Day 1 Tucson 2014

Day 1

Our first day in Tucson was spent orienting ourselves and touching base with friends. New and exciting material will be spotlight through this blog and Facebook page. Metaphysical tools, including 7-chakra sterling silver pendants, chakra wands and pyramids, and Reiki chakra hearts sets (pictured on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/rocknglass) will be in Gainesville soon. Additionally, spheres, eggs, obelisks in a variety of minerals were added to our cache. We were fortunate to find a vendor selling spinel spheres and eggs from Afghanistan.

Spinel is a very attractive gemstone, often confused with ruby, and found associated with calcite and dolomite. Its red color is similar to that of ruby, although slightly more pink. Spinel and ruby are chemically related gemstones, and have similar properties. Spinel is magnesium aluminum oxide, while ruby is aluminum oxide. The red in both gems comes from chromium. They also have similar luster (refractive index) and density. Although ruby is harder (Mohs scale 9), spinel’s relative hardness of 7.5 – 8 keeps it as one of the hardest minerals in Nature. Spinel is commonly found as octahedrons, but is well-known for a type of twinning that bears its name, Spinel Twin Law.

Like calcite, spinel can be found in all the colors of the chakras: black, red, yellow-orange, brown, green, pink, blue, and violet. Metaphysically, spinel brings lots of positive energy and vitality to all efforts. It is used to attract wealth and prosperity, to increase one’s physical energy and stamina, to reduce stress and depression, and to add momentum to spiritual journeys and help us move forward.

While traveling about this show, shopping and taking photographs, Becky was interviewed by Samantha Ptashkin for the local television station, KVOA; see excerpts at http://www.kvoa.com/news/tucson-gem-show-crowds-boost-local-economy/.

After a day of trekking, jet lag caught up with us.  Looking forward to tomorrow’s treasures!