January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:50 am 
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Hello everyone,
I thought it might be nice to have a place to share pictures of the cool things we've seen and/or bought at this year's Tucson gem show. We got in yesterday afternoon so we've had just over a day of shopping, and already found some great deals and seen some new things.

I think one of the coolest new things I've been seeing here and there is Ethiopian emerald. It is apparently a brand new find and the quality is fairly high, with attached biotite matrix and color equivalent to fine Columbian material. Everything I've seen anywhere close to facet grade has been pretty expensive, around 50-200/ct, so I didn't get any of that yet. I did however find one piece with nice color and a milky translucency, which on closer inspection has a light cat's eye effect, so I was pretty happy about that one.

Mine (25 ct):
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Some I've seen (a couple sellers wouldn't let me photograph)
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Other highlights:
My favorite Ethiopian opal seller Daniel Kinfe is in town for the first time at 22nd street, so we spent a while picking out nice opals from him. I like buying from him because he has good taste and pre-selects great material to look through. This photo is bad but here's the parcel we got:
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I also got some more of the super-saturated rose quartz I picked up last year:
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I saw a big tray of maxixe-type beryl which was kind of fun:
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and finally an interesting piece, a trapiche sapphire which was found in a parcel of Montana stones (though likely was just accidentally mixed in):
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I've also gotten a number of other things that don't make for great or exciting photos: some nice mtorolite, topaz and tourmaline crystals, a bit of light-toned Brazilian emerald with chatoyance, etc etc. So far it's been a great show!

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 4:29 am 
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thanks stephen, very interesting. hope more people will post here. Looking forward to see more...

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:57 am 
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Hello,
some nice colours! Can anyone give his opinion/impression of the amounts and varietys of gem-rough available compared to previous years? I just ask because there was more rough at the Munich Mineralientage than before,though still on the somewhat expensive side (for my taste at least).So maybe there is a hope for better times coming back for cutters?
In best of Hope
Gerd


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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 1:14 am 
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There is some rough available, but I generally only buy inexpensive or unusual rough so what I look for is usually pretty skewed.
Here are a few more pictures from today:
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Some really big Voldarsk smoky citrines.
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A big frond because everyone needs a frond.
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Jumbo sized Urucum kunzites, though the giant one that was there last year sold.
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Ethiopian sapphires, dark with a blue/green color.
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Neat parcel of Finnish spectrolite. I've seen a fair amount of rough Finnish material this year but none of it was super appealing.
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Nice big parcel of Peruvian gem silica, big chunks with good translucency too.
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I like imperial topaz.
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Lots of these lovely red-centered agates chock-full of hematite.
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Rutile stars coming out of hematite.

My big win of the day:
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I got a parcel of Zambian trapiche tourmalines! Only a couple had broken faces to reveal the internal patterning but they all look promising.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:13 am 
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Wow,hat Tourmaline looks really fantastic ! Should yield a beautiful Suite of nice slices :D
Have a fine day
Gerd


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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:01 am 
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Thank you Stephan for posting this stuff. I hope more people follow suit for those of us who cannot make it this year.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 11:01 pm 
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Have you seen any faceting laps and if so where are they?

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 11:38 pm 
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Yes, at Kino there were a few in the Kingsley tent, including at least one Gearloose lap.
Not as many pics today, may add some later. Got some nice tourmaline xtals and a lot of morrocan agate, plus some other stuff. Lots of heavy lifting so I'm more tired today.

edit: OK, some pictures:
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Green apatite on matrix with a weird crystal form.
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Cool blue opals from Idaho.
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CRABS
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Some Mexican gem silica. I have now gotten Peruvian, Mexican and California gem silica this year.
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Meteorites!

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:44 pm 
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Stephen, these pictures are making my day! I am virtually wandering around with you spotting the highlights of the show. Please keep them coming.


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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:39 am 
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Glad to! I have been using you as an excuse when I ask dealers if I can take photos which has probably helped.
Here's today's unload:
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Beautiful apophyllite cluster supported by a wire of chalcedony. Hard to convey how bright it was in person.
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Nice big citrine geode showing stalactitic growth with agate centers.
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Yeah, big amethyst geodes are old hat but they're still kinda fun.
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Biggest and nicest septarian nodule I've ever seen. Almost 4 ft in diameter.
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These were a really neat oddity--a Chinese dealer collected these beautiful yellow grossular garnets at his brother's calcite mine. Apparently production was very limited. My brother picked out several of these lovely clusters.
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Some particularly big, clean and nicely colored Pakistani aquamarines. For the locale they had quite a lovely sky blue color, more striking in person alas.
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Not the most precious, but these were some neat cabochons of weird blue diopside.
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A beautiful array of colorful faceted Oregon sunstones and big rough, all from the Pana mine. I also picked up some lovely little pink and orange morganite rough from this dealer, and some Arizona black spinel (found near where the peridot comes from), but I haven't photographed them yet.
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I did snap some pictures of these, though! I finally found some Ethiopian emerald facet rough I could (barely) afford. The color is great and the clarity is pretty decent too!
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Ethiopian emerald might be the new hot thing, but there were competetors. These are Indian emeralds which looked suitable for faceting and had a lovely deep color.
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And these are, per the dealer, from a new find near Skardu in Pakistan. A little lighter in tone but bright and fairly clean, and still showing a rich green color.
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The same dealer also had these lovely little Väyrynenite crystals. This stuff is rare and very expensive, but the color really is stunning. It's a pink that's just as rich as gem rhodochrosite but leans more towards violet. Their crystal form is also reminiscent of imperial topaz.
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Speaking of topaz, here's a big (allegedly natural) blue from Brazil. A real doorstop!
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Beautiful slightly brownish orange-peach topaz from the Tribute pocket, As Seen on TV (Prospectors). I love seeing these every year.
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I love the intricacy of these crab fossils. It's hard to tell how much is real and how much is added during the reconstruction of all the bits but one way or another they are stunning works of art.
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And lobsters are cool too I guess.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:45 am 
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thank you again. great informations.
Did you see cut vayrynenites? what ct-price where they sold for?
Thank you, feels a little bit like beeing there :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:05 am 
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Only the crystals thus far that I've noticed. That parcel was something like 2000 dollars and all the crystals were very small, probably no reasonable facet rough there.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:41 pm 
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I picked up some sunstone in Quartzsite, small and tumbled but were red, copper and green. The first green I've seen in person. Maybe a couple will facet. Forget to bring my camera cable to download, sorry Barbra but will load as soon as I can. Will be in Tucson Thursday.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:14 pm 
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Some natural blue tanzanite rough I picked up.

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And some Chrsoberyl from Tanzania.

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 Post subject: Re: What did you see, what did you get? 2017 edition
PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:28 am 
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OK, only a few pictures today because most of the day was spent in AGTA and GJX and they aren't big on photography.
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Kazahk turquoise. I've been seeing a lot of this, shoudl have photographed some of the better samples. It has a weird color without any green, I assume something odd is going on with it.
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A killer parcel of Ethiopian emeralds. Nice color and fairly clean too!
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An unidentified Ethiopian green garnet--hopefully we'll know soon just what kind they are. Reportedly there were some yellow ones found at the same time but they were already sold out.
[edit: apparently they have turned out to be demantoid. Cool stuff but they were asking significantly more than they were for emeralds!]

@ Precision gem: Wow, those are awesome! I can't wait to see what you do with them.

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