FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tobi]

I really like the fluorite from Inner Mongolia ( https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/files/img_0190r_195.jpg ) - wonderful combination with the arsenopyrite matrix!

[Jesse Fisher]

There was one Chinese dealer at the InnSuites show who had a number of the Inner Mongolian fluorites at prices much lower than I saw on equivalent specimens at Munich last October. On close inspection it seems that the matrix of these specimens (or at least the one I purchased) has a good bit of free sulfur in it, so will likely need some stabilizing when I get home.

[Jean Sendero]

Jesse,

indeed, one Chinese dealer had some, the word is had. They disappeared like little hot buns coming out of the oven. I wanted to show them to my son who collects only fluorite but by the time we got there, nada, all gone.

Cheers

[Woody Thompson]

Jesse,

Those English specimens are really nice! Thanks for posting the photos.

[Jean Sendero]

The Westwow Look show started today. Much bigger now moving from 25 dealers last years to 35 this year. I got there after lunch hoping that the big crowd would be gone. Wrong. There was still a lot of people. From a Mexican minerals perspective, really nothing that I consider new, but a few interesting pieces that likely came out of collections combined with some specimens that seem to be part of the décor, I saw them 2 years ago, last year and this year again. As expected at the Westward Look, the price tags are on the high side but so is the quality of the specimens.

So the usual suspects in greater abundance are the wulfenite from both Los Lamentos and San Francisco, some San Pedro Corralitos mimetite, a lot of silver from Batopilas and some amethyst from Guerrero.

Cal Graeber has some nice amethyst from Amatitlan. One specimen in particular is very lustrous with clear tips but a base that is very dark purple. Also, a silver the size of a mango in a quartz rich matrix rather than the usual calcite matrix.

Unique Minerals - Evans Jones, has the most interesting room when it comes to Mexican specimens. Of course a full cabinet of azurite, with a few brochantite specimens. On top of this, a smoking silver specimen just beside a smoking wulfenite from Los Lamentos.

The Mineral Gallery had a variety of specimens but the one that caught my eye was a Naica amethyst with galena.

So this is it for me right now.

And apologies for those of you who have no interest in Mexican minerals. More to come. I hope to go back on Sunday for another grazing period.

[Matt_Zukowski]

I finally have both the time and energy to post some pictures.

[Matt_Zukowski]

More

[Matt_Zukowski]

The next set of 3 picts are clearly chalcopyrite epitaxial on tetrahedrite from this same Chinese locality. Sorry for bad photography - I didn't bring a macro lens or tripod and I only have one light on the desk.

[Matt_Zukowski]

Back to the Quality Inn, probably sometime around the 27th.

[Matt_Zukowski]

Sunnywood's room at the Inn Suites on the 27th.

[Matt_Zukowski]

More at the Inn Suites

[Antonio Alcaide]

[Jesse Fisher]

Spent much of Friday and Saturday at the rather posh Westward Look show. Not too many bargains to be had there, but some really nice rocks were to be seen and the weather was wonderful. No frozen water fountains this year. Traffic seemed down a bit, as elsewhere at the show this year. Parking spaces were scarce around 11 am but by early afternoon on both days finding one was no problem. The featured collection on display in the hotel lobby belonged to a relatively new collector, Ron Gladnick of San Diego. I am told that he is a former professional football player who has "caught the collecting bug" in a big way. His Moroccan anglesite was one of the more memorable specimens seen at the show.

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 02/06/2011

Unfortunately it seems that this is the year of the no new novelties, but fortunately this year seems to be better in terms of sales and enthusiasm than past years.

Talking about novelties, the list is very short and for major novelties only two catch the eye of visitors, the new Mottramites from Mina Ojuela and the new Chalcopyrites and Tetrahedrites with Siderite from an uncertain new Chinese locality, maybe in Sichuan province.

More to come...
2012 European correspondent of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show™

[Gail]

I have some pretty good photos of Will Larson to bribe him with years from now, ha ha!!!!

[Paul Bordovsky]

My buddy and I decided to do our Tucson trip a little differently this year......road trip. After I finished up with my last patient of the day, we loaded up the Prius and hit the road.....about 4:30 p.m. last Tuesday. There is nothing like a college road trip when you are somewhere north of 50. About an hour and a half out of Austin, we hit Interstate 10 and cruised at the new speed limit of 80 mph. Now the back seat was a little cramped for whichever one of us had to sit there, but we were well prepared.

I brought my MP3 player loaded with about 2000 songs......old timey country, 70's mainstream pop, Texas Czech polkas, obscure California surf bands, Texas redneck rock and cosmic country. You should have heard us barrelling down the road, belting out Snoopy vs. the Red Baron......"10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or more, the Bloody
Red Baron was rollin' up the score".......well, maybe not.

Anyway, we arrived in Tucson around 5:30 a.m., pulled into a motel parking lot and slept for about an hour. Then we shined ourselves up a little, and had a leisurely breakfast at the Checkerboard Cafe, which is just north of the Executive Inn. Checked in at the AGTA and GJX, and then went our separate ways......my buddy to the jewelry part of the show, and me to the minerals.

I thought I'd share a couple things worth seeing. Arif and Aisha of the Rocksaholics,
had an incredible blue capped, pink tourmaline.....coffee can size, more or less. Arif
built an interesting display for it, black painted wood and glass. It had a black background and the tourmaline sat on a small pedestal, which had a halogen light and an LED light inside, directed up the C-axis of the crystal. Pink color just flooded out of the specimen. And there was a halogen light hidden at the top of the case that shined down upon the blue cap. They are at the Riverpark motel, but I think they will also be at the Main Show, as well.

Tom Epaminondas had a booth in one of the white temp buildings next to the Inn
Suites....(I know it has a new name, but it will always be Inn Suites to me). He had an enormous plate of vivianite from somewhere deep in the Amazon.

And, at the Quality Inn, Nikhil of Deccan Minerals had a few specimens of purple botryoidal fluorite on matrix. The yellow globules are quite common, and I'm seeing more of the red ones, but one doesn't see the purple ones very often, at least until recently.

We only stayed a few days. We had great sashimi at Sushi Cho, and wonderful Mexican food at our favorite taqueria hole-in-the-wall, Juantino's. We had a chance to visit with many of our friends, but too soon it was time to squeeze back into the now less spacious Prius for the trip back home.

"I wanna go home to the Armadillo,
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene.
With the friendliest people
And the purtiest women you've ever seen."

[Jordi Fabre]

Some shots from the Tucson's madness.

As usual, a lot of great photos in the Gail's thread: https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=21677#21677

[Jean Sendero]

The Main Show at the TCC opened yesterday. I was not there on opening day but I was during set-up on the previous day. Although I did not see the final set-up but what I saw is enough to say that the TGMS is going all out for the Arizona Centennial with the Arizona minerals being the center of attention. Every serious Arizona collector was there to be seen getting their “locality” specific case up. The displays, exhibits are simply out of this world. It is one spectacular case after another. One can see a combination of fantastic minerals with non-obtrusive bits and pieces of historical memorabilia. If you are into wulfenite, get ready.

So here are a few set-up day pics.

[Jesse Fisher]

Thursday evening was Jordi's traditional party for the FMF participants, held at Casa Vicente, a very good Spanish restaurant not far from the convention center and the TGMS show. This year it was combined with a mineral museum curator's gathering, celebrating the recent retirement of both Tony Kampf (Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History) and Carl Francis (Harvard). The place was packed, the food was good, and everyone seemed to have an excellent time. Below are a few photos. Tomorrow I will try to post some from the TGMS show.

[Jordi Fabre]

OK, the party was so fun and Jordi Deusedes is a so good photographer that I will download all the photos he did at Gail's mode ;-)

Thank you to everybody whom attended. Enjoy the cartoon! ;-)