Hello, Guten Morgan, Bonjour, Dzień Dobry,
Welcome to the final blog days 10, 11 and 12 of our, It's All Happening at the Show blog series. On of the interesting thing about our travels, is the myriad of languages spoken and the numbers of countries represented here.
Our car is getting nice and full of great new crystals, minerals, jewelry, sculptures and animals carvings that we have coming home to you! As with the previous blogs, if you see something you like in this blog, previous blogs or on Facebook, please email or text us quickly to put your name on it or get on the reserve list. 720 352 3224 and bruce@handsofspirit.com.
Somethin' tells me it's all happening at the Rock show!
We thought this was so pretty we had to share it. It was a very large slice of rosy Amethyst.
The first half of day 10's blog is filled with some of my absolute favorite polished stones. One of the things we have found throughout the years, is that having a good polish on a stone is worth it's weight in gold. The stone artisan that works one these stones knows this as well and does a darn good job of making each and every stone shine like newly polished shoes! Another key to truly lovely polished stones is using high quality rough. I can tell you that all the stones you are seeing here, meet both qualifications.
Above, we have palm stones in a favorite of mine, Ruby in Granite, for the first time. We also have a few spheres and hearts in in this material.
Hmmmm I am in love with this piece! It is about the side of a star fruit. It is a mix of Ruby, Fuchsite and Kyanite, that is the blue you are seeing in the second picture. This comes from India. We used to get Fuchsite (the green) like this a long time ago, but recently it just resurfaced again. It glitters nicely!
We have these four palm stones, front and back in the same mineral combination, as well as a few wands.
Here is a new one for us. I just learned about it this past year. It is a variety of Pink Opal from Australia. Not all Opals have what is known as Play of Color". That is the fire you see. Some opals are opaque like this one. We have this rosy lingam as well as one sphere. Pretty rare stuff!
We are very happy to announce that we finally were able to get our paws on Thunder Eggs from Mount Hay Australia. These form from Volcano's! We were able to get about 7 of them. We treat these like Rorschach tests. We often find many creatures and designs hidden in the geodes. Hint there is one that has a fox and a coy fish in it!
Iolite gem Lingams! Iolite is one of the best example of a pleochroic stone. The technical definition of pleochroism is; an optical phenomenon in which a substance has different colors when observed at different angles especially with polarized light. As you can see in the photo the stone on the left looks yellowish brown in hue while the other stones look more violet. As you rotate the stone the colors change back and forth!
Always a favorite of mine gem Lepidolite! We have a few wands and one sphere coming back with us. Check out these mouthwatering colors! The wand above is the same wand at a different angle in the picture below with the two wands. It is the one on the left.
Can you even believe the color on this gem Lepidolite sphere? OMG!
If you read the previous blog you will have seen the Dauphine Quartz (a type of twinning along the C-axis of the crystal) smoky quartz crystals and come from Malawi. We had asked for you to contact us if you were interested in a piece. We had a number of you want one and while working on these special orders we decided to bite the bullet and bring two back with us as well. Karen and Bruce had seen these while I had not. I was not super excited about them until I saw them. Remember what I said about how a high polish help make a stone? Well the same follows suite for luster on natural crystals. The higher the luster the better! I have to say when I saw these two natural wands I just about died. The only thing I can say is they are magnificent!
Anyone remember the Sunshine Spirit Quartz we used to carry? Well we have a few sweet little specimens coming back with us. Spirit Quartz also known as Cactus Quartz is a special formation of Quartz out of South Africa. It is defines with the large single terminated top and small little cactus like terminations all over the sides. They grow as clusters and single points. The yellow coloring is natural and comes from Limonite.
Now these are Opal Aura Spirit Quartz. Same as above in terms of formation but the coating in this case is done by humans. When you take Quartz and put a thin plating of Platinum over it you get these sparkling gems.
So ends day 10 with DAM! (Darn Big Margaritas)!
Today was a bitter sweet day for us. It was our last days at the normal show which means we had to say goodbye to many friends but it also means that 1. tomorrow we get to attend the high end AGTA colored stone and jewelry show and that means mouthwatering gemstones to drool on. 2. we get to come back to you all with lots of new and wonderful things to share! 3. I get to see my cats!!!
While making our rounds Luke wandered off to one of our favorite Russian stone cutters to get a few items. When I met up with him I happened to look down and there was a huge surprise. Ginger Quartz from Russia. Per Melody Strawberry Quartz only comes from Mexico while Ginger Quartz only comes from Russia. Both are next to impossible to find. In my 25 years in this business I have only seen Strawberry Qtz. once and Ginger Quartz two times now. They look very similar and people will call them the same name so if you want to follow Melody's rule make sure you have the right location if you every purchase a piece of this. I immediately put a post on FB to see if anyone was interested in a piece. Many of you responded so we have some very special pieces come back for some lucky individuals. We do have one piece to sell for anyone who may have missed out.
As I was about to walk out something caught my eye. Can anyone venture a guess? If you said Manifestation Quartz then you are correct! Sorry no prizes for guessing correcting though;) For those of you who don't know what a Manifestation Quartz is it is when a Quartz crystal grows inside another Quartz crystal and is completely encapsulated. Again extremely rare. We are lucky to find one a year if at all. If you are lucky enough to find one you may have one or two small crystals inside this piece however must have about 30 crystals inside and they are super large to boot. They almost look like Herkimer diamond quartz crystals. What a piece!
Crocoite is a stone we love but it is so fragile that it is not a practical one for us to bring to trade shows. We did however have special requests for it. The piece on the left is actually from the minors private collection. It is coming home for a lucky individual. It come from Australia and is probably one of the most orange minerals that exists.
Leave it to me to find stuffed animals at the Rock Show! These special guys actually come from Australia. The man who mines the Crocoite and his wife love animals and bring these with them. I bought a few two years ago and had to add a few more to my collection this year. We have a Platypus and a Tasmanian Devil. There are a lot of animals in our blogs this year because of course It's All Happening at the Zoo I mean Rock Show!
While grabbing a few special orders for Zuni Fetishes today I saw this adorable Zuni Pig Piggy Bank for the Year of the Pig! Beat that I fit the word pig into a sentence three times! This pig is $65 but hey you get a penny back!
SAVE THE CHUBBY UNICORNS - https://www.savethechubbyunicorn.com/
Phosphosiderite has been a new stone in the past two years but it is not easy to find as it is limited in availability. We have a few wands and tumbled stones back in Colorado. Last year we were able to get bracelets but they sold out quickly. We were hoping to get more this year but unfortunate we could not find a single one. While we were literally walking out the door to head back to our hotel this lovely purple color caught my eye. I went to investigate and.... SCORE!!!! Three pairs of Phosphosiderite earrings are now coming back with us!
I also saw these lovely Blue Lace Agate and Blue Topaz earrings. Because the Blue Lace Agate mine is closed I figured I better get a couple pairs in case we can't get them again. Nice color and beautifully elegant.
These polished points stand they are a Spinel in Basalt from India. The pink crystals you are seeing are cross sections of pink Spinel crystals. Nice contrast of colors.
Forget a bouquet of Roses for Valentines day get your significant other a bouquet of Amethyst crystals!!! I promise you can't go wrong.
All of these were hand selected for the best color perfect crystallization and phantoms. Can you see the fine slightly darker lines in the face of this crystal? Those are some of the phantom lines.
They also can be used as wild rabbit fangs for those of you who are as weird as I am. I promised I washed these off after I put them in my mouth! It's day 11 of 15 hour days...what else can you expect?
Here is something a little different. This is a Mabe shell. We only have one and though it is not a crystal or mineral it is like Amber an organic material. This Shell/bowl has outstanding Nacre. Nacre is the pearly finish you are seeing in this bow. Just lovely!
The past two days it has been raining on and off. On our way back to the hotel we saw a nice little rainbow.
To end the night you can see Bruce doing some serious examination of a gemstone. The Dr. will see you now!
Alrighty folks day 12 is finally upon us. It is our last day and those who have followed our blogs in the past will know what that means. Super fancy BLING BOBBLES ICING DAY!!!! aka JEWELRY!!!
First you won't want to miss these four Mongolian Quartz Laser wands that we are bringing back. There is also a double terminated triplet that is not pictured here. They have Hematite Tetrahedrite growing out of them and red phantoms of Hematite within them. One is encrusted with a secondary growth of Quartz.
Here are two of them up close.
Like the Oscars the jewelry industry has their own awards. The big colored stone and colored stone jewelry awards are called the AGTA Spectrum Awards. This Harlequin Opal took first place for best stone. This stone is most likely in the six figure range.
Rubellite Tourmaline with diamonds. Third place winner.
This large and artistic box features inlay work along with a large gold octopus sprawling on top.
There are many more Spectrum award winners. You can find them online. They are pretty spectacular.
Boulder Opal from Australia
Rubies! These Ruby teardrops are the size of a large grape!
We take a picture of these every year. They are just so incredible. They are mixed colored Tourmaline.
You may have seen this Cornflower Blue Sapphire and Diamond necklace on our FB page today. It is close to half a million dollars!
Candy Tourmaline!
We are green with envy at the Emeralds from Columbia.
The Smithsonian Institute always has an impressive display at the AGTA show. This piece caught my eye right away. Tugtupite is an extremely rare stone from Greenland. We are actually bringing home a few tumbled stones this year which is outstanding because we can't always get it. I have never seen a faceted stone before tough! The most interesting part about Tugtupite is that it fluoresces hot pink and hot orange under long wave and short wave black lights.
I had to share this display it looked like confetti! So much fun and the best part it was all done out of gemstones!
Best color! Cobaltocalcite with Tsavorite garnets in sterling silver with black rhodium plating.
This is one of my favorite artists to visit. Her carvings are life like and carved from an assorted array of gemstones! As I am a huge cat fan I took some close up pictures of these adorable furbabies.
Pink Tourmaline and Aquamarine kitties.
Amethyst and Ametrine kitties. These cats start at about $1 800 and go up for there.
Paraiba Tourmaline is the most expensive form of Tourmaline it is the neon blue stones you are seeing. You could choose to buy a new BMW or buy one of these...
This piece speaks for itself. Aquamarine on top of Morganite with Diamond and Gold accents. It was about 12"" tall.
Diamond are a girls best friend...yes yes they are! The largest stones here are about the size of a blueberry.
This piece and the next two are all diamond necklaces. I find it interesting how they are all the same stone but so different in design.
This diamond necklace is done in yellow gold using smaller stones called melee.
This multi colored Diamond necklace features briolette beads. Diamonds come in many different hues including pink blue yellow green black and purple.
Sapphire and Ruby are both a variety of Corundum. They are a 9 on the hardness scale under diamond. This makes them very durable to wear. They are a great stone to use in a ring because of this.
I had to share these amazing Kiwi birds that were carved out of Amethyst Citrina and paired with gold beaks and feet. These cuties were the size of a large apple.
I may or may not have snagged a small Sapphire bobble myself. :)
Traditionally we always visit Athens on 4th after the Gem Show. They have great food and the servers are fun and friendly I mean hey how could they not be when they get to light food on fire!
To wrap up our It's All Happening at the Rock Show blogs we will leave you with another beautiful sunset.
Thank you so much for following along. We have had so many kind emails and texts from you all. It is my pleasure to bring you along on our fun and quirky adventures. Please stay tuned to the upcoming blogs when we are back in Colorado. There are soooooo many new items that I didn't get a chance to share with you yet. I will be featuring them all as we get them inventoried and ready for our upcoming show season season. The first show starts February 23rd at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
If you see anything that you cannot live with out I still am living on my phone and would be happy to put your name on that item or the reserve lists.
We will be back soon and can't wait to get home!
Signing off
Mirabai
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