Post by 1dave on Feb 1, 2015 10:57:19 GMT -5
The Tucson Show by Rock Currier:
Tucson 2015
posted by cmsjti on Tue, 01/27/2015 - 20:56
What's New at JTI for Tucson 2015
Ok, here we go for Tucson 2015. As usual it’s hard to believe that another year has passed and we are frantically putting the last few flats on pallet #18. The truck is coming tomorrow to pick them up. That leaves only our two vans to load up with shelving, lights, office supplies and all the “Oh Jesus, we forgot this stuff.”
One of the things I enjoy bringing to Tucson are old collections full of specimens from long closed localities. Unfortunately, the one collection I had hoped to bring specimens from this year did not materialize in a timely fashion, so specimens from it will not be there. It didn’t get away, so we may have them later in the year.
I did however manage to swindle a poor Canadian dealer out of more than a thousand specimens of various phosphates from the Canadian Yukon’s Rapid Creek. The dealer I got them from suffers from long harsh winters and gets cabin fever. However when I got the material and its invoice, I sort of gulped and wondered who swindled who. After spending several days carefully going through the lot I think it worked out being a good deal for everyone. We will be able to offer these specimens at prices substantially below market prices and this should allow our dealers to make a decent markup on them.
They are crystal specimens of Lazulite, Wardite, Kulanite, Goyazite, Gormanite, Brazilianite, Arojadite etc. These specimens will not particularly appeal to our new-age customers, but will let us maintain whatever meager street cred we may still have with the mineral people, after selling so many tumbled stones, chakra sets and aqua aura etc.
A new find of very shiny glassy Quartz crystals has been found at a new/old Arkansas locality called the McEarl Ridge prospect.. We got in a small lot a few days ago. It's mostly single hand held crystals that are really shiny, transparent and have undamaged points. If the company that dug this stuff can tear themselves away from their diggings I expect them to show up in Tucson with some amazing stuff.
From India we got in a big shipment of arrowheads. These have all been carefully flaked by hand from local Indian cherts/jaspers/agates. We have carried low quality obsidian arrowheads from Mexico for years. These new ones are beautifully crafted and range in length from about 1.5 to 7 inches. These are so well made that you could put one on an arrow shaft or a spear and go hunting with them. They are really sharp, and I wonder if our TSA would allow you to go on a plane if they found one in your hand luggage. And the best part is, they are not expensive.
For many years we have been importing bowls and other lapidary items made from Chinese Fluorite. The quality and quantity of these items depends on the supply of Fluorite rough from the mines. Particularly the bowls are in high demand by our customers and we can never get enough. They never have them in stock and we have to order them 6 months in advance. Even then they usually short our orders. However, recently we got in a beautiful lot of these Fluorite bowls, perhaps the best ever. It will be first come, first serve on these. We will also have the ever popular Fluorite pendants and earrings set in sterling Silver.
From the Congo (the one that used to be called Zaire) from the Katanga Province, we got some interesting Shattuckite specimens. We recently also got a very fine lot of polished Malachite specimens from there as well as a nice lot of fibrous Malachite specimens. Also from the big KOV open pit mine we got a batch of pink druzy cobaltian Calcite specimens. Some of this stuff will make excellent cutting rough for our customers who like to cut druzy cabs.
We also got a small lot of Citrine crystals from there and were supposed to get a much larger lot for the show. In spite of advancing some money for these, they may not make it for the show.
From China (Mongolia actually) we got a lot of very interesting Quartz crystals. Many of them are complex prismatic single hand-held sized crystals. Some of the specimens were groups of these crystals and some are associated with other minerals. It's the first time we have had Quartz crystals like these, and we don't know how our customers will like them. We will have a number of flats of doubly terminated black Tourmaline crystals, many of which will be in our flat only section. In the way of cut and polished items from China, in addition to the Fluorite bowls mentioned above, we will have a good variety of carved skulls made from various minerals, some of which are non Chinese.
For our customers who buy a lot of aqua aura, titanium coated and other coated materials, we will have a sizeable selection. We would particularly draw your attention to our new small Quartz geodes done with aqua aura. Also we will have a substantial batch of dichroic titanium coated Kyanite, black smoky Quartz and arrowheads. I think they are terrible rubbishy things, but we have a hard time keeping them in stock.
From Brazil we have a number of flats of the little polished agate geodes that are called enhydros and have a water bubble inside. Once you show the bubble to your customer by shining a light from below, it's sold. Also from Brazil we have a number of small flats filled with small matched "coco" geode halves of extra quality. Also a fine small lot of agate "jewelry pots". We will also have many small polished flat-bottom Quartz crystals that are ever popular. We will also have a nice new lot of hand-sized polished clear optical calcite rhombs from Brazil. They are ideal for demonstrating the optical property of double refraction. Many are clean enough that we sell them to cutters who want to cut gems out of calcite.
We will be bringing a wide selection of tumbled stones with an emphasis on some strange stuff. For instance, we will have some lovely tumbled Prehnite that is a nice green color and translucent. In some of the stones you can see black prismatic inclusions that is some sort of a black amphibole mineral. We will, as usual, have thousands of the little stone hearts at $1.50 each. We sell thousands of them. Also a good variety of our polished $2 each flat "smooth stones" made out of various materials.
From Malawi we will have a good selection of Aegirine specimens, both single crystals as well as small specimens. We will also have a good stock of druzy blue chalcedony specimens from Malawi. Some of this material can be used for cutting druzy gems backed by pretty blue agate. Most of the specimens are partially or almost completely enclosed in Calcite. This Calcite can be removed with hydrochloric acid (HCl pool acid), which I might add, makes them lighter and more attractive.
Also we'll have green Wavelite specimens from the USA, Amethyst "eyes" from Uruguay and Laramar from the Dominican Republic. We will also have a good selection of Prehnite and Prehnite and Epidote specimens from Mali. This year we will have a good quantity of this in our inexpensive flat only section too.
What else? Well, too much to list and talk about here. See you soon in Tucson.
Yours Truly,
Rock Currier, Chief factotum and hatchet man.
Jewel Tunnel Imports
posted by cmsjti on Tue, 01/27/2015 - 20:56
What's New at JTI for Tucson 2015
Ok, here we go for Tucson 2015. As usual it’s hard to believe that another year has passed and we are frantically putting the last few flats on pallet #18. The truck is coming tomorrow to pick them up. That leaves only our two vans to load up with shelving, lights, office supplies and all the “Oh Jesus, we forgot this stuff.”
One of the things I enjoy bringing to Tucson are old collections full of specimens from long closed localities. Unfortunately, the one collection I had hoped to bring specimens from this year did not materialize in a timely fashion, so specimens from it will not be there. It didn’t get away, so we may have them later in the year.
I did however manage to swindle a poor Canadian dealer out of more than a thousand specimens of various phosphates from the Canadian Yukon’s Rapid Creek. The dealer I got them from suffers from long harsh winters and gets cabin fever. However when I got the material and its invoice, I sort of gulped and wondered who swindled who. After spending several days carefully going through the lot I think it worked out being a good deal for everyone. We will be able to offer these specimens at prices substantially below market prices and this should allow our dealers to make a decent markup on them.
They are crystal specimens of Lazulite, Wardite, Kulanite, Goyazite, Gormanite, Brazilianite, Arojadite etc. These specimens will not particularly appeal to our new-age customers, but will let us maintain whatever meager street cred we may still have with the mineral people, after selling so many tumbled stones, chakra sets and aqua aura etc.
A new find of very shiny glassy Quartz crystals has been found at a new/old Arkansas locality called the McEarl Ridge prospect.. We got in a small lot a few days ago. It's mostly single hand held crystals that are really shiny, transparent and have undamaged points. If the company that dug this stuff can tear themselves away from their diggings I expect them to show up in Tucson with some amazing stuff.
From India we got in a big shipment of arrowheads. These have all been carefully flaked by hand from local Indian cherts/jaspers/agates. We have carried low quality obsidian arrowheads from Mexico for years. These new ones are beautifully crafted and range in length from about 1.5 to 7 inches. These are so well made that you could put one on an arrow shaft or a spear and go hunting with them. They are really sharp, and I wonder if our TSA would allow you to go on a plane if they found one in your hand luggage. And the best part is, they are not expensive.
For many years we have been importing bowls and other lapidary items made from Chinese Fluorite. The quality and quantity of these items depends on the supply of Fluorite rough from the mines. Particularly the bowls are in high demand by our customers and we can never get enough. They never have them in stock and we have to order them 6 months in advance. Even then they usually short our orders. However, recently we got in a beautiful lot of these Fluorite bowls, perhaps the best ever. It will be first come, first serve on these. We will also have the ever popular Fluorite pendants and earrings set in sterling Silver.
From the Congo (the one that used to be called Zaire) from the Katanga Province, we got some interesting Shattuckite specimens. We recently also got a very fine lot of polished Malachite specimens from there as well as a nice lot of fibrous Malachite specimens. Also from the big KOV open pit mine we got a batch of pink druzy cobaltian Calcite specimens. Some of this stuff will make excellent cutting rough for our customers who like to cut druzy cabs.
We also got a small lot of Citrine crystals from there and were supposed to get a much larger lot for the show. In spite of advancing some money for these, they may not make it for the show.
From China (Mongolia actually) we got a lot of very interesting Quartz crystals. Many of them are complex prismatic single hand-held sized crystals. Some of the specimens were groups of these crystals and some are associated with other minerals. It's the first time we have had Quartz crystals like these, and we don't know how our customers will like them. We will have a number of flats of doubly terminated black Tourmaline crystals, many of which will be in our flat only section. In the way of cut and polished items from China, in addition to the Fluorite bowls mentioned above, we will have a good variety of carved skulls made from various minerals, some of which are non Chinese.
For our customers who buy a lot of aqua aura, titanium coated and other coated materials, we will have a sizeable selection. We would particularly draw your attention to our new small Quartz geodes done with aqua aura. Also we will have a substantial batch of dichroic titanium coated Kyanite, black smoky Quartz and arrowheads. I think they are terrible rubbishy things, but we have a hard time keeping them in stock.
From Brazil we have a number of flats of the little polished agate geodes that are called enhydros and have a water bubble inside. Once you show the bubble to your customer by shining a light from below, it's sold. Also from Brazil we have a number of small flats filled with small matched "coco" geode halves of extra quality. Also a fine small lot of agate "jewelry pots". We will also have many small polished flat-bottom Quartz crystals that are ever popular. We will also have a nice new lot of hand-sized polished clear optical calcite rhombs from Brazil. They are ideal for demonstrating the optical property of double refraction. Many are clean enough that we sell them to cutters who want to cut gems out of calcite.
We will be bringing a wide selection of tumbled stones with an emphasis on some strange stuff. For instance, we will have some lovely tumbled Prehnite that is a nice green color and translucent. In some of the stones you can see black prismatic inclusions that is some sort of a black amphibole mineral. We will, as usual, have thousands of the little stone hearts at $1.50 each. We sell thousands of them. Also a good variety of our polished $2 each flat "smooth stones" made out of various materials.
From Malawi we will have a good selection of Aegirine specimens, both single crystals as well as small specimens. We will also have a good stock of druzy blue chalcedony specimens from Malawi. Some of this material can be used for cutting druzy gems backed by pretty blue agate. Most of the specimens are partially or almost completely enclosed in Calcite. This Calcite can be removed with hydrochloric acid (HCl pool acid), which I might add, makes them lighter and more attractive.
Also we'll have green Wavelite specimens from the USA, Amethyst "eyes" from Uruguay and Laramar from the Dominican Republic. We will also have a good selection of Prehnite and Prehnite and Epidote specimens from Mali. This year we will have a good quantity of this in our inexpensive flat only section too.
What else? Well, too much to list and talk about here. See you soon in Tucson.
Yours Truly,
Rock Currier, Chief factotum and hatchet man.
Jewel Tunnel Imports