteorite beads from the Pueblo show

Some cabs I bought at Pueblo Gem and Mineral show

 Next it was onto J&GM Simpson Street ...

One of the huge gems/minerals out front at J&GM Simpson Street

The first person I visit at JG&M and usually on the first day of the show is Toyo Feng.  Feng's Trading has beautiful gemstones at fair prices.  I got some beautiful green pyrite - and bought almost all he had it was so cool looking!

More amethyst out front at J&GM

Some of the beautiful stones I got from Toyo...

and more  ... I love the micanite purple, green and flashes of mica!

And more ...

 

Today was day 3 and we visited Toyo again, then briefly went through TEP (Tucson Electric Park aka Kino Gem and Mineral Show) looking for my favorite tool maker, Miland Seuss.  He was not there - I hope he's OK!  Then we tagged along with another jeweler friend to the back of TEP to the RV Park show.  We've never been to that and we had a blast.  I totally forgot to take pictures but we'll be heading back there tomorrow.  I wore my college roomie out so she hung at the condo today.  Meanwhile my mom is still going strong with me to the shows!  Yay Mom!

Tucson - Day 1

Well our condo WIFI is not working so posting on the internet is a bit of a pain since the wired connection is in one of the bedroom's - and it isn't my bedroom.  Anyway here's a quick synopsys of some neat things we've done/seen in Tucson...

Day 1 - The three of us gals posing in the beautiful back yard of our condo in north Tucson

Linda and Elven at Elven Stones (beautiful turquoise!)

Beautiful turquoise from the Nevada Turquoise Co - one of my first visits when I arrive in Tucson!

And more turquoise from Nevada Turquoise Co!

Rhodocrosite from Rhodo Co

Huge amethyst geode out front at JOGS

Tucson day 1!

Flew in, went to 3 shows, ate dinner and now we're tired!  Went to the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show, AGTA and GJX shows today.  Had a blast at the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show (aka Riverpark Inn)!  I always do!  I just love the variety of things you can see at this show - some very eclectic things too!  I snagged larimar from Larimar Conlight.  Snagged some nice boulder opal with flash at The Opal Zone.  The best thing is that Richard Eddy - the guy who does the cutting and polishing - was doing the selling too!  I love the efficiency and excellent documentation of stones at Yau Shing Gems so I bought more nice top drill gemmies.  No friendly chit-chat but they gladly quote prices, will go looking for specific things in their multitudes of bins and ring you up quickly and politely!  Then lunch at the Riverpark Inn!  They always have a BBQ going on so you can get fresh cooked chicken sandwiches or burgers. 

Then mom and I headed back to the otherside of the freeway to meet up with our friend Marilyn and her hubby Paul.  Did I get a picture of us all?  No!  Doh!  She showed me around AGTA.  I found out it was just a bit too rich for my pocketbook but oh the sparkle!!!  I still find it amazing you can walk around and there are plates, bowls and little containers of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies (and pretty much any other gem you can think of) anywhere and everywhere you look.  So much beauty from Mother Nature!  I did find some possible purchases at GJX!  I'll check out around at some other venues to compare price and quality and if I go back and purchase I'll share the details with you!

I'm too tired tonight to post photos and links so you'll have wait until tomorrow to see anything - if I have energy tomorrow!  The wireless signal is pretty crappy in our room so I'm having to stay wired to do anything on the computer which is just a drag!  OK - yes - I'm spoiled by WIFI!

Day 4 - and we go some more!

I may actually catch up on my posts today. Here are our adventures from yesterday.

We started out at GL&W at the Grant Inn. This venue has an interesting mix of sellers. Outside you could buy inexpensive beads, shells, purses and wood carvings among other things. Inside the wholesale pavilions you could buy the normal variety of precious and semi-precious stones and beads in addition to jewelry, gems and minerals from Aghanistan, Africa, Pakistan, India and many other locals. We wandered among all the booths and were drawn to one selling fossils from many locales including Morocco. We live in Morocco for 2 years so we struck up a conversation with Joe Aaronson at Pangaea Industries, Inc. It turns out we lived in Morocco before he was even born! Now does that make me old?? LOL! We did buy some fossil coasters and pendants that were both found in Morocco since they really do look cool and who doesn't want to have a 350 million year old ammonite hanging around ones neck? Here's a picture of Joe and of some of the cool fossils we got from him.



We made a short stop in the 2nd pavilion and bought some cabs - malachite/azurite for me and bloodstone for my mom since it was one of my Grandpa's favorite stones. Then we headed out to meet some of my mom's old work friends at the Old Pueblo Grill. We had a wonderful lunch. Good food, wonderful company and great service. It was a nice change from our dinner the night before! Here is a picture of our wonderful and patient server.



After lunch we went back to GL&W at the Grant Inn. I found Kalpataru at this location (they often have something different at each venue), got some really neat sterling and gemmie beads and then we headed down to Globex at the Days Inn and the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show at the Riverpark Inn so I could look for some cabs for some friends. We first wandered through Globex and it reminded me of a middle eastern bazaar. There were folks selling barrels, buckets and boxes of rough stone along with polished cabs and strands of gemstones. We saw scarves, leather shoes, interesting hats, carved statues from wood and stone, giant slabs of stone with gorgeous pictures from the stone patterns - all for sale. And there were gyros, arizona fry bread, lamb kabobs, kettle corn and much more available for eating. It was pretty amazing!

Our next stop was our final visit to the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show at the Riverpark Inn where I dug through cabs at Magic Mountain Gems (again) and fortunately was able to find some nice ones in the right price range for my friends. By the time I was done with that we were done in and ready to eat and go back to the hotel. We ate at Chop Stix which is near our hotel and headed back to the room. We were amazed to see the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile in our hotel parking lot. That is not a sight you see everyday. Here it is the next morning ...





And that ends our adventures from yesterday.