January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Verona Mineral Show 2010
PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2010 1:14 pm 
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Verona Mineral Show 2010: Marco's hunt for facet rough.
Subtitle: because "smart frugal faceter" sounds better than "cheapskate cutter". :wink:

OK, it was time for my favorite mineral show. Verona is a nice city in the Northern Italy, close to my hometown. My girlfriend loves it because of the real house of Juliet (yes: the one of the play "Romeo and Juliet"!) and the "Arena". When Ai saw it for the first time said: "Wow, Marco, that's awesome! But wasn't "the Coliseum" in Rome? (smile)". The "Arena" really looks like the coliseum in Rome, but is still used for concerts and plays. BUT Verona also hosts a nice mineral show, that was my business, this time.

I'm relocating at present, so I had to quit faceting for a while. I'm also leaving in a few days for the Bay Area. For a coupla weeks this time. Last time was a coupla years... :D My rough box was almost empty and sad, so I needed rough really badly. I'd like to cut a couple of cool designs for the "grand finale" of the faceting design contest, you know. :wink:

This time I went the first day, at the opening (aka: this morning) to play the early bird. This time I also was in a olivine frenzy, since I cut the one that my friend gave me I was thinking: "I need more, MORE!". The Pakistani material is just too nice in color to overlook at it.
The first vendor with olivine I saw, had a lot of material, but mostly included. I found a pretty crystal, well formed but not "good mineral collection" quality imho, of 10 grams, with a few black needles (running throughout the whole stone... not IF for sure), and asked for the price... 41 Euros! I just drop the crystal and acted as Uncle Scrooge, while going away in disgust. BUT many vendors had olivine (usually included, but really pretty crystals in shape) and vendors very quickly realized that to sell some of it, prices should have been lower than that.
Bargainig here and there for the whole day I was able to find a few acceptably clean "big" pieces for 2 Euro/gram or less. Yes, even from the first vendor. :)
So I got these. There's the big flat one in the back that screams for my "carvceting" experiments. I'm really looking forward to cut these greens:
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I was also hunting for my Chinese fluorite. I really enjoyed cutting the ones I bought last year, and for .50 or 1 euro each, they are just the best bang for the buck. You only need a LOT of patience to find out some clean ones... The blues on the left are strong color changer purple-blue to grass-green. I love these pieces.
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I also found a new friendly Pakistani vendor of rough with good prices: these are African amethyst pieces at 1 Euro/gram. About 10 grams each. VERY nice red overtones and clean. I always had problem to find good amethyst rough... at low prices (I mean good quality too...).
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That vendor also had some yellow beryl, claimed to be from Tajikistan (irradiated stuff?). It wasn't cheap (8-10 Euro/gram), but I bought a pretty and clean crystal. Now I think I should have bought two... :P
Keeping myself in the yellow field, I found nice Mexican apatite for 2 Euros/gram. I've never cut apatite. Could I resist? Of course I could not. Very clean pieces, reasonable size and excellent shape.
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In Verona there are a good number of good Pakistani dealers and from time to time it is possible to find excellent pieces of aqua for a very low price. Of course you have to look at many many pounds of crystals, searching for the good ones. The experience will also tell which vendors to avoid (You can spare a good hour of searching avoiding these). Some have hills of crap searched by generations of people that left graysh opaque pebbles only. It's just incredible what some dealers are trying to sell... Last time it was a disaster and found nothing. This time... I'll let the pics tell. :D Yes: they are clean (with the exception of the very "roots" of a coupla xtls) and well-sized even if not huge. And yes: the dark one is really dark. About 6-8 Euros each piece!
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Last piece of rough. This one was exceptional. But I had to hide "el cheapo" in me for a minute, and drop good money for it. But when you look at the picture you'll understand why I could not pass on this one. It is transparent, even if milky, and I have to plan well how to facet it. Play of colors isjust breathtaking. 31 final Euros to empty my wallet, but fill my rough box, which now is happy again. :) Once back to facet I'll be busy, I guess.
Fantastic opal from Ethiopia, I always have to buy one (I've another two in my rough box), even if last time prices were a little lower. Even if not cheap, this material is still undervalued imho. It's definitely outstanding...
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I was also looking for the Pakistani topaz. I found NONE, facet quality and fair price. That's quite a strange trend: two years ago there wasn't much, but it was easy to find very good quality, even if relatively expensive. Last year it was plenty, cheap, and good quality was readily available in the mounds of broken crystals...

I was also looking for tourmaline, but there was little. Bad pieces weren't cheap and the few good pieces were more expensive than cut stones. Since my trusted Thai vendor is also gone, I guess I'll have to quit cutting tourmies. Too bad :( But I'm not paying 30 euros/gram for those pieces (altough beautiful, I've to admit).

I hope you enjoyed this post. I also hope it will be useful for the faceters "on the other side of the pond" to know what is available here now (at least for hobbysts, like me) and the prices vendors are asking.
I was also looking at the prices of cut stones. Unfortunately (because I find selling stuff frustrating... I just don't like it) sooner or later I'll have to sell some of my goods, I'd better be aware of ongoing prices here. Females of my family are modest and adsorb a very little amount of stones (even if they always keep an eye to some ones...) even if I'm always VERY glad to give them.

Last: at the mineral show there was a really interesting meteorites exibition, with a focus on Italian falls. I enjoyed it.

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Last edited by maialetto on Sat May 29, 2010 6:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Verona Mineral Show 2010
PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2010 1:47 pm 
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Thanks Maialetto, It is nice to hear what the current availability and prices of rough are no matter where it is.

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 Post subject: Re: Verona Mineral Show 2010
PostPosted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 12:01 am 
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Way to go maialetto =D> Looking forward to your grand finale of designs for the G project. Crack to it!!! :P

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