KOFA National Wildlife Refuge - February 2004 - photo by John Veevaert
John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402



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Show Reports
Report 1   Report 2   Report 3   Report 4  Report 5  Report 6 

 
 
 

Tucson 2010 Report 4

T he past couple days have been spent visiting the Westward Look show and getting things ready for our last mini-show which was held Saturday the 6th.  Today the 7th I am going to finish writing this report up and then head out and take advantage of the Super Bowl preoccupying most people, hopefully, and see what might be still lurking in the hundreds of rooms here in Tucson with minerals in them.   First, though, the Westward Look.  This show has matured since its inception to become the premier mineral event in Tucson.  It attracts the top dealers and mineral collectors - those with adequate monetary resources - to the 4 day show.  For most of us it is an opportunity to see some of the best specimens in the world that are available in one relatively small place.

First stop - the Gobins.  I had a better camera this time and took several pictures of some of their excellent pieces.

 
A superb wulfenite specimen from Tsumeb. The crystal is over 4 cm across!!

 
A 30 cm specimen of calcite from the new find in China.  I have seen these with quite a few dealers but this was one of the best.
 

Here's a better picture of the vanadinite I featured in the 3rd report.

 
Next on to my Reno pal Scott Werschky.  Scott has ascended as one of the preeminent gold dealers in the world.  The things I have seen in the past 10 days coming out of boxes from his truck as hard to fathom.  Try a 40 ounce single spinel law twin crystal from Australia ( no pictures sorry!) and then here are just a small few pictures of specimens found on his case shelves... Mercy!
 
 

The label card is 6 cm across for scale.
 
 

A towering set of  leaves from Round Mountain, Nevada.
 
 

All sorts of habits and forms on this specimen from Round Mountain.
 
 
 
 

Scott is more than a 1-dimensional dealer !  A very interesting large specimen of cavansite on stilbite from India.
 
 
Further along I visited with Graeber and Himes.  These guys always have some very interesting minerals on hand.  Leonard showed me a beryl specimen with an internal spiral feature that is referred to as a double helix.  It looked like a DNA strand set in the crystal.  
 
 
 
 
 

Leonard also "pointed" out this remarkable pentagonite specimen from India.
 

And this specimen of aquamarine growing around a schorl crystal from Nepal.
 
 
I had heard of a new find of silver & mercury bearing minerals from Bou Azzer in Morocco that Collector's Edge had.  They also have some stunning specimens of elbaite from a new find in Paprok, Afghanistan and a few of those red things hanging around...
 
 

Ths specimen has crystals of allargentum and others from Morocco.
 

Another specimen from the new find.
 

A large cabinet specimen of elbaite from Afghanistan.
 

And yet one more.  P.O.R. for these folks.
 

Makes me wish I had kept half of the Sweet Homes rhodochrosites I have sold over the years...
 
Like any show in Tucson you will have opportunities to visit with fellow mineral friends who come from all walks of life.  It really is quite incredible how diverse and socially stratified many of our backgrounds are but when it comes to minerals we're all worker bees of the same ilk.
 

Several familiar faces exchanging "mineral data" outside at the Westward Look.
And hey! the sun was out that day!!
 
 
 
Herb and Moni Obodda had a fabulous display of specimens from Pakistan and Afghanistan. They also had this revolving display of cut stones. Total eye candy with three faceted sphenes surrounding a faceted cuprite...
 
 
 
I n the parking lot at the Westward Look I saw Evan and he called me over to take a look at a specimen he will have for the main show.  It is a stunning specimen of azurite from Milpillas mine in Mexico. Check out the acicular crystal of either malachite or brochantite on this beast in the lower photo!
 

Evan holding the specimen.
 

That is some fine looking copper carbonate! 
 
 
 
 
Sometimes photo opportunities just happen and you gotta be ready to get the shot when you can.  I wandered in to Diana and Dan Weinrich's room and saw this trio riding the couch. 
 

Dan Weinrich, John Schneider and Isaias Casanova.
Los Tres Amigos!  
 
 
 
Elsewhere in Tucson there are other places to sniff good rocks out at.  This year he Pueblo Inn has attracted several mineral dealers from the Inn Suites and decaying Executive Inn to set up shop.  One of them I know quite well is Ed Rosenzweig.  Ed had a lot of fine specimens at reasonable pricing and he said that the traffic at the Pueblo had been brisk since he opened.  I saw a couple of interesting specimens on his shelves including a very fine specimen of the skeletal galena from Bulgaria and a very fine old timer specimen of brucite from Pennsylvania.  There's been some discussion lately about these galena specimens being "carved" on mindat. This is utter nonsense.  It is impossible for anyone to follow a cleavage plane at the microscopic level with such perfection using an abrasive tool the entire length of the crystals.  The growth or solution patterns under the microscope are a sight to behold and nothing that could be created in a sweat shop somewhere. There are some people who've attemted  making these with air abraiders which distinctly look different that the legitimate pieces I have seen from  Ivan Pojarevski at the 2007 Denver Show. Lumping all of these as a group of fakes is akin to lumping the German silver wires and Italian sulfurs that are real with those that have been shown to be lab grown.    
 
 
 
 
The traffic at the Pueblo was heavy too in the afternoon this past Thursday. I got this photo in the courtyard.  Now most of the dealers here are in the bead, lapidary, gemstone and miscellaneous stuff world but there were a lot of people  here and that has been the case since the show opened.
 
 
The courtyard at the Pueblo Inn.
 
I've been meaning to do this for years and finally remembered.  When I arrived here the 19th of January the
cost was $29.99 per night at this motel between Congress and Starr Pass.  Do you think the proprietors   here in
Tucson sense an opportunity to squeeze some extra bucks out of people who visit here for the mineral shows?
 
 
 
So yesterday we - Steve Perry, Pat Haynes, Simon Hildred, Marcus Origlieri and I - had our last mini-show.  It was a stampede at 10:00 am and we saw scores of people here.
 
A shot from the living room looking into the kitchen.  Dan Evanich, Marc Mitterman and Simon Hildred are faces I know.
 
 
Here are last year's Paul DeSautel Award winners Lynn and Jeff "Stretch" Young
 with their new family addition - Kimberlynn.  Steve Perry is just to the right.
 
 
I will have more in a couple days on what is happening here in Tucson.


Past Shows & Reports
PLEASE NOTE: The minerals that were offered on these pages are all sold
1999
Munich Show
2000
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2001
Sainte Marie Show
Munich Show
2002
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2003
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2004
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2005
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2006
Tucson Show
Bologna Show
Sainte Marie Show
East Coast Show
Munich Show
2007
Tucson Show
Dallas Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2008
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show
2009
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2010
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show

Munich Show

2011
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2012
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2013
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Crystal Days (Poland)
Munich Show  

 

 
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