January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: 2019 Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:38 pm 
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I always enjoy killer mineral specimens and Arkenstone never disappoints:

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:27 pm 
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One of my favorites was trapice tourmalines -- $6/gram (Thanks to Stephen for pointing these out)

Another was a 6.6 red zircon - beautiful, and no orange for $270. Now set in a necklace.

Lastly chrysocolla stalactites in quartz - one cab and several slabs. The cab wan't finished, so I bought it while still on the dop! but it was "on my list of things I have been looking for" -- so I didn't mind.

I also got some nice alaskan covelite, some maw sit sit, and a beautiful piece of gem varascite (or metavarascite - I'll have to check it with a Raman) and some translucent amazonite.

It was a great show!

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A nice big tourmaline stick showing triangular zoning, picked from an inexpensive bin of cab grade material. Not sure of locale, but it looks a bit Madagascan.

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These trapiche tourmalines were just being sold as chrome tourmaline. Not all of them have good trapiche patterning but some are oustanding. Pictures taken after slicing of course.

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Finally found one of these!


Last edited by dchallener on Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 8:29 pm 
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Stephen....you know the "aquamarine" you were passing around? I saw more at GJX....with definite bubbles visible. Did you ever discover what that stuff was?


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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:17 pm 
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I took almost identical pics of the Arkenstone minerals :)

Here are most of my purchases. Various quartz with inclusions, amethyst trapiche slices, tourmaline, 1st century bc Egyptian coin, small sapphire rough, etc. Nothing too dramatic


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I did see a remarkable cat's eye sapphire cab at GJX that was quite fun... (Not my hand)

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:03 pm 
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Some more:
dinosaur tracks (with a tail impression)
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a dragonfly larvae
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a slice with a quick polish of amazonite. this is allegedly a new find from Nigeria, we saw some rough at a few booths. Some has excellent (for amazonite) clarity, though it doesn't hold that well together on its own. One seller had stabilized material (disclosed) which also showed greater translucency.
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Australian gem variscite with good translucency--the color in person is more of an emerald green. This material was expensive but turned out better than expected.
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This unusual lace agate slab shows triangular zones reminiscent of tourmaline slices--perhaps grown around included quartz crystals?
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A very nice example of bumblebee 'jasper' from indonesia, showing nice orbing


Last edited by dchallener on Fri Feb 15, 2019 1:04 am, edited 3 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:12 pm 
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I splurged and bought myself 14 carat Ethiopian opal
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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:41 am 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Stephen....you know the "aquamarine" you were passing around? I saw more at GJX....with definite bubbles visible. Did you ever discover what that stuff was?

Definitely aquamarine (via raman test). I have sliced mine in half and had a look, but it didn't take a great polish and has very few bubbles that I can see. Blue glass filled aquamarine seems like the best bet.

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:35 am 
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Curious stuff, Stephen. I'm actually surprised the raman calls it aqua, BUT, if you polish some check for flash and report back.

You know Paul, several years ago Jason Brim sent me a similar giant chatoyant sample and it turned out to be fiber optic glass.
Your sample looks fractured. Jason's did not.


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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:30 pm 
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Admittedly, I did not look closely. However, it did not have the usual appearance of CE glass. The stone was at a gjx booth for a Sri Lankan vendor that is known for really large corundum samples.

They also had this in the case which i had a chance to hold in hand :)

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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:25 pm 
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Holy hell.


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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 4:59 pm 
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ametyst trapiches
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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 5:44 pm 
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I bought this stuff at GJX represented as dendritic Honduran Opal. The Gemmoraman believes it is chalcedony.
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Transmitted light:
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I found some purplish chatoyant sillimanite from the same dealer. The raman agrees with him.
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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:22 pm 
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Had almost no time to leave the booth during GJX and wander around :?
I only could quickly visit the main show today. The collector's edge had an absolutely amazing display.


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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:29 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: Tucson Highlights
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:35 pm 
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Rhodochrosite in the 1st pic?
THAT is a showstopper.
Tourmaline ain't bad either.


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