January
27-28 After our recent
travels through Brazil with our guide Marcos behind the wheel, the 900
mile drive to Tucson was wonderfully relaxing. Stopped for the night
at the Seibels' on the way down; John will have a wonderful selection of
excellent Yellow
Apatite when the Show at the Inn Suites opens
on the 29th.
January
29-31 Show set up and the
first day of the show. Craziness and confusion as always. Set-up
rarely goes smoothly because of the crush of buyers who are trying to get
in the room to get the first pick of new material that hasn't been seen
on the market. While this may appear to be a good effort, many room
dealers will hold back their best material in the bathroom or under the
beds.
February
1-2 There is a God!
A wonderful parcel of red beryl facet rough
dropped from the heavens and landed close enough to buy quickly.
This is the largest (a very relative term) parcel of red beryl rough that
I have seen in many years. Many of these rough crystals will facet
gems a quarter to a half carat in size.
February
3-4 Cool !! Finally something
that I hadn't seen before: A wonderful display of a LOT of Paraiba
tourmaline gems at European Gem Liquidators,
unfortunately the majority weren't priced in the realm of reality.
Another noteworthy find is East to West Imports, Boston, MA; this
company has what may be the largest selection of fine quality sapphires
in a wide range of colors in any single location at Tucson. I don't
think I have ever seen a hundred fine orange sapphires together at one
time !!
February
5-7 Tanzanite prices
seem to be somewhat more reasonable than last year, two to three carat
stones with excellent color are being offered at $350-450 per carat, still
an expensive stone and the selection in this size range is very limited.
February
8-9 Our server is down again,
this would be a disaster, but the showroom is keeping me so busy I haven't
had time to eat lunch this week, much less update the web site. A
couple of new finds with the possibility of limited gem potential:
Harvey Gordon (Reno, NV) has hit a large pocket of topaz
while mining an Amazonite
rich pegmatite in central Nevada. This new topaz comes in a variety
of soft colors ranging from light blue to medium blue through green and
yellowish. Some of the crystals from this find will certainly be
the largest (up to 10 kg) ever found in North America.
Demantoid Garnet was recently discovered in
the Otter Lake region in Ontario. This new demantoid from Canada
will not be a threat to Russia's undisputed title of gem demantoid producer,
though it will produce some smaller bright, lively light green gems in
the future.