Day 7 Tucson 2013

Day 7

This is our last day of shopping; always a mixed blessing as we know that packing and shipping merchandise awaits us. We’ll see how productive our various contacts and previous searches turn out.

To begin, we returned to the showroom from South Africa and purchased small, polished Pietersite slabs. We hand selected for color and chatoyance. These are spectacular pieces!

We decided to give one last sweep of the ‘Strip’ and scored! A vendor from DR Congo was unpacking their newly-arrived shipment. Malachite pyramids and Chrysocolla/Malachite tumbles joined our packages. Sadly, we learned that malachite is no longer mined. The government is crushing all this beautiful material to extract the copper.  Copper mining is one of the revenue streams for this administration/country. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of families are without income as artisans/carvers have no material with which to work.

Close to the ‘Strip’ are various smaller tent shows. As it was still early, we roamed through these, looking for the new or unusual. We found beautiful Drusy Quartz decorator pieces. These light pink specimens are combined with amethyst or tourmaline. Unique and quite gorgeous!

At one of the Australian mineral showrooms, we acquired pyramids made from Serpentine or Lepidolite. The Australian material is different from the South American varieties. Each is deeper in color and variegated with quartz. Very pleasing to the eyes and all the higher senses!