Mary Rafferty

Tucson 2024 – Part 1

Tucson 2024 started out much like my past few visits.  Everything was packed and ready to go the night before leaving home as I had a 6AM Saturday morning flight out of San Luis Obispo.  In Phoenix Sky Harbor airport I had the usual hike between terminals for the subsequent short flight to Tucson.  My seat was far in the back of the plane, so by the time I got to the baggage area my suitcase was already on the carrousel.  The rental car started out as a bit of a challenge.  The garage was very dark and since I saw only a key fob and tag on what was handed me, I thought it might be a keyless model.  Eventually, when I moved towards the garage entrance where there was enough light, I discovered that the key was tucked into the fob.

After locating acceptable fast food for lunch, I headed to the freeway show area, parked in a $5 lot and headed for the Ramada hotel and New Era at the Pueblo show.  On my initial trip to Tucson in 1987, New Era was my first stop.  I had been getting rough from Steve since I started faceting and New Era had a page of classified ads in Lapidary Journal.  So It just seems right to start off Tucson at the New Era spot.

For the remainder of the afternoon I did a quick tour of the Pueblo show, stopping to talk with a few dealers I knew from past years.  Then crossed to the other side of the I-10 freeway to the 22nd Street show for a walk around the huge tent as well as the “showcase” tent.  Eventually it was late enough so I could head to my hotel to check in and get settled for the stay.

Sunday morning I headed to the JOGS show, hoping I would be there early enough to avoid the horrible parking situation they typically have.  No such luck.  In the past couple years, I found some rough and saw material that might be appropriate for recutting.  As with the parking, no luck with those this year.  On the other hand, there was no shortage of parking at the G&LW show where I went next.  They had less empty space compared to last year, but the merchandise was pretty much the same.  I don’t know why I  keep going there!

Then it was off to RMGM show to catch up with John Garsow and check out what he had to offer in the way of rough material.  John was another dealer I have known since my 1987 visit.  He had some new rough as well as old material from estates that worked.  Last year the RMGM test was freezing when I visited it.  This year Tucson was having some comfortable temperatures in the high 70’s and low 80’s which made shopping a whole lot nicer. Finally it was time to wrap up the day at the Ethical Gem Suppliers Happy hour.

Monday was the day for going through the freeway shows — besides 22nd street and Pueblo, there is the GIGM show in three motels along the frontage road.  Almost immediately I ran into a friend from the SLO Gem and Mineral Club.  As I worked my way to the next motel, I came across another local, a dealer who does many club and commercial shows.  It seems that not much changes in the motel shows from one year to another.  Occasionally one dealer will be replaced by another, but on the whole nothing of note from one year to the next.

The 22nd street show is a bit harder to pin down — it is just so huge.  While the dealers in the showcase tent tend to be returning year after year,  it seemed to be much less so in the main tent.  In fact the tent itself grew since 2023.  There were several dealers who had many paper plates full of rough.  They had varying qualities but I remained unconvinced that I was seeing anything that was the size and quality combination that I needed.

Tuesday was the opening day for AGTA and GJX.  Unlike previous years there was no line to pick up credentials for entry into the AGTA.  Either they had gotten a lot more efficient at checking folks in or else the attendance was down.  I met up with my friend, Julie, and we spent the day there and across the street at the GJX show.  Neither seemed as crowded as I felt they were in past years — which is nice for the shopper, but possibly not so good for the dealers.  In addition to a second pair of bamboo tweezers (non-reflective, non-scratching and not effected by acetone) I bought a small bird carving from Peter Muller — the first souvenir I ever got from my Tucson visits.

That evening was the GemologyOnline.com meet up dinner.  It was a small group, but as usual excellent exchange of information and an opportunity to put faces with names from the forum.

Rough purchased in Tucson

Wednesday was rough shopping day.  After a couple of purchases from AGTA dealers, I caught part of Tucson Todd’s faceting demonstration and then a seminar on CAD for jewelry design.  Then across the freeway to New Era rooms for a visit with Steve and picking out a selection of tourmalines.  Thursday was another day for 22nd street (confirming my opinion of the rough from the previous pass) and then Justin Prim’s demonstration of recutting a windowed stone followed by his presentation about the history of faceting in the US.

Friday was my day to go to the US Faceters Guild Symposium for a series of speakers.  Afterwards it was time to pack up in preparation to returning home the next morning.  I realized that I had forgotten to take photos of the shows, but it was too late at that point.

The flights returning home went smoothly as a series of storms were approaching the California coast.  I was in my home about ten minutes before the rain started.  The weather would complicate the next part of the Tucson 2024 adventure.  (more to come)

 

 

Before and After / Last Stones Before Tucson 2024

Of course, I didn’t get nearly as many stones cut in the past year as I had hoped. Life is like that.  But I did make progress including some items that had been waiting for years.  The last two stones cut were aquamarine recut projects.

The first of these is a stone I picked up in Tucson a few years ago from a dealer who was running a retirement sale.  The stone had a serious chip in the upper left corner (bit hard to see) and was windowed.  But the price was fine if it was considered rough or a preform.

It started out as 13.30 carats. The pavilion angle was about 30 degrees — well below the critical angle for beryl (39.5) and recommended angle for beryl.  After recutting it weighed 9.29 carats and measured 18.0 x 9.9 x 7.2 mm.  A pattern of concave facets were  used on the pavilion so it has a much more interesting look than a vanilla emerald cut.

 

The second stone is one that sat in the drawer for over three decades.  Originally it was a large triangular preform.  I had been faceting for a few years at that point, but did not have that much experience working on preforms.  I ended up following the depth of the preform too far resulting with too little material left for the crown.  The table was huge and the stone looked dumb.

So finally I got the courage to rework the stone.  The recut lost a couple mm. in the width and quite a bit of weight as a result.  The end result is still a big stone — 25.78 carats and 19.4 mm. across.

 

Happy Winter Solstice

The days will be getting a bit longer now.  Spaceship Earth completes another circuit around Sol and in a few day according to our calendars. Likewise, I will mark another year of my personal history between now and then.

The 2023 flight seemed to be a bumpy ride at times.   Many of us will be gathering in the remainder of the year with friends and family among lights and holiday decorations to counteract the cold and gloom.

May the warmth of that fellowship continue to grow into the new year and spread as goodwill to all our fellow passengers on planet Earth.

Sunrise Surprise

I had forgotten how the difference in colors between the tourmaline C-axis with the other directions and the frequent bicolor or tricolor often created surprises in the appearance of the finished stones.

In this case, the rough showed a nice purple pink — except for the C-axis which was a lighter pink with a hint of gray brown.  I intended to cut the gem as a square brilliant, not as a step cut with “tourmaline” angles for the C-axis direction.  Thus I was prepared to see the face-up finished stone potentially a less desirable color the the purple pink of the rough.

However,  this tourmaline gave me a nice surprise.  It has orange highlights making a very pleasant combination. It reminds me of the colors of the sky that a sunrise can display on the clouds.   The finished stone is 4.95 cts.,  and 9.8mm. across with concave facets on pavilion.

Fall Back Time

This weekend we go through the ritual of turning back the clocks.  But only an hour.  If only we could turn back whole calendar pages, it would be much more useful.  My list of things to do for 2023 would have a better chance of having more items crossed off.

It seems that much of my gem related activity this year has been struggling with things I thought I had previously resolved.  Stones seemed to resist polishing.  And when it came to getting photographs, they were about a cooperative as a toddler posing for the holiday picture.

So now at the end of the year, I am finally getting around to faceting some of the tourmalines I purchased in Tucson back in February — February 2020 as well as February 2023.  So here are a few of the latest “off the dop”.

This is a little 1.06 carat chrome tourmaline (6.4 mm.) Just a lovely shade of green. (One that the digital camera liked as well.)

Next is a 2.58 carat light peachy tourmaline, 8.1 mm. across which has concave facets on both pavilion and crown.  The rough was bicolor, pink towards one end and light green at the other.  However, the green end was  not deep and was heavily included and cracked. I had thought that all of the green was being cut away in the process of getting the piece clean.  Apparently enough green was left so that there is a hint of green around the edge of the stone.

Here is another slightly darker peachy tourmaline with concave facets on both pavilion and crown. It is 3.26 carats and 8.9 mm. in diameter.  No green in this one.

 

And finally, a fairly traditional square green tourmaline.  It is 2.56 carats and 8.9 mm, across.  Of course I didn’t notice the lint captured on the upper facets until I was processing the photo.