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Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4906
Location: Barcelona
Posted: Jan 28, 2018 07:50 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
bob kerr wrote:
...this Saturday will be the true test of how thing work out. it should be interesting!...
Test overcome. Yesterday Saturday the parking was, according to the words of Vic Roncza, a Saturday with the same "difficulties" to park than those of previous years. Numerous employees of the Show took care of helping the people on the parking lot of the Hotel as well as in the satellite parking lots of St. Mary's.
Congratulations to Vic and the organizing team of this Show headed by Laura Delano.
Tucson 2018 - A peaceful day.JPG
Description:
A peaceful day in the HTCC with many people INSIDE the Hotel ;-)
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4906
Location: Barcelona
Posted: Jan 28, 2018 08:28 Post subject: Tucson Show 2018 - Some thoughts
Jordi Fabre wrote:
...Congratulations to Vic and the organizing team of this Show headed by Laura Delano.
That said, I think that this edition is being a kind of challenge in which what was already detected in previous years is becoming an important new way of understanding the Show. The number of mini-shows that have grown in Tucson in the last years it was already HUGE and even more are being added.
How do they work?: someone or a group of people rent one of the many semi-industrial buildings that abound in Tucson and there, with lots of space and at their convenience they open the doors and wait for customers to arrive. There are everywhere, we already said that this year there was more of 50 official shows of minerals-fossils (see: 2018 Tucson Gem Shows) and the truth is that being here seems even that there are more. They are small Shows or of medium size, agile, simple, and above all of FEW DAYS of duration.
Tucson has become too long, there were people selling here already on January 15 and even before and as that trend seems impossible to stop what seems to be happening is that the most professional dealers are self-managing tailored Shows. A little what it was the idea of the Westward Look at the time but with a simpler presentation and without the associated "hi-end" concept (although in some of these mini-shows you can find major specimens)
It is very interesting but at the same time a devastating phenomenon since it is humanly impossible to be able to attend so many events and the physical and economic effort that represents being here "to see all" is becoming impossible, so little by little we are all selecting what potentially we may be more interested and we leave aside all that we can no longer cover. If that is what the professionals we do, it is easy to imagine what the collectors can do, with just a few days to come and/or reduced budgets, and this generates a general sense of change of cycle in which many wonder what they will do the next year given the HUGE dispersion which Tucson has become.
Posted: Jan 28, 2018 10:21 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
HI JORDI !
Interesting observations, but not totally unexpected. Wherever there is a large and major mineral or fossil show, over time, there might be many additional small shows springing up.
Are the newer small shows having "dealers" selling all or part of their own (or a friend's) collection? Are the "dealers" buying stuff one day only to flip it at a higher price the next day (phenomenon that has gone on in some long standing venues for years)? Or are these "dealers" simply new ones and additional ones to the longer attending dealers that have populated the established Tucson Show venues for years? Or might they be newer younger dealers just starting out and trying to save a few dealership bucks until they get established?
Like you, I feel this trend certainly makes for an excessively long and widely spread out show. Do you think it negatively impacts all the other long standing venues?
Anyway, all interesting food for thoughts and discussions. BOB
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4906
Location: Barcelona
Posted: Jan 30, 2018 07:28 Post subject: Tucson Show 2018 - A request
Jordi Fabre wrote:
...That said, I think that this edition is being a kind of challenge in which what was already detected in previous years is becoming an important new way of understanding the Show. The number of mini-shows that have grown in Tucson in the last years it was already HUGE and even more are being added...
One of the undesirable effects of this huge number of new shows that have appeared everywhere is that there is no time at all if you want to be aware of what is going on here, so I ask for help to all the FMFers who already are in Tucson and have some free time to please post their posts and photos here so that we can all complete the giant puzzle in which Tucson Show(s!) has become.
By the way, many thanks to Don, Bob Kerr, Bob Harman, Matt, Alfredo, Tobi, James, Vic... for their previous contributions.
Posted: Jan 30, 2018 08:51 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
I'll share photos of my experience when I arrive next week. I've just started a facebook group that serves this purpose as well. I'm hoping to get a large membership and lots of active contributors.
The group is called: "The Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Showcase Report" _________________ Edward Bayley
Joined: 13 Nov 2011
Posts: 538
Location: Monroeville PA
Posted: Jan 30, 2018 17:51 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
A few observations:
- the HTCC parking "Armageddon" that I and others were concerned about did not materialize - at least not worse than previous years. The actions taken by the parking people - especially getting dealers to park away from the Hotel - made all the difference. Glad to see that the dealers cooperated.
- the number of mineral dealers is down and the number of people attending is way down - both of which contributed to the parking success - but the people who did attend were more buyers than "lookers" so most dealers I talked with had reasonable sales.
- the development of numerous other mineral specific shows has clearly "spread things out" and almost without exception, dealers who departed from the 2-3 week HTCC show were VERY happy with their new digs and also happy about the shorter duration.
- in my opinion, there is again nothing new that gets people fired up (4th year in a row). there's always lots of new minor items around (carrolites, axinites from Peru, Himalayan quartz from India, gemmy purple/blue Chinese fluorites, others) but none of these are big and good enough to "fire up the crowd". I ask again - is the "Golden Age of minerals" over?
- to follow-up on Jordi's observation - the HTCC show seems to be moving to a new normal - not good or bad, just different. It seems to be more heavily represented by international dealers - something I welcome heartily as the international flavor is key to success of the show. Most all domestic dealers have or are moving to the other shorter term shows. This makes sense as folks who travel overseas or internationally don't want to just buy/sell for a week.
A large group of amethyst from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with inclusions of cristobalite.
John, I don't know the silicates at all well, but have long been under the impression that cristabolite and quartz form under different conditions. How is it that the two occur together in the amethyst specimens you showed?
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1295
Location: Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Feb 01, 2018 00:16 Post subject: Tucson Show 2018 - New spectacular quartz from Northern India!
New spectacular quartz from Northern India! Collected between 9,000 and 13,400 ft. In the Himalayas, Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh, these quartzes are wrested from pockets and veins with hand tools by 3 teams of 4-5 men and boys, then transported down in large buckets on cables suspended high over the mountains.
The Alpine-like veins and pockets can be huge. Some of the crystals are too large to currently be mined. Associated minerals include small anatases over faces of most crystals, rutile in and outside of the quartz and chlorite in and outside of the crystals. The crystals are being offered here in Tucson by Fassi & Sami Makki. Really great stuff!
Tucson 2018 - New spectacular Quartz from Northern India (1).jpg
Mineral:
Quartz with Chlorite and Anatase
Locality:
Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India
Dimensions:
14 x 9 cm
Description:
Viewed:
32442 Time(s)
Tucson 2018 - New spectacular Quartz from Northern India (2).JPG
Posted: Feb 02, 2018 05:52 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
Few professional climbers that go into the Himalaya are geologists or mineral collectors, but I have heard some reports from some of them of crystals they have seen along the way [which they have neither the time, interest nor ability to transport let alone dig out]. One wonders what mineral treasures must exist even at Base Camp levels there.....
...yes those are very clear and very large and lovely XX of Quartz...I'll take any anyone is giving away ;-)
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4906
Location: Barcelona
Posted: Feb 02, 2018 11:33 Post subject: Tucson Show 2018 - The Westward Look
Tucson 02/01/2018
The time of the Westward Look has already arrived.
Officially this hi-end Show starts today but yesterday the vast majority of the rooms were already open, converted into temples of wonders ;-)
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1295
Location: Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Feb 02, 2018 12:17 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
Hi Jim: did not mean to ignore your comment. I agree that the association is odd but when I was at the museum I X-rayed one of these inclusions and got cristobalite. Same with John Koivula at GiA. John also found some of them gave a fluorite pattern _________________ John S. White
aka Rondinaire
Posted: Feb 02, 2018 15:24 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
Thanks John
Do you know of other instances where the quartz/cristobalite associations occur? I'd be interested to know, in general, the environments these these two minerals, and trydimite, occur in and if they are generally mutually exclusive or inclusive. I could probably find this with a detailed web search, but think you can likely summarize to answer my questions. I know that wandering around the shows and seeing all the wonderful minerals is rather distracting at the moment. So no great rush in getting back to me.
Joined: 07 Oct 2013
Posts: 66
Location: Arvada, Colorado
Posted: Feb 03, 2018 09:27 Post subject: Re: Tucson Show 2018
Hi Jim and John,
Don't mean to insert myself into this exchange, but I too am intrigued by co-occurrence of quartz and cristobalite. Is it possible that changing PT conditions during crystallization favored first cristobalite and then quartz, leading to the cristobalite inclusions? I would think that conditions would need to change rapidly in order for the cristobalite to be preserved.
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