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The 51st annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (TGMS) started on February 8, 2006. This four day event is the final hurrah from the gathering of shows starting in middle January that deal with gems and minerals and fossils and rocks and meteorites and other native cultural items from around the world. As a side note, I am not much of a mineral specimen collector. If you were to put all my minerals in a shoe box, the whole thing would be worth about $300. The spectacle of the whole affair is what is so interesting to me, and I get a chance to visit family who just happen to be living in Tucson.
On early February 8, 2006 the "Big Show" is about to start.
This 8:00am line of enthusiastic collectors have queued up to be the first to purchase their admission ticket. Once the admission ticket is purchased, another line forms inside the convention center at the top of the escalator which will open at 10:00am to the mineral and jewelry dealers on the main floor.
In just 10 minutes, the time will be 10:00am and the floodgates of about 800 mineral enthusiasts who have been patiently waiting in a long line will open and they will all descend to the floor of the main level and the 51st TGM show will start.
Many exhibits from Canada were assembled in the common areas of the TGMS for the enjoyment of the patrons. Here is a nice specimen with an assemblage of antimony-bearing minerals, kermesite, valentinite, and native antimony.
Looking like a miniature ship-wreck, goethite and calcite cover mine debris and form a striking specimen of minerals from Mexico.
Main exhibit space was given up to competitive displays. This year, the exhibits were interspersed among the dealer stalls rather than lined-up along the "Grand Promenade" as in years past. In keeping with the Canadian mineral theme, here is a fragile spray of millerite on exhibit.
Jolyon Ralph of Mindat.org fame has finally visited the colonies. Yours truly is dressed in the Hawaiian shirt. Jolyon's lovely wife Ida is taking a picture for posterity and so, has missed out on participating in this tawdry display on the main floor of the TGMS.
The TGMS is a very small part of the whole "Tucson" thing. Tucson is home to the largest wholesale jewelry event in the world where buyers and sellers meet to conduct business. Here are some rock spheres, chrysanthemum stones, and fire coral for sale.
The range of items for sale is astounding. Tucson also boasts a very large meteorite and fossil following where one can get anything he wants as long as you have the money. This mounted replica fossil wanted $35,000.
Wholesale interior-decorator items in Tucson generally mean one of these amethyst-lined "logs" from Brazil. While serious mineral collectors would not purchase this item, it is big business and this dark grade of "heat treated" amethyst goes for about $10-$20/kilo wholesale.
This block of limestone has been converted to an attractive coffee table by the desert folks in Morocco. I would not like to do this for a living, chipping hard, well-indurated limestone to dress the belemnite and goniatite fossils using old automobile parts as tools.
No trip to Tucson is complete without a visit to the outdoor tents and stalls along side some of the smaller motel venues. I mean where else can one find a kilo of raw Shea Butter from South Africa for $5.00 among the piles and piles of lapidary rough.
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