The past two weeks have been complete sensory overload here in Tucson but things pretty much wrap up as the formal Tucson Gem & Mineral Show closes at 5 pm today. I spent yesterday afternoon on the main floor on Saturday afternoon, looking at the exhibits and chatting with friends and colleagues.
A surprise was to bump into former Wyoming State Geologist Lance Cook at the Collector's Edge booth. Lance and company owner Steve Behling were in grad school together and Lance has been helping out at the Tucson show for most of the past three decades.
They took me over to one of the show highlights - a stunning set of Zambian emeralds in a quartz matrix. It their crew 3 months to painstakingly dig the specimen out of a giant quartz block, without damaging or breaking the slender crystals. The asking price - $100,000
