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FEATURE STORY

Each year, the gem and mineral world converges on Tucson. Be sure to take good walking shoes and your bargaining skills - Tucson in February is capitalism at its best. BY ALAN KORWIN Tucson, Arizona I never have figured out why people involved in the lapidary arts would miss the Tucson gem and mineral shows. My guess is that total immersion in ecstasy isn't as appealing to some people as it is to me. By far the largest show of its kind, Tucson is the place to be in February when the annual harvest of the world's mines is laid out before you like some great feast. Tucson is actually dozens of shows, one more awesome than the next, held simultaneously in a luscious glut all over town. Every facet of the rock and gem business is here - rough by the ton, the finest cut stones, finished goods, plus all the gear and accessories. For such a small town, it hosts an awfully big shindig. Museums and private collectors alike come to Tucson to inspect the finest quality fossil specimens. You're unlikely to see an ammolite of this calibre anywhere except a museum. Photo courtesy The Black Hills Institute. Veterans of the citywide event know better than to try and see it all, concentrating their efforts on the shows of particular importance to them. Newcomers are prone to sensory overload, as they wear out their shoes and collapse each evening, grinning stupidly from ear to ear. Guess what? Rocks are big business. The main honchos get together each year to meet, talk, do deals. That's basically what Tucson is all about. Over the years, every affiliated industry and entrepreneur has taken advantage of the global pow wow, and sets up shop to catch some of the action. The action is nonstop, from the best suites to the city's streets. If you're a professional at this, you can't not go to Tucson. That might intimidate the neophyte, and well it should. Gawking consumers and the uninitiated are persona non grata at the top industry events around town, but business people legitimately in the trade have little trouble registering for these shows. If you've never been, you can only dream of the dazzling precious stones dripping in the halls of those exhibits, as the world's purveyors strive to outdo each other. The most stunning cut stones on the planet have been attracted to, well, the place where they're supposed to be. The world's leading buyers ply the carpeted floors. This year, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show has singled out Brazilian materials as the Show Mineral, covering a wide variety of materials, including pieces such as this, a cut and polished quartz from the Pinto Prospect. 9.5 cm high, from the Louis D. Boyle Collection. Photo © Jeff Scovil. Many shows are staged for business-to-business activity. Access is simple for people with a business card and a tax ID number. That tax number is used as an indicator of just how “in business” you really are. Do you remember the point at which this was no longer just a hobby for you? Or haven't you reached that point yet? What's that, you're avoiding it like the plague? This helps define whether wholesalers will want to deal with you. Which means whether you'll qualify for some of the best prices imaginable. All that good stuff for so little money! Frankly, the big timers resent having to put up with nickel-and-dime consumers who wheedle their way into a show where they're out of their league. Technically, only legitimate tradespeople (whatever that means) may attend certain commercial shows. The shopper who wants personal jewelry at wholesale prices, or the hobbyist trying to undercut a local hobby shop, these dawdlers are a pain. There are screening systems in place, with attendees using Tax ID numbers to get past strict gatekeepers. On occasion, someone slips past the radar, but it's not recommended that you try if you don't have the proper credentials. With all the hustle and bustle at the Tucson shows, the people turning you away have no time to do it politely. OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Then there are the public shows, where anything goes. Public shows run the gamut of everything you'd otherwise need a security badge for, where the first-timer and the old-timer are equally welcome. Hey, your money's as green as anyone else's. Tucson serves a double purpose for many professionals in the jewelery trade: they can both buy their raw materials and sell their finished products. This 18K gold ring with 5.07-ct. boulder opal and .33 ctw of treated green diamonds was designed and created by Cindy Mulholland, of Ventura, California. Photo: Ralph Gabriner. My personal favorites are the shows clustered along Interstate 10, in the string of motels that stand out on a dot map of the show locations. The market atmosphere is intoxicating, that unbridled sense of commerce hustling at its unrestrained best. So many people, all with similar interests. A true free market in all its glory. At home I can only shop the stores. Here, it's one jam-packed building after another, the next one just a few steps away. Every door is flung wide, room after room brimming with goods, their proprietors beaming within. And the smell of food is always in the air because what vendor would abandon a room and the nonstop traffic for something as silly as eating? I particularly love the huge tent and outdoor setups, with their ridiculous prices. This is where you'll find specimens bulldozed into piles, and available by the 55-gallon drum. Instead of buying a boxed fragment of a mineral for a few bucks, you buy a pound of the stuff for the same money. There's nothing quite so heady as doing your specimen shopping by weight. The wholesale display and vast tool vendors in these areas round it out nicely. And there's always enough jewelry and fashion accessories around to keep the wife busy. Boy, the money just gets sucked right out of your wallet. And that stupid grin keeps resurfacing. With all the contacts you make in Tucson, the odds of you becoming someone's big account rise appreciably. After all, every muckety-muck on earth is here doing the same thing you are - looking for the people who can help make you rich or happy. For a person trying to get started, or anyone trying to move ahead, the opportunities are as rich as the merchandise. A 12.3 cm beryl crystal from Minacu, Goias, Brazil. From the Steve Smale Collection. Photo © Jeff Scovil. You would expect to hear a lot of languages at such a truly global show, and you do. Since tongues of a feather tend to flock, you'll find clusters around town from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and individual countries. Who would have even thought tiny Sri Lanka had so many people, let alone gem dealers? But it makes sense when you think about it. The fruits of the mines are geography dependent, so naturally those nationalities with the most significant harvests will journey here. And you, you only have to fly in from some nearby state. You never saw so much Brazilian amethyst in one place in your life, from those huge cathedrals you can literally step into (at museum prices) down to loose or tumbled crystals, at dollars the handful. Makes your mouth water just to think of it. To calculate the cost-benefit ratio, just divide all the crystals you can hold in two cupped hands by the cost of your plane ticket. Then multiply by the number of times you buy by the handful instead of by the piece. The top gem carvers in the world unveil their latest creations each year in Tucson. This 22.20-ct. tourmaline displays the Luminaire cut designed and carved by Michael M. Dyber. Photo by Robert Weldon, © Michael Dyber. THE MAIN EVENT. Nearly half a century ago, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, presented by the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, got this whole thing started, and to this day many folks call the four-day Society event, at the Convention Center, the “main” show. It is certainly the original show, and as others joined the fray over the years they were thought of as satellite shows. Inspired exhibits of natural specimens and finished goods compete for coveted annual awards. Vendors pack the aisles offering their wares. Many of the year's finest exhibitors take booth space on the convention floor, in addition to the two-week shows they attend at their respective hotels. The public is invited for a small admission charge, one of the only fee-based shows of the whole shebang. And it must be worth it - Tucson quiets down while the main show runs, because so many people go. It's one thing to get comfortable and savor a great catalog of tools. It's another entirely to see them all enticingly stacked up in front of you. Instead of just looking you can feel, test the spring tension on a tweezer, observe the clarity of a lens, examine the style and workings of some new display tray yourself. New products debut at shows, and don't forget that many exhibitors have no catalog. They make their livings by attending shows. The only way to meet and gain them as suppliers is to be there. Beaders of all stripes are drawn to the two major bead shows that are held in Tucson each year; this amphora-style lampworked bead was made by Kate Drew-Wilkinson. Photo: Sandy Upson. Each level in the business chain is amply represented. You'll find distributors and wholesalers who can buy what you make, or sell you the products of their clients across the spectrum. Importers and exporters open the two-way door to foreign trade, bringing you bounty from abroad and lugging back bounty when they return. Retailers stand ready to sell you whatever you want, at a decent price, or perhaps begin carrying your line of goods. And deal makers are everywhere, ready to sell you the annual output of some mine, or buy a mine, or broker the big crystal everyone's talking about. Each year, a few items exhibited in Tucson are generally recognized as the preeminent pieces of the show. There's typically some spectacular complete fossilized beast at a hotel entrance, the pick of the litter, so to speak. Who could forget the Sweet Home rhodochrosite, larger by far and purer red than any seen before? Or a quartz that required, not a fork lift, but a big fork lift. Or a deep blue diamond the size of your eye. Dear Wilma, You have to come and visit in February. That's when the Tucson rock and gem shows are on, and the buys are unbelievable. You can buy anything from jewelry, (costume and the good stuff); rocks and minerals (to add to your son Ryan's collection), accessories for your house, gifts for whatever occasions you have coming up, findings to make any kind of jewelry you can imagine, jeweler's tools, baggies, molds, and so much more, it's endless. Bring comfortable shoes, a big carrying bag, water (it's warm during the day) and your checkbook and credit cards. I might have you buy some things for me and I'll reimburse you so that Alan won't find out how much money I'll actually be spending. Okay? He stumbles around with this stupid grin and probably won't notice anyway. Call and let me know when to pick you up at the airport! Love, your best buddy, Cheryl The museums are buying. The skyscraper decorators are buying. The world's most prestigious buyers are buying. The average Joes are buying. Maybe it's time for you to stop by and buy. Now, we Arizonans have become acutely aware lately that the value of our real estate - its natural beauty and breathtaking expanse - is attracting far too many transplants for our own good. There's an unwritten rule lately that says we're supposed to ward off newcomers to help slow development and growth. So let me remind you that Tucson has its share of real live rattlesnakes, and scorpions march around out here, and most of our plants (a euphemism for cactus) bite. But I'd be remiss not to mention the clear beautiful days, and that salve for the soul, the soothing effect of open desert. Be sure to take a few hours off, cruise out of town to an isolated spot and drink it in, before you go back home, thank you very much. To listen to me you'd think there are no down sides for pilgrims to the Mecca of inanimate earth-based possessions. Well there are. I've already mentioned how quickly you get to spend your money. This is, after all, an encomium to consumerism, in the finest capitalistic traditions. Then there's always the onset of Tucson Eye, the optical psychosis where you hallucinate plant leaves into crystals, and floor tiles into crystals, and neon signs into jewelry, by the end of each day-long eyegasm. And of course, you'll never be the same again. But most of all, it's deliciously addictive. You'll be back. Thanks to Arizona-based Cefra travel for assistance in obtaining this information. Airfares vary daily, conditions apply; Cefra can help you get into town and find lodging during these peak periods, call 1-800-264-5055. Approximate round-trip airfares non-stop to Tucson FROM With a Saturday Without a Saturday New York $417 $495 Miami $447 $771 Chicago $209 $238 Dallas $367 $542 San Francisco $214 $192 Look for Colored Stone's Tucson Show Guide at the shows and pick it up! Start planning with this guide, checking the shows and dealers you want to see and other special events that interest you. Portions of it are also available online at www.tucsonshowguide.com. For more information, contact Colored Stone magazine at (610) 964-3600, fax (610) 293-0977, or e-mail CSeditorial@primediasi.com. For subscription information, call (800) 676-4336 or e-mail coloredstone@neodata.com. Alan Korwin, a full-time writer and consultant, has been covering topics for Lapidary Journal for 14 years. He is the author of six books about gun laws, and can be reached with a click at bloomfieldpress.com.

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