The 2022 Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Show

It was almost ten o’clock. Soon the show would open, and we all wondered if the crowds would appear. Covid had caused us to cancel last year’s Gulf Coastt Gem and Mineral show. During the past year we had good shows in Wyoming, and so we had continued to make more jewelry from our lapidary studio. Now we had so many cases that we had to add two more tables.

At first a trickle came in, but a line grew and was soon out the door. The line continued until after noon and we were swamped and the aisles were packed for most of the day! It was just what we hoped for. The club officers had changed their advertising and had concentrated on using social media, and it had worked! We were so busy that we did not have time to walk around and take pictures, as we usually do, so instead we took pictures of the material we had purchased. Joining us were my cousin Angie and her husband Pete along with Pam and Roy, Renita’s sister and brother-in-law. It was a good thing we had so much space. The rock shows are places where we look for special rocks for this year’s production, and we found the number one rock we had been searching for, extremely high-quality clear rutilated quartz! This will allow us to make doublets with rutilated quartz, backed with lapis, jade, and sodalite

We also found a great piece of Wiggins Fork petrified wood which you may recall was one of the spots we rock hounded last summer. Its funny that the piece we bought in South Texas will be now going back to Wyoming, (we purchased it from a dealer in Colorado, who also told us where we should concentrate this year’s rock hounding efforts).The same dealer also had some Wyoming Youngite, We had used up all we had last year so it was a lucky find.

One of the fun things is a silent auction where the club members and the club both offer specimens and cabochons for sale. We were the high bidder for an old 1950’s collection of small cabochons that we plan on setting into rings, (Small cabs take extra effort and time. These pieces save me about thirty hours of sawing, doping, grinding, and polishing).

Last year we ground and finished over one hundred and fifty cabochons ourselves. We also purchased a chunk of Louisiana Opal, (first photo). Few people know that opals were discovered near Shreveport, but the mine was later submerged when a new flood control dam was built. Our plan is to saw it into slabs before making more Louisiana opal cabochons. Its going to be a busy summer of family, friends, and bear watching. Of course, we must include fishing and pickleball! Clear skies