Gemstone Forum archive
The Gathering => Shows and Events => Topic started by: Snakeadelic on May 28, 2015, 08:46:24 AM
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Since I went and spent all my money on responsible things like medical copays and pet care supplies this month, a couple of my "chosen family" dumped a bunch of loose small bills on me--the last month or so has been Stressville, USA, Population: me. It was a blast, and I even finally joined BGMS. Random awfulness took over the day I was supposed to go to my first club meeting :(. I had SO MUCH FUN at the show, though! And, me being me, I took pictures whenever allowed. These are photos from the first day.
I think the black septarian was from north Africa, but this month has been a train wreck and I don't remember what the seller told me.
Some really nice "bumblebee stone" slabs.
HUGE piece of larimar. The dealer was gracious enough to let me pick it up, since I've never been anywhere near a piece like this one--and with a $500 price tag, you can bet I held it two inches from the table!
A skull cast with parts of the original bones visible at the bottom; Maiasaura is Montana's state fossil.
One of quite a few two-for-a-dollar ocean jasper small tumbles that came home with me, photographed first since it is already earmarked for a wire-tree project.
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I thought this one deserved its own post, but not because of what it is although I love intarsias, inlays, and pietra dura.
I bought my very first oh-so-coveted Mexican imperial jasper specimen from the folks who made this, and it was a hard choice between this and a piece of Bruneau about the same size for almost twice the price. I told them I was having trouble deciding due to a post I read on either this or a similar forum, in which a former Bruneau claim owner described having his claim yanked by the government and having to pull a gun on a helicopter-load of claim-jumpers and their mining equipment.
Turns out the dealers (a married couple) knew 3 people whose Bruneau claims were lost to them when the whole area was recently closed to private mining. The husband told me one of them had gotten a letter stating that he could keep his claim...for some kind of bond or something that was only $570,000. Buy up Bruneau while you can, because it really looks like little to no more new material is ever coming to market. saved15