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Tucson 2013 - "Inn Suites" Show
Last Updated: 9th Feb 2013
The Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show, held at the Hotel Tucson City Center is generally known to most collectors as the 'Inn Suites' show after the original name of the hotel.
The hotel was invaded by dinosaurs this year
Dmitriy Belakovsky displayed his usual fine selection of Russian minerals
He visited the Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, Far-eastern Russia in July 2012 to collect these incredible Tenorite crystals. They were pulled out of a vent cavity at temperatures up to 300 degrees C - collected with oven gloves!
Triceratops in the hotel grounds.
Spirifer minerals had a great selection of Moroccan minerals, including these cobaltian calcites from Bou Azzer
Crystal Classics/Kristalle have a new room at the show this year.
Unfortunately their supply of complimentary chocolate was being raided by an octopus.
David Lloyd from Crystal Classics poses in a mindat.org T-Shirt alongside Katya.
Erika Aheimer and Adam Wright from the Adelaide mine in Tasmania show off their latest find of crocoite
Jeff Self from Self-a-Ware minerals had this fabulous Topaz he dug recently, but really doesn't want to sell. Of course, if you do buy it, you can honestly tell people that it was Self-collected.
Rick Kennedy had this excellent benitoite/neptunite specimen he had recently etched out
along with this "window pane" clear benitoite crystal.
The hotel was invaded by dinosaurs this year
Dmitriy Belakovsky displayed his usual fine selection of Russian minerals
He visited the Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, Far-eastern Russia in July 2012 to collect these incredible Tenorite crystals. They were pulled out of a vent cavity at temperatures up to 300 degrees C - collected with oven gloves!
Triceratops in the hotel grounds.
Spirifer minerals had a great selection of Moroccan minerals, including these cobaltian calcites from Bou Azzer
Crystal Classics/Kristalle have a new room at the show this year.
Unfortunately their supply of complimentary chocolate was being raided by an octopus.
David Lloyd from Crystal Classics poses in a mindat.org T-Shirt alongside Katya.
Erika Aheimer and Adam Wright from the Adelaide mine in Tasmania show off their latest find of crocoite
Jeff Self from Self-a-Ware minerals had this fabulous Topaz he dug recently, but really doesn't want to sell. Of course, if you do buy it, you can honestly tell people that it was Self-collected.
Rick Kennedy had this excellent benitoite/neptunite specimen he had recently etched out
along with this "window pane" clear benitoite crystal.
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I really didn't want to miss out on the excitement of Tucson a second year. I've slowed down collecting, when you have a big collection you don't see as makny things you don't already have. But to see the thousands of dealers and all of their carefully assembled specimens is exciting and amazing.
I've bought from people with so little English that we used a simple calculator to bargain prices, passing it back and forth with our new "bids" to one another. That particular guy had put mineral oil on his fluorites, it was obvious both from the spreading oil spots on the white paper beneath the rocks, and also from the baby oil smell.
The folks who make it to America, and who have a display that consists of putting the rocks on the flat surfaces, like the bed, counters, and floor, and whose rocks are really not outstanding are sometimes sad. It's very expensive for them to ship specimens across the world, and then they turn out to be mediocre and nearly unsellable.
At the same time, some folks, especially from Morocco, are so excited to be at a huge bazzar, and are so willing to talk about their stuff. I usually buy handicrafts from them, I'm not an expert on IDing fakes, and their fakes are so good!! But a rug, or an honest carving, or jewelry, I can make an assessment of what that's worth to me.
Thanks for the post, Jolyon and Katya.,,
J. R. Hodel
10th Feb 2013 9:12pm