KOFA  National Wildlife Refuge - February 2009 - 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

 


 

Sorry to say this to all of the folks back east bracing for Nemo but the weather has been great down here in Tucson!  There were a few days of cold and dreay skies with rain even but the last couple of days have seen crayon blue skies and temperatures in the low to mid 70s.   I was able to find a few more new things to write about including specimens from a new very large and important collection of French specimens.  First something new and quite interesting.  I visited John Cornish at the Inn Suites and was intrigued by these oddly shaped specimens of rhodochrosite from the Wutong mine, Guanxi, Autonomous Region, China. The habit is hexagonal tabular shaped crystals and they have distinct zonation in color.  John had two remaining specimens of this material and I snatched them both up.  He said he had had four in all. Surprisingly his best specimen, pictured below, was still there so I snagged it and a smaller one.  Sorry, but both specimens are already sold.  

4.1 x 3.9  cm specimen of the rhodocrosite from China.

 

Luiz Menezes had some interesting specimens of feldspar from Divino das Laranjeiras, Minas Gerais, Brazil.  What is peculiar about these are the two generations of albite. The larger crystals clearly show the typical polysynthetic twinning and the second generation consists of albite var. cleavelandite.  Some of the specimens are associated with muscovite.  I picked out three specimens in all.


18 x 12 cm specimen of the new feldspars with two generations of albite from Brazil.

 

On February 2nd, Tomek Prazckier of Spirifer Minerals hosted the first annual Krupnik event at the Inn Suites.  Krupnik is a honey flavored vodka and rather tasty I  might add.  It was well attended.  That seems to happen when alcohol is offered to mineral people... hmm...


The poison and the typical glasses it is served in.


Jese Fisher capturing evidence of who was there.


A gentlman and Englishman, David Lloyd was there as well.

On Monday and Tuesday (4th and 5th) Steve Perry and I hosted an open house show at my Tucson rental.  We also had up and coming vinter Brett Keller who produces his trademakred Mineral Wines pouring samples of his four varieties.  We got literally pounded the first day of our show.  Special thanks to Jerry Rosenthal of Santa Cruz, California for his help with the effort.


A picture of the box set of wines Brett was offering at our show.

On Wednesday evening at the Riverpark Motel (Pueblo Show) the annual Mindat conference was held.  I had been asked to give a talk and I selected Mineral Fakes as the topic of my presentation.  With prices sky rocketing in minerals the number of mineral forgeries are on the rise.  My power point presentation is available here Mineral Fakes.  Here are a couple of my examples.  


A fine looking wulfenite from Tsumeb - only problem is the wulfenite is glued to the dolomite.

 


Manganite from Ilfeld, Germany where the crystals have been glued to the barite matrix using mashed up bits of manganite and epoxy.

 


A gorgeous fluorapatite from Austria glued to the matrix using small bits of matrix and epoxy.

 


Yours trruly at the podium.

One of the big new things here to see in Tucson are the spectacular specimens of amazonite and smoky quartz being offered by Joe Doris of Pinnacle 5 Minerals from the Luckyu Monday Pocket at the Smoky Hawk Claim, Florrisant, Teller County, Colorado.  Also offered were etched crystals of sherry colored topaz from the Tribute Pocket, Pikes Peak, Colorado.  Joe said that this topaz locality was original found by the legendary Ed Over in the 1930s.  Som eexhaustive research resulted in the rediscovery of this interesting locality. 

 


A specimen of the etched topaz.

 


An example of the new amazonite and smoky quartz in Joe's hands.

 


A truly spectacular six figure specimen of the amazonite and smoky quartz.


 
 

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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