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Chris and Dave Wattenberg Life is a journey. Every person is on their own path. Even if you are walking side by side with another person, you have your own history, your own end point and your own path between. As
you might know we teach stone healing.
From that you could deduce that we, to say the least, like stones. What
you may
not know is that in North American the vendors of gems, minerals and
fossils
congregate in We
took a vacation to see the show
and stock up. We had been told that four miles of downtown Some of the complexes seemed like they have had four miles of displays. There were over forty locations. Most of these had multiple vendors, some over a hundred. There are many groups of people. The difference between the vendors and the customers is only which side of the transaction they are on. Most of the customers, like ourselves, are buying so they can sell later. We are all also collectors. There were many jewelers, healers and collectors. We all have a common love of what comes from the Earth. In most shows and conventions that we have gone to, at least for business, you would hear arguments. At this show we heard wonder and discussions. There are always positives and negatives. On the negative side, there were miles and miles of walking on hard uneven ground. Many of the venues were on top of gravel end. Add to this, carrying boxes of stones and fossils. The result is tired feet, ankles and calves. It is always nice after eight hours to have techniques to relieve the symptoms. We used tuning forks and stones. And then went back the next day for more, and the next day and the next… The other negative was “information overload.” We saw many booths of vendors from the same country. They carried the same products. Some of these products were at other vendors booths as well. There were stones we had never seen before and varieties of familiar stones from different mines that looked like different stones. Turquoise, for example, varied from the rich blue green to a light sky blue. The positives far out weighed the negatives. Walking through the booths we saw things that we only expected to see in museums or caves. These included fossils, minerals and relics. There was a difference; we had the option of purchasing almost anything, if we had the money. Among the fossils was a mastodon, many smaller dinosaurs from about two inches to forty feet and lots of sea creatures. There were even fossil imprints of jelly fish. Every once and awhile you would see a beautiful specimen at a price that was too low. If you looked stared at the item the vendor would quickly tell you that it was a casting. We did not find anyone trying to pass of reproductions as real. We know that malachite forms in caves. At the show there were stalactites and stalagmites from the caves. The same was true of some other stones, like carnelian. These were not in a museum collection or behind glass, they were there for sale and you could touch them. We always liked fossils and dinosaurs. Fossils were available in sizes from very small to huge. They displayed real fossils and right next to it reproductions. It was hard, as a casual observer, to tell the difference. It was easy to find out which were which, they were either labeled or the person told you, usually with great pride in the artistry of the reproduction. There was another way, the price. Some items we thought were very rare. Dinosaur eggs were there in almost every venue. Some were individual, some in nest, some prepared and others were still in the original rock or sandstone. Among the rarest items were some of the stones. The rarer the stone the higher the price, and the less often we saw it. For some of the rare minerals we were after a pattern arose. If you asked a vendor for it they would tell you they did not have it. They would then tell you the county where it is currently being mined. We could then look from vendors from that country and find the gems. This brought out another issue. There were so many people from so many nations and at different levels of English comprehension. Language was not a barrier. There was a common interest. The foreigners were on both sides of transactions. They were there as buyers and as vendor. In many cases they were there as both. Some that we talked with said that they had come to the show as a buyer for years and now as a vendor. Some said that they brought products from their mine to sell at this show and sold the “international” products at home. We
met people from The differences between a convention and a show are many. The two we noticed most are that there are no lecture and no big diner with all of the participants. A conference or show usually has a major sponsor. This was different. There are lots of groups sponsoring and organizing their areas. People who you would think of as competitors work together. The bigger the show and the more variety the better all do. Even though there were no classes or lectures, this was a great learning experience. We found out more about how some of the rock we have work with for years are formed than we expected to ever know. Some was just because we saw specimens of each stage in the development. We saw specimens from different mines next to each other. We had the opportunity to see, and in some cases handle, what were perfect specimens, those we could not afford. There are stones that are being manufactured or “grown”. Some have colors that give them away. We met the people who developed some of the processes or make the stones. In one case we saw clusters of spirit crystal with the most amazing colors. The vendor told us that the coloration came from a process that uses gold in a gas. Then showed us some fossils that had come from a cave were the gold gas was natural. Where else would you learn like that? Some people were walking around with their eyes fixed and their ears close. There were times when one of us would get into a discussion while the other walked on. Most times these were on subjects not related to the products the people were selling. Competitors, at this show, buy and sell to each other. There is a business and yet a festive atmosphere. We were at the show the first week, it runs two weeks and then there is another week of after show specials. It started on Saturday and we arrived Monday. Many of the people purchase one day and pick up another. By Monday many of the vendors had more product to be picked-up than on display. One of the vendors we know well told us her frustration at getting a new shipment and spending the time setting it out for display only to have the first person to walk in the door take the entire lot. So she had to repackage what she had just taken out. That customer was from out of the country. Some people come in cars or vans. Some fly in and then rent a truck to go home. We saw people with large rental trucks trying to reorganize so they could add there latest purchase. The large metal containers were arriving every day. Some vendors had multiple locations. They shipped a container for each location. It was not unusual to see a sign on the door “closed, container delayed.” At the major locations there were box and shipping vendors. At almost all locations either UPS or FedEx had a representative, usually by the main entrance. Ultraviolet lights and Geiger counters were available. So were specimens of fluorescent rocks. Microscopes, diamond saws, rock tumblers that hold gallons and other mineralogy and lapidary equipment were easily found. The only product, of that kind, that was rare and expensive were hand tools like picks. There were some specific types of people. Among these were the metaphysical people, the collector, jewelers, rock hounds, fossil hunters, marketers, etc. Most people were in multiple groups. Most of the venues and vendors also crossed lines. One venue was almost all beads and gemstones. There was a more frantic pace in that venue. It seemed as of the buyers, mainly small jewelers, each had a small suitcase with wheels. They were racing across the isles down the two cross aisle that came out of the entrance and registration area. Their eyes were straight ahead. Crossing one of these two aisles was like crossing the freeway. These people did not see you in their head long rush to where ever. Even with the higher speed and tension in the air, when you stopped to talk with a vendor they took the time to work with you. This was not a venue we expected to buy much in. We were wrong. Again, we found items we had not seen or were so out of our price range we could never expect to get them. They were here and the quality was better and the price lower. Vendors did not seem to comparison shop in some venues. We saw the same item at one booth for three dollars and in the next aisle for thirty. We saw vendors in two venues across town from each other with the same stock and the same prices, probably the same vendor with two locations. In one venue we found a vendor with three booths in three parts of the venue, and none of them opened. There was a shift in the energy in the afternoon when people came with their children. The children were interesting to watch and listen to. You would expect them to either be complaining that they had been dragged to the event or thrilled at the unusual specimens. Most of them seemed to be complaining that it was taking the parent too long to get to the vendors who had the products they wanted or thrilled at the choices. In both it was a positive energy.Thousands of people converge on this event every year. There are hundreds of vendors. All of these people and all of these booths yet no two are after the same collection of items. Each has taken their trip started from a different place. Each has a different history. Each is going to their own destination. They many have similar interests. Their pathway through life has brought them to Tucson at this time for this event. For the most part, they all get along well together. In spite of all they have in common, each is unique, each learns from the others, each teaches the others and each is on their own unique path.
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