We start the 3rd Quarter of our Roaring 20's at the Gem Show with some pretty spectacular finds. Maybe put down a plastic drop cloth to protect your computer keyboard from the drooling that may follow.
Welcome to day 7. Note to self: cactus are sharp. Though they photograph with crystals well, they are not as friendly as one may hope.
How could you not enjoy a morning that started like this? We have been thoroughly enjoying the succulents that grow abundantly in the dessert surrounding us. They also make great additions to our crystal photography, (not to our skin). Blues, whites and yellows are one of my favorite color combos, in fact, Luke just spent 7 months gutting and redoing our master bath with these exact colors! Maybe I should transplant this cactus and display it in our bathroom to match:)
There has been so much going on this year, that we have hardly seen Bruce and Karen except at night and in the morning. We have had to split up every day in order to get what we need. Luke and I started our day with a good dose of Mexican Fire Opals. These 10 gems will be making their way back with us. They show best in the sunlight. The internal phenomenon is mesmerizing.
While I finished with the Agates, Luke went to a different spot to stock up on a few of the very last remaining Seraphinite spheres. The miner said he may have 10 more next year but basically, this is it. I came over to meet Luke and found these rare Ginger Quartz polished crystal points. You may remember a few that I found last year, this year however, these three points are the only I have found so far, but I have one other spot to check so fingers crossed. The large natural cluster came from the miners personal collection. The red glittering lines you see in the Quartz is Hematite. Ginger Quartz only comes from Russia and is extremely rare. You can read about the properties in Melody's book.
Ethiopian Opal nodule. This picture does nothing for it, but it's still knocks our socks off.
While I finished up with the Ginger Quartz, I asked Luke to check on a few other places to see if they had opened yet. We had been eagerly anticipating their arrival. All our waiting paid off in pure gel Rhodochrosite and Blue Calcite!
This Sphere had a fun story. The rough Rhodochrosite it is sitting on, is the piece of rough this sphere was cut from! Because the stone is so valuable, but spheres create so much waste"" they didn't want to leave it unused so they turned it into a sphere stand.
When Luke got to the booth he basically grabbed a bunch of pieces that looked good (including this sphere that has found its home) and waited for me to run over. Once I arrived I grabbed a number of other pieces and added them to our stash. What you must understand is that normally we are fighting elbow to elbow to get these pieces and most of the time the booth is not fully set up so people are just tearing into boxes. Today however for the first time ever we got there and no one but us was there. We selected every last piece we wanted. It was such a fun and wonderful gift!
This was a screen shot from my camera roll on my phone. It was too pretty to not post! We spent the next few hours posting items to the Crystal Club and selecting product as they came out. We will be bringing back Blue Calcite bowls hearts spheres in a few sizes and a few large palm stones. Most of the Rhodochrosite you see above was sold on the Crystal Club however we have about 5 or 6 smaller Gel Rhodochrosite hearts that will be available on our Live Sale on Feb. 3nd at 6pm MST on Instagram.
This was another gallery worthy piece along with the Rhodochrosite and has found its home but we had to share. Great example of how blue the Blue Calcite can get.
We will be adding some super high grade Pietersite to Hands of Spirit and will post pictures of on social media when it is ready. We really wanted to share these special photos with you though. This is the original Pietersite Mine run by the family we have worked with for years. They are the kindest people and shared this fun info with us. The top picture of the mine where you see the blue is a new vein of Pietersite! On a good year they get about 1 ton out of the Mine but on average they get about 300 kilos a year. This is a pretty small amount in the mineral world. Great pics of a process that is not seen often. Sorry the pic files are small so they may not be as clear as they could be.
Next we went to another of my favorite people to see in Tucson and had some fun with Sphalerite. It was amazing getting to play with 4 of my top 10 favorite stones all in one day! Rhodochrosite Blue Calcite Pietersite and then Sphalerite! This sphere may be the only Sphalerite sphere at the entire gem show. It is 3.5"" and has a negative crystal growing inside and a huge rainbow not pictured here. The entire inside is gem as you can see on the left and when it is not in the light the metallic nature really stands out to the point you can see our reflections like a mirror. This is old stock material and a true collector piece.
A rough piece and slab of Sphalerite in the afternoon sun. Also all old stock. The yellow is hard to find. The piece on the left will be coming back with us.
This piece will also be coming back with us along with many small cut gem pieces.
Another museum worthy specimen. This is an actual Sphalerite Crystal!!! You can see the crystalline faces of the Sphalerite in the center. Also old stock from Spain.
We were on a wand hunt for a client and came across some lovely pieces. This was a less ornate wand but many became very ornate and were priced into the thousands! Lovely designs though. I was rather impressed.
Karen and Bruce spent the day at a big show that had opened and happened upon a number of great and affordable treasures.
Karen was jumping for joy after finding natural colored Orange Calcite from Bahia Brazil. Many of you may be more familiar with the sherbet Orange Calcite from Mexico.
Karen also hunted down some Diamantina Laser Wands. They were hard to find!
I had this ice cream two years ago and still think about to this day...well Bruce was able to get one when I was at a different location! I'm very jealous. So creamy!!!
We scoured the land for these Fluorite Animals and are so happy to have some back in stock plus we got an Army of Hedgehog Helpers! These little guys will be on our Live Sale on Feb. 3rd. They are very affordable.
Day 8 was filled with a lot of special orders and pick ups. Some of the pictures below are for your enjoyment. They are pretty spectacular if I do say so myself.
Each morning I go through our new goodies to find a piece that would make a great post on IG and FB. This morning I settled on one of the Bolivian Ametrine crystals. Look at that glow!
The above carvings come from a 20 year collection from a man who mined Sugilite and had the finest rough hand carved into dragons Foo Dogs and a range of deities. The carving was done by a man in Bali who is now in his 80s and blind! We are excited to have one with us for a short time till it goes to his permanent home.
Kammererite Specimen anyone? Probably one of the largest I have seen! These rare magenta colored gems come from Turkey and also are not producing.
Now that is one piece of Ajoite! Starburst cluster from the one and only Messina Mine.
You may not be able to tell size but these spheres are small glittering gems. They are all around 1"" and so cute!! We will have a number of these and small hearts available soon!
Last year we found a few Phosphosiderite earrings and sold them like hot cakes. We got three more pairs like last years and these two really long drops! So impressive.
If you are not familiar with Dianite Jade it comes from Russia. It is really not a jade but rather a Potassic Richterite and was named after Princess Diana. Really lovely when you start playing with it!
As our post on IG/FB stated Jolly Rancher or Pink Tourmaline?
The two pictures above are 99% Tourmaline...I really just don't know how it gets any better.
To end the day Luke found this beauty and it quickly was adopted on the Crystal Club. Luke and I both loved this piece instantly. Another stalactite that could look like the rings of a a tree!
We ended the night at the cute Pizza joint we visit every year. This year we brought some friends who own businesses in other parts of the country and Canada. Always great to catch up an enjoy a dinner together.
Day 9 is one of my favorite days! This is the day we get to start playing with a bit of jewelry and beads along with great crystal carvings. Many of the items below have found homes but we wanted to share how our day was spent and explain some of the fun things that will be coming to the shop.
This is how our day started. These carvings are done by a man who has been working in this business for 35 years and has barrels and barrels of rough from ages ago on his land. He takes it out from time to time and carves these magnificent pieces of art. We sold some of them on the Crystal Club however the Sugilite Bear carving is still available if anyone is interested. Please message me right away at 720 352 3224 as we only have a few days left. The two Azurites are also available. The small on on the left corner is from the Morenci Mine in AZ!
After visiting with our carving a friend we headed over to another favorite spot to replenish our Jadeite carvings bowls and cups. We also found a number of fun goodies including Sugilite flowers high quality Labradorite flowers and Lapis Lazuli small carvings! We will have these all available on a Live Sale soon!
A sample of some of the Jadeite donuts we will have on a Live soon. Great polish and very affordable.
The bracelets this year will make you sit if you are standing. Talk about the bee's knees! The green bracelets on the left are Variscite from Mongalia! We will also have cabochons and free forms! Normally Variscite comes from Utah or Australia. One the right are some of the darkest Phosphosiderite bracelets I have ever seen. At the top of the picture we found a few really nice Sugilite chip bracelets that won't break the bank. These also will be on a Live Sale as soon as we can get them ready!
For those who enjoying seeing really large Turquoise. The piece on the left came from the Elisa Mine in Sonora MX and the pieces on the right are from the Kingman Mine AZ. The piece on the left did find its home which we are so happy about. Karen was thinking of keeping it for her own collection...so maybe she is not as happy ;)
This year there were a few special natural Pink Fluorite Crystals from Peru! We on rare occasions can find them in tumbled stones however we have not been able to get any for the past few years. It was a real treat to see the actual crystals though. This baby and one other with adorable Quartz crystals found their homes. It is enjoyable to keep them with us while they get inventoried before sending them off to their new homes. Such sweet pieces.
We work with two different miners of Herkimer Diamonds while we are on our travels. Today we met with the second one and will be bringing home a few very large clusters that have artistic formations and some nice clarity for such large clusters. This gem found it's home but wait till you see what we have to offer. We will also have some smaller ones coming. Don't miss our Live Sale on the 3rd where we will show off some veils with tiny Herkimers inside and Vera Cruz Amethyst tops!
How could you not have the best day ever if you got to play with these? The green beads are Chrome Diopside out of Russia while the blueish purple beads are Tanzanite. Stunning combination right? One lucky customer will be adding these to her collection.
Love Sugilite? Yeah we do to. Price upon request. Again if you have interest in this strand please let us know right away. They are in the low 5 figures. You may have to sell your car but hey who needs a car when you can have these?
That wraps up the 3rd quarter of our travels. Fred and I had a nice hang out session as we ended our day. Make sure your floors are enforced if you put him in your home!
Thanks for following along. We appreciate you and all the love you have shown us while we share our adventures with you.
In the meantime don't get too "Half Seas Over"" (stupid drunk) during the Super Bowl tomorrow!
Best
Mirabai
"
Leave a comment (all fields required)