Podcasts about tucson gem

What you'll learn in this episode: How to use Antique Jewelry University to identify maker's marks and find out when your jewelry was made. Why access to more (and better) information has made interest in antique jewelry explode. What characteristics Suzanne looks for when evaluating antique jewelry. Why buyers should beware of lab-grown diamonds in vintage jewelry. Why modern diamonds and manufacturing techniques can't compare to the materials and skills used by jewelers in the past. About Suzanne Martinez Suzanne Martinez is the co-owner of Lang Antiques, a San Francisco-based shop that offers the largest collection of fine vintage engagement rings and antique jewels to be found under one roof. She is a highly credentialed senior gemologist, jewelry appraiser, jewelry historian and the curator for Lang's collection. She actively buys from sellers all over the world. Suzanne is also the founder of Lang's Antique Jewelry University. Suzanne started collecting rocks and minerals as a child, and by the time she was 13 knew that the jewelry world was her passion. For fun she makes enameled jewelry and studies natural history and Latin American cultural anthropology. Images courtesy of Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional resources: Website Suzanne's LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Antique Jewelry University Lang Antique and Estate Jewelry is the prime destination for vintage jewelry lovers, but you don't have to be in San Francisco to take advantage of the store's services. Lang ships jewelry globally and offers Antique Jewelry University, a completely free online guide to maker's marks and jewelry history. Jewelry historian and Lang co-owner Suzanne Martinez joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how Lang curates its huge collection of antique engagement rings; the history of Antique Jewelry University; and what she looks for when evaluating an antique piece. Read the episode transcript here. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey, exploring the hidden world of art around you. Because every piece of art has a story, and jewelry is no exception. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. Today, we're talking with Suzanne Martinez of Lang Antiques in San Francisco. Welcome back. Do you manufacture yourselves? Does Lang manufacture? Suzanne: We have what we call our Lange line. Sometimes a piece of jewelry will come in and it's worn out. It doesn't have another livelihood, so we can't guarantee it to a customer. I'm talking about a ring in particular. We have, probably for more than 20 years, been making hand-fabricated rings that are in the style of or influenced by a real ring design. They're very similar to the older pieces, and we hand fabricate them. In the last few years, we've had a greater demand. People don't want to pay for the cost of having a ring hand fabricated like the originals. It's very expensive when a mounting costs more than the diamond you're setting in it, and that's not unusual. So, we have done some work with partners that do CAD that have helped us create our designs in CAD, but we do very little of that. 90% of what we do, if we're going to take an old stone and remake a ring out of it, is hand fabricated. We try and stick to the tenets of the old jewelry that we sell. Sharon: Do people come in and say, “Can you repolish this stone?” Maybe they have an old ring, a vintage ring, and the stone is beat up but they want it repolished. Suzanne: That's a really good question. The stones that get beat up are things that are not a diamond. You have to be pretty hard on a diamond to beat it up or to chip it. But sapphires, if they've been worn for 15, 20 years even, they're going to have some abrasions on them. When we buy a piece of jewelry, that's one of the things we do. We will remove those stones and repolish them before we resell them. But as far as a customer coming in with their own personal collection, we don't have an in-house lapidary, so we don't do that. There are people that specialize in and help people refurbish like that, but it's not something we offer because we don't do it in-house. Sharon: Was your business affected by COVID? Suzanne: It was actually positively affected. I think people had more time. We know they had more time at home, and I think people did a lot more screen time. We had a lot more visitors to our website, and people got very excited about antique jewelry, especially colored stones and things they could wear on a Zoom call so people could see their jewelry, like a pair of earrings or a pendant. Business increased because of that, which was very good. I think the awareness grew. People found out about antique jewelry more. Look at Instagram. Instagram is different than it was three years ago, but there were a lot of people spending a lot of time on Instagram and other social media and just watching, because it's eye candy. People come to our website for the same reason. Who doesn't like to look at beautiful jewelry? I just told this story to a customer that came in yesterday. It just came to mind. We used to keep our jewelry in our window. We used to have probably a thousand pieces in the window, tons of jewelry just packed in. I'd watch people walk by. They'd stop in the window, and then they'd walk away with a big smile on their face because jewelry makes people happy. It's beautiful. I think people gained an appreciation during that time period. Sharon: Did you see an increase in sales because people didn't have things to spend the money on? Suzanne: Well, they weren't traveling. They weren't going out to eat, so they were buying jewelry. We were lucky because part of our business is an e-commerce business, and it's something we've done for a long time. I think some of the jewelers that didn't have that ability to interact with their clients in the same way probably didn't gain from it. But it was good for our business. Sharon: When you had a thousand pieces or a lot of jewelry in the window, did you take it out every night? Suzanne: Oh yeah, every single piece. We had our windows designed so they were modular, so you could take a whole tray of jewelry out and put it on carts and take it to our walls to sell it. We made it work because if you had to take out one at a time, that would take you another couple of hours. Sharon: Do you have local people, people in San Francisco or in Northern California, who come to the store just to look at the window or to look and see what's new? Suzanne: It's really interesting, because when people come into our store, they're either going to have an appointment or we're a destination. They know who we are before they come. They might be coming to see what's new. They might be coming because they have a particular piece of jewelry they want to look at, and sometimes it's just part of their trip to San Francisco. They always come to Lang. Sharon: Do you sell things besides rings, or is it all rings or mostly rings? Suzanne: No, I would say rings are probably half of what we sell, colored stone and diamond rings, then all other kinds of jewelry. People wear brooches still, believe it or not. We sell a lot of pins and brooches. You don't see people wearing them as much, but we're bringing that back. We like them. They're beautiful, small forms of art, you know? Sharon: I was intrigued because you used the word collectors. I looked at the store and it was all rings. As I was scrolling through, it seemed like one on every two pages was something that wasn't a ring. Suzanne: Well, you have to filter, just like any website you're on. We have filters set up so that you can choose how you look at different jewelry. If you want to look at rings, if you want to dive in and just look at sapphire rings, if you want to look at Art Deco sapphire rings, you can do all of those things. You can look at all of our jewelry in one page, which is a few thousand pieces that are online. That's kind of an ominous task. So, filtering is a good way to use our website to find what you're looking for, or just to look. Like I said, it's eye candy. Sharon: How often do you get things that might not be a ring that you would put on the website or people come to the store to see? Suzanne: If you watch our What's New page, you'll see that we sell more things and post more things that are not rings. Rings are maybe 30 to 40% of what we put on our website. There are pendants, earrings, brooches, necklaces, a little bit of everything. Sharon: In reading the description of your store, that it's world renowned, it seems like you have everything related to vintage engagement rings or vintage rings. Suzanne: That is what we're known for. We have over 800 diamond rings. That's a large collection of vintage diamond rings. We've curated our collection very carefully over the years. People buy from Lang because all of our rings have been fully restored. For example, the prongs are not worn down anymore. We will replace and put new prongs on the ring. If the diamond has a small chip, we remove the diamond and we'll repair the chip before we put it back in. All of our diamonds of one carat or larger, we send to the GIA for a lab report. We do a lot of work to make sure that the ring we're selling has all the necessary information for a customer to make a decision on whether they want to buy it. When you look at an antique diamond, it has a different kind of beauty than a modern round brilliant. Most antique diamonds have a little bit of color to them. They are a J or a K color very commonly, and you have to kind of throw out the standard of the modern round brilliant-cut because you can't compare them. An old diamond has a different way of reacting with light. It breaks the light up into spectral colors more. It's just a playful, beautiful diamond, so it doesn't look like every other round brilliant-cut diamond. Each one is hand cut and unique. To me, that's a starting point of what makes an antique ring so special. Then you get the way that the ring is manufactured. They're hand fabricated, and die striking is a very high-quality way of making a ring. It started because platinum was an expensive metal in the past. Now its price per ounce is less than gold. It's still harder to work in, but it was always the most expensive metal. It was always 10 times the cost of gold. Because of this, up until 1920, there were no white metals other than silver. White gold hadn't been patented. It was patented probably in 1918, 1919, but it didn't get into manufacturing techniques until 1920. If you see somebody that says it's a Victorian piece of jewelry and it's white gold, that is the wrong description. There is no way. There was no white gold manufacturing in the 19th century. 1920 is the demarcating line. After that, they were able to offer white metal jewelry, which was popular in Art Deco, black and white jewelry. This could be offered to people because they were die striking white gold instead of hand fabricating platinum. It still was a high-quality product, but they were using the less expensive white gold versus the platinum. It also justified using a quarter carat diamond, whereas to hand fabricate a platinum ring with a quarter carat, you don't see that. Well, of what survived. That would be a rarity, to see something under a half carat. Sharon: Do you have to explain this to a couple that comes in looking for a ring with a modern diamond that was a third of the price or half the price? Suzanne: Usually, people that are already interested in vintage and antique, older rings, they're coming for a different reason. They've already decided this is what they want. They're not saying, “Well, why shouldn't I buy a round brilliant-cut diamond?” But we answer all their questions, and not everybody needs to do a deep dive. If you're someone who has no background in the jewelry business, to tell them about 1920 and die striking and all that, that may be a little too much information for them. We have it and we're there to give it to them, but we let the customer guide their own journey and ask the questions. We find it's a lot easier for them to manage. Does that make sense? Sharon: Yeah. Suzanne: And just to clarify another thing, the man doesn't come in and buy the ring that often. The man and the woman come in together. It's very common for that. And we have women coming in together and men coming in together. We have all kinds of couples that are buying antique and vintage jewelry. Sharon: I know how detailed it can be to look at a vintage and everything you're talking about. I can see myself saying, “Enough already. That's all I need to know.” So, you're a jewelry historian. The Antique Jewelry University was already somewhat started by Christie Romero, but what motivated you to continue to develop it into such an in-depth resource? Suzanne: Something that I have always done for myself personally, for my staff, with the GIA alumni, it's all continuing education. Whenever I go to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I go to as many educational presentations as possible. I've been involved with the GIA Alumni for over 30 years. We bring speakers to our local chapter and continue their education and elevate people so they know more. There are so many topics as far as jewelry is concerned that it's just fascinating. You have gem cutters, you have people that manufacture, you have jewelers. What's your design process? There are so many ways to learn. We have miners that come and speak to us and talk about their journey into the earth and how they extract certain kinds of gems. That's just barely scratching the surface. Continuing education is so important to me personally. In order for me to buy jewelry and understand it, I had to learn. How is anyone else going to understand my process so they are confident to buy from Lang? It's all part and parcel. It's all education. Someone comes in and, like you said, we do educate them to the degree that they want to be educated. All this information is free. Antique Jewelry University, we've never charged for it. We have more than one full-time staff person working on AJU every day. It's something that we do to give back to our community. It's very important to me. Sharon: How do you promote it? How do you let people know about it? Jewelry organizations I've been in, we know about it, but how do you let the larger world know it's available? Suzanne: It's kind of an organic process. We share it with our customers in every way we can. I usually speak at least once a year. I'll speak somewhere, or I will go to a conference and set up a table. My partner in doing this is Starla Turner. We have a table, we'll bring different rings, we'll have a card on each ring and say, “Here's a loupe. Look at it, and this is what you're going to look for.” Then we have Antique Jewelry University running on a computer, and we have a big poster. We want people to know about it, but most of the people that use it are in the trade. How do you educate somebody as to what they are buying? Is it authentic? That is a hard thing to do with the public because they don't have the basic knowledge to start with. So, Antique Jewelry University has many levels. You could be a novice and you just want to come in and find out when a piece was made. My grandmother gave me a locket. When do you think that locket was made? There's a place for you to find out that information. Then if you want to dive a little deeper, you can. What's the history of lockets? Or someone who is a historian themselves, they might want to add to the knowledge they have, or share with us the knowledge they have to help us create a deeper knowledge base on a particular topic. Think of it as tiered information. We have people come to us, whether they're shopping on our website, or they've found out about us through Instagram or Facebook or Pinterest and they want to find out more information, they go to Antique Jewelry University. Sharon: Could I come to your store and have your staff look at a piece of jewelry and tell me what they think it is? Suzanne: Absolutely. That's half the fun of coming to Lang. You get to really look at these pieces. It's kind of like a museum. You get to look at pieces and they're for sale. You can touch them. You can have someone tell you about them. It's fun. It's really fun. Sharon: Why did you continue it after Christie passed away? Suzanne: Christie just did the timeline. That's what she started. I did the glossary of terms, and she gifted that to us before she died. We included that. I had already started the glossary. I met Christie. The two of us became friends. I call her one of my people. This is why you go to jewelry shows. This is why you go to gem shows. These are your people that understand and have the same passion that you do. She was very passionate. I was really grateful that she was in my life and that we had this part of our journey together. Sharon: And you just continued adding to it when she wasn't available to do it. Suzanne: Yeah. Christie passed about 20 years ago. We've been adding content to Antique Jewelry University since the day we started. I think it launched in 2020ish. That's when we launched the website. Sharon: Did you ever think it would be such a resource or so big? Suzanne: Oh, no. It just kind of unfolded. At first it was just, how do you share a library? Let's just add some things so that people have a resource to find out about what they're buying. It was more for our customers. Then we realized there's a huge community out there, whether they're customers or not, and we all benefit from each other. We're a community of people, and everyone that works at Lang is passionate about jewelry. I have gemologists on staff that are just—my friend Starla I was talking about, she's a black belt gemologist. We have Mary, who is an incredible historian that continues to write articles for Antique Jewelry University. The head of our marketing is Nicole Corsini, and she's a gemologist as well as, if you pick up the phone and want to talk to her about a piece of jewelry that you're interested in buying, she will tell you everything about it because she's got the history. She understands marketing and how to present information to you. Everybody has something that they are special in as well as the passion. When you shop at Lang, you're shopping with passionate people that just love what they do. I'm very, very blessed to have all these people. It's a really special organization. Sharon: It seems like it. I didn't know it was so extensive. I knew of Lang and the Antique Jewelry University, but I didn't realize it was so in-depth and extensive. Suzanne, thank you for being here today. We really enjoyed it. We learned a lot. thank you very much. Suzanne: It was my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you, Sharon. Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

What you'll learn in this episode: How to use Antique Jewelry University to identify maker's marks and find out when your jewelry was made. Why access to more (and better) information has made interest in antique jewelry explode. What characteristics Suzanne looks for when evaluating antique jewelry. Why buyers should beware of lab-grown diamonds in vintage jewelry. Why modern diamonds and manufacturing techniques can't compare to the materials and skills used by jewelers in the past. About Suzanne Martinez Suzanne Martinez is the co-owner of Lang Antiques, a San Francisco-based shop that offers the largest collection of fine vintage engagement rings and antique jewels to be found under one roof. She is a highly credentialed senior gemologist, jewelry appraiser, jewelry historian and the curator for Lang's collection. She actively buys from sellers all over the world. Suzanne is also the founder of Lang's Antique Jewelry University. Suzanne started collecting rocks and minerals as a child, and by the time she was 13 knew that the jewelry world was her passion. For fun she makes enameled jewelry and studies natural history and Latin American cultural anthropology. Images courtesy of Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional resources: Website Suzanne's LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Antique Jewelry University Lang Antique and Estate Jewelry is the prime destination for vintage jewelry lovers, but you don't have to be in San Francisco to take advantage of the store's services. Lang ships jewelry globally and offers Antique Jewelry University, a completely free online guide to maker's marks and jewelry history. Jewelry historian and Lang co-owner Suzanne Martinez joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how Lang curates its huge collection of antique engagement rings; the history of Antique Jewelry University; and what she looks for when evaluating an antique piece. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week. Today, we're talking with Suzanne Martinez of Lang Antiques in San Francisco. I should say that's where the brick and mortar is, but they sell all over the world. Lang Antiques is the country's, if not the world's, largest purveyor of vintage engagement rings. They have an unparalleled collection. Suzanne herself is a jewelry historian, among other things. Lang Antiques has developed an online Antique Jewelry University. Researchers from all over the world use this as a resource to research the history of a piece of jewelry. If you're interested in jewelry, then this makes a very good read. I was looking at it last night again, and I didn't have any piece of jewelry in mind, but it was very interesting to read. I've heard Suzanne give a talk at ASJRA, another major jewelry organization, and I've heard Suzanne give talks identifying a piece of jewelry, and she goes into tremendous detail. There's no way that you could not look at a piece of jewelry and know what you should be looking for. She'll tell us more about Antique Jewelry University. She'll also tell us how over the years, the store has become world renowned. They have done this by developing an unparalleled collection of jewelry, a reputation for professional expertise, and the longevity of this jewelry store. Suzanne, welcome to the program. Suzanne: I'm happy to be here. Good morning. Sharon: Can you tell us where the Lang in Lang Antiques and Estate Jewelry comes from? Suzanne: We bought the store from Jarmilla Lang in 1991. She was the original owner of the store and a jewelry historian herself way before her time. She had worked in Europe in museums, so she had this breadth of knowledge of decorative arts and jewelry that she brought to San Francisco with her when she opened this store. Sharon: Wow. There aren't any certificates as a jewelry historian. It's just knowledge, right? Knowledge and other people saying, “Well, you're a jewelry historian.” I presume you're a gemologist also. You look at so many rings. That's very interesting. What do you say to those who would never buy a piece of jewelry online because they have to feel it and see it and all of that? Suzanne: Like you said, I am a gemologist and I have been for 45 years. Part of the gemological training is learning how to be forensic with what you're looking at. Whether it's a gemstone or a piece of jewelry, if you are buying from someone who is knowledgeable enough to understand what they're looking at and share that information with you, that gives a huge degree of trust. I think that's one thing that stands out for Lang. We have a really good understanding of whether it's a real piece of antique jewelry. How is it made? Why is this design important? Who else made this design popular over time and why? We like to give tidbits of history with every piece we sell. I do call myself a jewelry historian, but by no means do I know everything. I have a library. I haven't read every single book in my library. However, if a piece comes in and I look at it, I know which book to look for to find a reference about it. And there are many jewelry historians that I look up to. It's a community. Sharon: If I see a piece of jewelry on your website and I want to know more about it, or I want to know if I can trust this outfit If I don't know it, do I call you or send you the piece? Can you explain the process? Suzanne: If you want to know more about your own piece of jewelry, that's why we have Antique Jewelry University. It's a place where you can do your own research. We have a huge database of hallmarks because one thing that we probably get the most inquiries about is, “Who made this piece of jewelry? Here's the mark I have.” We refer them to this database we have because it's pretty impressive. Auction houses and appraisers and people all over use that database. Every piece of jewelry we have with a maker's mark, we do our best to research it. It's not always easy. It's not always possible. Then we photograph it, and we include it on our website. We try and add a little snippet about who the jeweler was, where they were located, and what years they did their manufacturing. You have to match when a piece was made because some there are false marks, too. If a piece of jewelry is marked 585, which is the percentage for 14-karat gold, it was not made in the 19th century. They didn't mark jewelry like that. There is that forensic bit, too. Hopefully we can help people down that path. We call it the jewelry journey. We do. It's finding out when their jewelry was made. If they want to find out more about a piece of jewelry we have on our website that they might be interested in buying, we invite inquiries. We talk to them over the phone or by email, whatever they're comfortable with, and try and satisfy all their questions about it and add information as well. Sharon: Did you develop the online Antique Jewelry University yourself? Suzanne: When we started our website, that was back in 1998. We were kind of early adapters. There were no e-commerce platforms at that time, so we developed our own e-commerce platform. By the early 2000s, we were actually selling online. When we launched our website, Antique Jewelry University was a 1000-word glossary. I had been collecting terms. Christie Romero was an incredible jewelry historian. She was here in Southern California, and she taught jewelry history. I don't remember which college it was down there, but she would put on symposiums and bring speakers in. Anyway, incredible woman. She started a glossary of terms and a timeline that, when she passed—unfortunately, she's no longer with us—she gifted to Antique Jewelry University. So, between her information and my glossary of terms, we started Antique Jewelry University and just built upon it. Sharon: Do you continue to build upon it if you see a new term or something you haven't included before? Suzanne: Absolutely. We are always researching. We have a woman who does a lot of our writing. Her name is Mary Borchert, and that is her job, just doing research. We have quite a library of reference books, so everything that we put on Antique Jewelry University is fully referenced. We notate that at the bottom of all our articles as well. We're not just copying it from somewhere else on the internet, which a lot of people do, and a lot of people copy Antique Jewelry University. That can be a compliment, but at the same time, we do all of our own work. Sharon: That's impressive, considering how in-depth it is. Just look at it online. Why do you think that the interest in antique jewelry has grown so much in the past few years? Suzanne: I think there's a lot of transparency. A lot of people are able to access information because of the advent of social media. Just think of all the people that are sharing their own personal information. We are on all the different social media channels as well, and I've seen them grow. If you have an interest in a particular type, like Art Nouveau jewelry, you can find Art Nouveau jewelers that have Instagram or Pinterest and look at beautiful jewelry and learn about it. In the past, when I started as a jeweler, if you didn't have a library, there was no place to go. You went to a museum, and that's where you found your information. Now I think it's a rich time for people to access information. I think we also visually see antique and vintage jewelry worn on the red carpet, at the Met Gala, and we see jewelry that is inspired by antique jewelry. You have famous houses. Everybody knows who Cartier is. You have the most beautiful antique Cartier jewelry, and then you have people that have copied it. That's a big tribute, but you don't always know if it's a Cartier or it isn't. That's why it's important who you buy it from. But at the same time, it's permeated everything, antique and vintage styles. Whether it's somebody creating something new with a nod to something vintage or it's truly vintage, I think it's just what people see today. It's massive. Sharon: Your selection of engagement rings is massive. Have you seen that grow in the past few years, the interest and the couples coming in and wanting to see your vintage only? Suzanne: Because that's what we specialize in—we specialize in antique diamonds, so our vintage and antique jewelry is why people come to buy from us. They understand that it's socially responsible, it's recycled. That's one of the reasons they buy it. They also want a little bit of history. They want something that no one else has, something very unique. They want something that has a beautiful design and is executed in a way that jewelry isn't executed today. You get a beautiful Edwardian jewel, no one can make a piece of jewelry like that in today's world. They just don't. The jewelry today is made on CAD. Very few jewelers are hand fabricators or can fabricate something that delicate. If you want the real deal, you're going to shop at a store like Lang.  Sharon: What happens if you get a call from somebody outside of the U.S. or even on the other side of the U.S. that wants a piece? They want a vintage engagement ring, but they can't come to the store. What do you do? Suzanne: Actually, more of our customers are outside of our store and shop just online because we have jewelry that no one else has. Where are they going to find it if they don't find it from a store like Lang? We have a very large selection. It's not unusual for a customer to narrow their choice down to two or three. Sometimes we just send them all three and they can try them on in the comfort of their own home. They have a period of time which they can return them. We make it work. Sharon: I thought it was really interesting that you had that, the one, two, three. Maybe it's the person who writes about the antique jewelry. The one, two, three of what you look for to know more about a piece of jewelry. That was like first looking at the hallmarks. I looked at it last night but I don't remember what's next. Suzanne: For a private individual, when they're trying to identify their own jewelry, style is really important. But for an individual, if you have family history and you know that piece was your grandmother's, at least you have a date within which to start. If you're just out in the world and you identify a piece of jewelry that you love but you don't really know how old it is, that's a little more difficult. How do you know it doesn't match the type of manufacturing techniques that were done when, say, an Art Nouveau piece of jewelry was made, versus something that is made today in the Art Nouveau style? That is something that's a little harder. That's why you need to rely on an appraiser, someone to help you with that. But when I personally look at a piece of jewelry, how I select a piece of jewelry for our store, style is really important. Good design is always good design. Bad design is obvious, and it just doesn't make a great piece of jewelry. The techniques of manufacture have to be right. It has to be in excellent condition. There's a lot of things that I look at that go in the background, that not everybody sees when they look at a piece. They see a beautiful piece of jewelry when they're shopping, but the backstory is it has to be in excellent condition. It has to be correct. Lang is very careful about letting people know when, for example, cufflinks have been out of style for quite some time, and a lot of the cufflinks that were made circa 1900 to 1930 are small. They're very small. They're really too small for men to wear. Men don't wear them, and they're very delicate. What we do is convert them to earrings. We make the most beautiful earrings out of these cufflinks that otherwise would lose their livelihood, and we've been very successful with doing that. But we tell people these were converted from a pair of earrings, whether it's Art Nouveau or an Art Deco cuff link. Those are the kinds of things that if we make a change, we tell people about it. Sharon: If somebody wants to sell jewelry to you or to another place, let's say they take their family collection and show it to you, or they take it out of the safe deposit box and decide they want the jewelry to be out in the world, what do you say? Have you ever turned people away? Suzanne: Absolutely. What if something was made in the last 25 years and its value is gold? It's something that is mass produced and there's lots and lots of them made and it's not in style anymore. It deserves to be recycled into something more beautiful again. In all pieces, it's back to that design, quality, authenticity and condition. Those are the things that I look for. I wish I could say I could buy every single piece that comes through my door, but realistically we have a large collection. Let's say right now I have 30 hardstone cameos. If someone brought me a hardstone cameo today, I would have to make sure that it exceeded my current collection to add it to my collection, or it has to be something that I feel customers are buying right now. The market goes up and down. Retro is a little soft right now. I like it. It's beautiful. The designs are gorgeous, but I'm not adding to our retro collection because we have a pretty extensive retro collection right now. Those are the kinds of things where sometimes I will say no. But usually individual, one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry, that's what we're looking for. Sharon: Can you recognize if something is one of a kind when it's presented to you? I know you think about things and what you have, but do you research the piece? Do you look at it under the microscope? Suzanne: Some pieces definitely need to be researched, but most pieces are jewelry where maybe more than one of them has been made. In our diamond ring collection, for example, during the 1920s and 1930s, a lot of those rings were die struck. They were made in a die and many of them were made, but very few survive. In all my years of buying and selling vintage engagement rings and antique engagement rings, maybe I've seen a handful that were the same as one I had already seen. That's because the piece may be struck on a die, but then its hand pierced, its hand finished. There may be a garland or small milgrain, or it may have small diamonds added to it and this one doesn't have diamonds added to it. Each one has a handprint of a person on it, the work master or the person that does the engraving or the setter. Each one has its own imprint, so they still tend to look one of a kind. But knowing the underlying structure of something is still one of the ways we determine when it was made. You know when you see a die struck ring, that's the period of time within which it was made. Sharon: Do people bring lab-grown diamonds in? I know they're not vintage, but do you ever see lab-grown diamonds? Suzanne: I think the secondary market for lab grown diamonds hasn't really hit yet because they've only been super popular in the marketplace for three years. That's about it. And their prices have already plummeted on the retail marketplace. It's not something we would ever buy because they're not old, but it is something that we have to be careful of, and I think people have to be careful of. I have heard of jewelers that are buying low quality synthetic diamonds. They're buying a round brilliant and they're recutting it to European standard because they have inclusions and might have some off color, then they're putting them in an old mounting. People that buy scrap end up with lots and lots of mountings, and sometimes they just resell them on the secondary market through dealers. So, here you have the possibility of someone setting a synthetic diamond recut as an antique diamond into an old mounting, so buyer beware. That's one of my dilemmas, too, that I have to be very careful about. I would never want to buy that. That's when the microscope comes in handy, and that's when we use outside laboratories like the Gemological Institute of America to check the stones before we buy them, just to make sure they are correct. In our laboratory, we don't have all the equipment necessary to confirm that it is 100% synthetic or not. We have separation techniques, but a larger laboratory is able to do a lot more than we can. Sharon: A lot of these lab-grown diamonds have inscriptions and numbers or something that identifies it. Do you look for anything like that? Suzanne: If the GIA has looked at that diamond, they always inscribe them. But a diamond cutter can polish that off in a matter of 10 minutes. If you do see it, great, but it's not something that we've even seen. We don't buy round brilliant-cut diamonds. We've never bought round brilliant-cut diamonds. That's not what we buy and sell. Because we specialize in the older ones, like I said, I'm very careful about what I buy and I'm on the lookout for these supposed recuts. We know they're out there for smaller diamonds because we see them in reproductions, the European cuts and single cuts. Primarily the European cuts are cut with what we call an open culet. Instead of coming to a point on the bottom, they have a facet there, and the facets in the contemporary cuts for small diamonds have a really big open facet. That's a generalization, but it's one of those things. If you see all the other characteristics that make you think it's not an old ring and you see those stones and they're perfectly calibrated, you can kind of say, “Yes, that's a reproduction, and this is why.” Sharon: Do you or people who work at the store go out to trade shows or antique jewelry shows and look for merchandise to resell? Suzanne: That's one of the things I do. Most of the jewelry that we buy and sell comes right in our door. People send me a picture of it and we strike up a conversation, and they mail it to us or send it FedEx or however we decide they're going to ship it for our consideration so we can see it in person. I do not buy anything unless I see it in person. Another really good reason to go to trade shows is to do price research. I go to Tucson Gem and Mineral Show every year because the prices and availability of different gems change. It changes from year to year, and if you're buying a beautiful old sapphire, you want to make sure you're paying the right price for it, especially today as prices have gone up significantly, especially in emeralds, rubies and sapphires. We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

This week, Gemma talks to husband and wife team Emma and Stu of The Citrine Circle. Starting as a small Etsy shop in 2017, The Citrine Crystal now has one of the UK's largest selections of crystals and minerals. Alongside their thousands of crystals, they also offer a range of wellbeing and spiritual products. In this episode, Emma and Stu tells Gemma all about their recent trip to the Tucson Gem & Mineral show - the largest, oldest and most prestigious gem and mineral show in the world. Website: www.thecitrinecircle.com Crystal Guide App: https://thecitrinecircle.com/pages/crystal-guide ---------------------- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.gemmapetherbridge.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gemmapetherbridge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We are always keen to spread our knowledge. If you'd like to stay up to date on events, courses and freebies, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to our mailing list.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get your free copy of issue one of Let's Talk Crystals Magazine ⁠here.⁠ Books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Crystal Apothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠My Crystal Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Preorder) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Crystal Almanac⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Preorder)

You may (or may not) know this about me, but in addition to teaching classes with the Love & Light School, I also own a crystal shop here in Madison, Wisconsin. Each year, I travel to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show for my shop, Mimosa Books & Gifts, with a small team — myself, my shop manager, and our shipping manager — to pick out some amazing crystal treasures from across the globe. Big shows like this can be intimidating, so I've put together this helpful Tucson Gem Show Guide to use when attending! Last year, I wrote a short article with some Tucson Gem Show Tips and some helpful information about spotting crystal fakes, but with more and more people starting their own crystal shops (either in-person or online), I have been getting more questions than ever about how it all works! This year, I've broken down our entire experience into a handy Tucson Gem Show guide, to give you a look behind the curtain at the show, or help you plan your own trip!   2024 Tucson Gem Show Highlights: Before we dig into the specifics of how to shop a show like Tucson, I thought I'd share some notable highlights from the 2024 show: Favorite Crystal Find: Quartz with Epidote Druze from Turkey (Forest Epidote) Best-Quality Gems: Garden Quartz from Brazil (it was off the charts this year!) Most Unexpected Find: Brilliant cerulean Blue Opal from Peru Most Expensive Thing: Weardale Fluorite from the UK Best Value: Gorgeous Rainbow Petrified Wood Palm Stones Most Beautiful Find: Rhodochrosite rosettes on Rhodochrosite and Quartz druze form Peru Most Outrageous Fake: Composite Lepidolite made by binding together chips with plastic Best Jewelry Item: HUGE Manifestation Quartz Pendants Popular Trends: Interesting mineral specimens of all types (clusters are in!) Declining Trends: Mass-produced towers of all types (multiple vendors reported a huge decline in sales) Best New Vendor: From the Mines (Sustainable & Fair Trade Minerals) And with that little wrap-up, let's dig into our Tucson Gem Show strategy from start to finish! Travel Planning for the Tucson Gem Show: We usually start planning and preparations for the Tucson Show in November or December (the show begins in late January, so this gives us a month or two to make our plans). This is when we book our airfare, rental car, and house for our trip. There's quite a bit to consider about each of these things when planning your travel… Booking Airfare: After many years of going to the show, we have learned to give ourselves as much space as possible with our flights to make the most of our time in Tucson. On the way out, we catch an early flight (the day before one of the biggest shows opens up), so we have time to settle in (more about that later). On the way home, however, we book a late afternoon flight so we have time to run any last-minute errands, squeeze in some extra shopping, and get to the airport with minimal stress and lots of time to spare. I'd also highly recommend giving yourself extra space for any layovers you may have so you don't miss your connecting flights. We missed our flight this year due to mechanical issues with our flight and got stuck overnight in Dallas (which was very expensive!). Booking a Rental Car: The Tucson Gem Show is one place where having a bigger vehicle comes in handy. We usually rent a small to mid-sized SUV so we have lots of space for hauling minerals and luggage. With 3 of us attending the show, we need the luggage space getting from the airport to our rented house, and there are always a couple of days when we shop so heavily that nearly every free inch of the car is filled with boxes of crystals. We typically rent a hybrid vehicle to save on gas, but a big car is a must for our little team. Renting a House: The first few years I went to the Tucson show, we stayed in a motel. Looking back I don't know how we did it. It was cramped, impractical, and made it hard to enjoy our time at the show....

"Gemstone Geniuses: The Agdanowski Brothers' Rocky Road to Success" – Dive into this inspiring episode of Life Along The Streetcar, where we uncover the remarkable journey of Jonas and Dimitri Agdanowski. From their teenage years collecting rocks in Michigan to opening their third rock and mineral store, fueled by the vibrant energy of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

This episode of Big Blend Radio with travel writer Linda Kissam, "Food Wine & Shopping Diva," focuses on the Annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. Held every winter this esteemed event welcomes over 65,000 guests from around the globe as they descend upon Tucson, Arizona to buy, sell, trade, and immerse themselves in rare and captivating gems, minerals, and fossils at more than 40 gem show locations across the city. Read Linda's article about it: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/tucson-gem-and-mineral-show/ Watch this Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pN51Rn2ugXQ Linda Kissam appears on Big Blend Radio every first Saturday. Follow her podcasts here: https://tinyurl.com/3r9wmuduFollow Diva Linda's adventures here: https://allingoodtaste.info/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Big Blend Radio with travel writer Linda Kissam, "Food Wine & Shopping Diva," focuses on the Annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. Held every winter this esteemed event welcomes over 65,000 guests from around the globe as they descend upon Tucson, Arizona to buy, sell, trade, and immerse themselves in rare and captivating gems, minerals, and fossils at more than 40 gem show locations across the city. Read Linda's article about it: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/tucson-gem-and-mineral-show/  Watch this Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pN51Rn2ugXQ  Linda Kissam appears on Big Blend Radio every first Saturday. Follow her podcasts here: https://tinyurl.com/3r9wmudu Follow Diva Linda's adventures here: https://allingoodtaste.info/  Photos by Linda Kissam & Courtesy of the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.

To clear snow and ice, some of us use shovels, others use snowblowers. Holland, Michigan uses a long series of tubes under the streets and sidewalks in its downtown district to melt any winter accumulation. Plus: now underway in Arizona, it's the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase. Snowmelt: A Snow-Free Holland (Discover Holland Michigan)  TUCSON GEM, MINERAL & FOSSIL SHOWCASE (Visit Tucson) Our podcast would be frozen in place without our Patreon backers, join today --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coolweirdawesome/support

In this episode, we discuss the madness that is the Tucson Gem Show. For the past 20 years, the Smoky Mountain Relic Room has set up at that show & it's hard to describe this type of gathering, but we do our best in this episode. We will be taking a break from the podcast for the next month and a half but will be back after the show with all kinds of Great topics!  Please help us out by leaving a comment and sharing our show with others!    Don't forget to Subscribe, Comment & leave us a rating and review. We also have a YouTube Channel "Chasing History" where we take you into the field with the men & women who discover history!

Our latest episode, a delightful sequel to "Under the Tucson Sun", opens with a tasteful exploration of Tucson's vibrant food scene, recognized as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. From the lip-smacking Sonoran hot dog to the delightful chimichanga, our conversation unravels Tucson's culinary treasures and their fascinating origins. Beyond delectable cuisines, we delve into the sports and cultural events that form the city's vivacious spirit, from cheering on the Tucson Roadrunners and experiencing the thrills of university sports to engaging with the literary world at Tucson Meet Yourself and the Festival of Books. We also shed light on the rich artistic heritage encapsulated in the Arizona State Museum and the Center of Creative Photography. Furthermore, we offer sneak peeks into some of the city's biggest gatherings, from the internationally renowned Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show to the captivating Thunder and Lightning air show, the rambunctious rodeo of La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, and the melodious notes of Country Thunder. If you're a fitness enthusiast, we touch on Tucson's highly anticipated sporting events, such as Cyclovia and Tour de Tucson. This podcast aims to capture the heart of southern Arizona, bursting with diverse cuisines, spirited sports events, vibrant culture, and irresistible experiences. Tune in and immerse yourself in the unique essence of Tucson!

Horacio spoke with meteorite collector and dealer Mendy Ouzillou. Mendy is the founder of SkyFall Meteorites and the Founder and President of the Global Meteorite Association. In this episode, Mendy recaps his trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, talks about the current state of the meteorite marketplace, and talks about the fractionalized Lunar Meteorite on Rally Road. More discussion topics include:Observations from the Tucson Gem and Mineral ShowMaking classic meteorites availableSlicing meteorites as standard practice among scientists and collectorsMuseums trading their meteorites to expand their collectionsThe difference in value of meteorites depending on geographic landfallUsing weather radar to see a possible strewn fieldThe dangers of chasing meteoritesPossible preservation of the asteroid impactor that wiped out the dinosaursThe specifics of the Lunar Meteorite on Rally RoadLunar meteorites as collectibles and investmentsThe Global Meteorite Association and growing the hobby---Follow Alts- Website & newsletter: https://alts.co- Discord: https://discord.gg/DEkHgzggwC- Twitter: https://twitter.com/altassetsclub- Insta: https://instagram.com/alts_co- Link to Alan Goldsher playlist

For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Pinacosaurus, and our fun fact check out https://iknowdino.com/Pinacosaurus-Episode-378/Join us at www.patreon.com/iknowdino for dinosaur requests, bonus content, ad-free episodes, and more.Dinosaur of the day Pinacosaurus, One of the best known ankylosaurs with dozens of known specimens including juveniles.In dinosaur news this week:A new spinosaurid, Iberospinus, was described after a new excavation uncovered additional fossilsA large group of Tethyshadros dinosaurs were found in ItalyThe Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite in Utah was badly damaged recentlyA man allegedly stole a $25,000 dinosaur claw from the Tucson Gem and Mineral ShowThe Long Island Children's Museum in New York has a new exhibit called "The Age of Dinosaurs"Antarctic Dinosaurs: The Exhibition has moved to the Buffalo Museum of Science in New YorkWe got more details about the characters of Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil DinosaurA new miniseries called Jurassic League, will feature Justice League characters as anthropomorphic dinosaursThe official Jurassic World Dominion trailer was released including some feathered dinosaurs This episode is brought to you by our patrons. Their generous contributions make our podcast possible! You can join our community, help us keep the show going, and get the show ad-free for $9/month (a win win win). Go to Patreon.com/iknowdino to sign up.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You'll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates talk about the Tucson gem shows, Kering's sale of two watch brands, small diamonds, and Rob's new book.

Amanda and Joe are back from the 2022 Tucson Gem & Mineral show and there is a lot to talk about! Amanda recaps the show and shares some personal experiences while spending nearly two weeks in Tucson. She gives some insight for anyone who might be considering attending the Tucson show in the future, and also talks about some of the highlights of the show for her. Amanda explains how the Tucson show humbles her and helps her realize all that she has to be grateful for.Follow Amanda on Instagram @golightlycrystalsVisit golightlyhealing.com

Jewelry lovers unite! Once a year, hobbyists, artists, designers, buyers, vendors, collectors and enthusiasts all gather for a weekend in the Arizona desert: the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. It's the largest, oldest, most prestigious gem & mineral show in the world. But how did this jewelry, gemstone, crystal, mineral, fossil extravagance begin? When did the Smithsonian get involved? What epic traveling exhibits have graced the Tucson Convention Center over the decades? How many millions of dollars does this show bring to the economy? Let's talk all things Tucson.*Please consider leaving a Review of "Tea & Gemstones" wherever you listen to your podcasts! It helps the show's algorithm to appear in searches and recommendations. Thank you!*Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes & merchandise: https://www.patreon.com/teaandgemstonespodcast Narration - Jennifer SieverlingResearch & Writing - Jennifer SieverlingMusic - Joseph McDade & AudionautixFor all credits and sources please visit https://jennifersieverling.wixsite.com/teaandgemstones---Stay Sparkly 

In this episode Ashley shares her tips for visiting the Tucson Gem Show, what to expect, and a few stories and favorite finds from previous years. Find the full Tucson Gem Show schedule hereSave 15% at shopadamrabbit.com until March 31st with code MarchGalaxy at checkout

This week, husbands Angel and Brandon break down the Tucson Gem show, share a cosmic update on why this Mercury Retrograde has you feeling like a hot mess, and draw out artist and photographer Austin Young on all things beauty, gender, and the power of a name. AUSTIN YOUNG IG: Austin Young IG for Fallen Fruit THE SPIRITUAL GAYZ Our Website IG: The Spiritual Gayz T: SpiritualGayz Facebook: The Spiritual Gayz

In this EpisodeIn this edition of The Jewelry District, you’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates discuss all the noteworthy jewelry seen at this year's Oscars. You’ll also hear them talk about Victoria’s trip to the Tucson gem shows and the focus on sustainability practices there. Rob gives us the rundown on all things involving the bankruptcy of de Grisogono USA and then lightens the mood with a Domino’s-themed Weird Story of the Week. Show Notes00:30 Victoria gives the scoop on the Oscars and jewelry07:53 Victoria talks about her trip to the Tucson gem shows and sustainability practices15:13 Rob discusses the bankruptcy of fine jeweler de Grisogono19:00 Weird Story of the Week Episode CreditsHosts: Rob Bates and Victoria GomelskyEditor: Olivia BrileyProducer and engineer: Natalie ChometPlugs: jckonline.com, @jckmagazine Show Recap White Diamonds at the OscarsVictoria arrived home from the Tucson gem shows just in time for the Oscars. This year, as in recent years past, colored gemstones took a backseat while white diamonds stole the spotlight. There were big stars in big diamonds, as large statement pieces were a common theme. Hear Rob talk about how important product placement is in shows like these. Tucson Gem Shows and Sustainability Victoria talks about her stay in Arizona for February's Tucson gem shows. You’ll hear what the mood of the shows were and whether the recent outbreak of the coronavirus had any effect on attendance. You’ll also hear Rob and Victoria talk about the continued importance of sustainability in the jewelry industry. De Grisogono: Leaked Files and BankruptcyFine jeweler de Grisogono was recently in hot water over the case of some leaked files connected to stakeholder Isabel dos Santos. De Grisogono USA has now declared bankruptcy following the bankruptcy of their Swiss division—and dos Santos, along with husband Sindika Dokolo, now face criminal charges. Hear what Rob and Victoria think of the details leading up to the downfall of de Grisogono USA and what consumers should consider when choosing the companies they engage with. Weird Story of the Week: A Conversation “Pizza”Rob tells us a new Weird Story of the Week, and this time it’s all about pizza! Domino’s Australia is holding a contest—just submit a video of how you’d use Domino’s in your engagement to your beloved. Rob reveals the prize: Not only will Domino’s bring your engagement plan to life, and cater your wedding with pizza, but you’ll also win an 18k pizza-shape ring worth more than $9,000, featuring ruby pepperoni and diamond cheese.

In this episode, Chase is getting the Relic Room Crew ready for the month-long Tucson Gem, Mineral, Meteorite, & Fossil show in Tucson Arizona. The Largest show of its kind in the World! In preparation, we discuss a particular mindset Chase wants to get you guys in while you're going through your day - Thinking Historically. Hope you enjoy the show!    Please help us out by leaving comments, giving us a rating and a review on iTunes, Google, or where ever you get your podcasts. We would really appreciate it & you guys are awesome!!!

Every year Chase Pipes & the Smoky Mountain Relic Room crew head west to the Tucson Gem, Mineral, Meteorite, & Fossil show  - the largest show of its kind anywhere in the world. We discuss what this madness is all about!

Mark and Jennifer welcome wacky "Gemologists to the Stars" Ray the Psychic & Gus the Crystal Cowboy, to talk about the Tucson Gem & Mineral show… and the powers of crystals to heal what ails ya. But first, we welcome Dave Razowsky of #RazEatsFood. Raz travels the world doing comedy, teaching comedy and taking photos of things he eats.Luckily, Raz is hilarious and has a discerning tongue, and he shares his top travel tips for planning your next getaway to make sure its as tasty and fun as possible.

Chase Pipes & the Smoky Mountain Relic Room Gang are STILL out at the 2019 Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show! The amount of Awesome History they picked up for the Relic Room is Endless!! In this episode chase lists and gives some Historic background on some of the cool fossil, minerals & artifacts heading back to East Tennessee!! 

I’m inspired by a number of things from the last week - a new opal ring, The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and on the musical side, the flute.1. Rita Lee - Doce Vampiro 2. Jessica Pratt - Fare Thee Well 3. Dorothy Ashby - Moonlight In Vermont 4. Curtis Mayfield - The Makings Of You 5. Colin Steele - Recurring Dream 6. Tom Petty - Don’t Fade On Me 7. Buck Meek - Joe By The Book 8. Chris Cohen - Edit Out 9. Berdon Kirksæther - Underlying Currents 10. Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Color Of Anyhow

In this episode, we catch up with Chase live at the Largest Gem, Mineral & Fossil show on Earth, the month-long Tucson Show! Chase covers the history he has picked up for the Smoky Mountain Relic Room & dives into the history of some of the species he has collected!

Whitney Wolfe is an energy, sound, and crystal healer, as well as an artist, and a seeker. She is the creator of Ethereal Earth - which is a brand that was designed and put forth into the world with the intention to help us seek and find inspiration to awaken, enliven, and remind us of our true Nature. She believes that reinforcing our connection to the healing harmonies of the Earth and the Ethereal are a powerful means of true Self-care. Within Ethereal Earth, she offers private, group, and large event sound healings, women’s gatherings, as well as various classes, workshops, and other offerings. She also curates the online and physical Ethereal Earth shop with potent healing crystals, Alchemy crystal singing bowls, high quality incenses & smudges, her photography, and her hand-made ceramics and jewelry. In this episode, Whitney shares some beautiful insights into trusting yourself when choosing stones and crystals. She shares her process, as she was coming to us from Arizona, where she was about to attend the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. Whitney says, when looking for personal stones or crystals, Notice what you are called to — walk around and take note of what you feel drawn to — I hold them and feel them and take note. She put it beautifully, "Sense the energy of this piece of Earth." Whitney also shared the benefits of sound healing, how the vibrations become a point of focus assisting us to be present. In todays world of over stimulation Whitney shares how the crystal bowls and their magical sounds allow the mind body and spirit to relax on a very deep level, restoring harmony on a cellular level. Whitney invites us all to begin a relationship with the crystals and have fun with inviting them into your home and life. SPECIAL OFFER: Whitney is offering all listeners of the Awakened Woman Self Care podcast a one-time, 15% off discount for her healing services, classes and workshops, as well as all crystal and crystal singing bowl purchases valid for the year of 2019 - you can get in touch with her via instagram, Facebook, or email and she will be happy to give you your discount code!  Visit the website here https://etherealearth.co  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_ethereal_earth/  Visit Awakened woman self care website and sig up for FREE self care resources awakened woman self care.com

FOR EPISODE COMMENTS PLEASE VISIT: Friends of Minerals Forum Recorded at the 2018 Fine Mineral Shows: Tucson (AKA The Westward Look Show), Gail and Jim sit down with Ian Bruce, Alan Hart, Christoph Keilmann, Jolyon Ralph, Peter Lyckberg and John Cornish to address the issue of The Current State of the Mineral Collecting World and How We Preserve it for Future Generations - but this time with a slightly European perspective. This panel represents a good slice of the European mineral-collecting community. We have a Mineral Dealer (Bruce), a former Museum Curator and gem expert (Hart), someone in the mineral media world (Ralph), a Show Promoter (Keilmann) a two great Field Collectors (Lyckberg and Cornish). Lots of great comments, suggestions and ideas. And remember, if you have an idea on a topic you'd like to hear addressed on future episodes of Breakfast With Minerals, drop us a line at: topics@breakfastwithminerals.com (mailto:topics@breakfastwithminerals.com) SHOW NOTES 8:22 - Rod Tyson from Tyson's Fine Minerals - Ian Bruce Rod was the 2018 winner of the American Mineral Heritage Award - the Mineralogical Record's annual award given out to living individuals recognizing their, "field collecting achievements contributing to the heritage of American mineral specimens." Past award recipients include: Edward Swoboda, Bill Larson, Bryan Lees, Wayne Thompson, Terry Szenics and Stanley Esbenshade. Tysons' Fine Minerals - http://www.tysonsfineminerals.com 9:58 - The Munich Show: Europe's largest mineral show - Christoph Keilmann https://munichshow.com 10:53 - MinDat: the largest mineral database in the world - Jolyon Ralph https://www.mindat.org 15:39 - Natural History Museum of London (aka The British Museum) - Alan Hart http://www.nhm.ac.uk 16:53 - Society of Mineral Museum Professionals (SMMP) - Alan Hart http://www.smmp.net/ 27:39 - Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas - Gail Spann www.perotmuseum.org 36:09 - Mineral photographer Thomas Spann - Jim Spann https://www.facebook.com/thomas.spann 44:16 - Gem shows in Tucson - Alan Hart AGTA - https://agta.org/ GJX - http://www.gjxusa.com/ 44:28 - The Hope Diamond - Gail Spann Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond Smithsonian Museum - https://www.si.edu/spotlight/hope-diamond 45:04 - The Prospectors show on the Weather Channel - Peter Lyckberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospectors(TVseries) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3216258/ 45:18 - The New Crystal Hunters series produced by BlueCap Productions - Peter Lyckberg NCH: The Sterling Mine - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nch04 NCH: Smoky Hawk - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nch03 NCH: Arkansas - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nch02 52:54 - The Changsha Mineral Show in China - Jolyon Ralph www.changsha-show.com 57:48 - Social media and BlueCap Productions films - Ian Bruce www.bluecapproductions.com https://vimeo.com/bluecapproductions/vod_pages 1:04:25 - The mineral magazines in Europe vs America - Ian Bruce Mineralogical Record - https://mineralogicalrecord.com/ Lapis Magazine - http://www.lapis.de/ 1:11:38 - The Tsumeb Show - a new mini show in Tucson - Ian Bruce http://www.tsumeb.com/en/ 1:13:28 - David Bowie exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum - Alan Hart https://www.vam.ac.uk/ 1:13:28 - "It's The Artifacts Stupid!" article by Bill Smith - Alan Hart The Mineralogical Record - Vol.35, No.2 - Mar/Apr 2004 https://mineralogicalrecord.com/detail.asp?id=233 https://mineralogicalrecord.com/pdfs/TheMineralogicalRecord_GuestEditorial.pdf 1:15:35 - Houston Museum of Natural Science - Gail Spann http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/permanent-exhibitions/gems-and-minerals/ 1:16:52 - Friday morning at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society (TGMS) show- John Cornish http://www.tgms.org/show/ 1:21:16 - Society of Mineral Museum Professionals (SMMP) - Jolyon Ralph http://www.smmp.net/ 1:27:56 - A mineral-collecting field trip to the cliffs of Dover, UK - Jolyon Ralph https://www.mindat.org/loc-223577.html 1:29:49 - Digging Arkansas Quartz at the James Zigras Mine - Gail Spann http://avantmining.com/ 1:31:43 - The mineral museums in Madrid, Spain - Peter Lyckberg Museo Geominero - http://www.igme.es/museo/ Museo de la Geología - https://www.ucm.es/cultura/m.geologia 1:35:15 - The Prospectors show on the Weather Channel - Gail Spann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospectors(TVseries) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3216258/ 1:45:22 - The Fersman Museum in Moscow, Russia - Jolyon Ralph https://www.fmm.ru/Index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FersmanMineralogicalMuseum If you're interested in Sponsoring future episodes of Breakfast With Minerals, please contact Bryan Swoboda at bryan@bluecapproductions.com (mailto:bryan@bluecapproductions.com) Special Guests: Alan Hart, Christoph Keilmann, Ian Bruce, John Cornish, Jolyon Ralph, and Peter Lyckberg.

Here's the extended version of Kris Abel's interview with Kim Tait (right), curator of mineralogy and Katherine Dunnell (left), mineralogy technician, of the Royal Ontario Museum. Fresh from the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show in Arizona, they share their discoveries from the world's most influential gem market. For more info visit: http://www.rom.on.ca https://twitter.com/ROMEarthSci

Dinosaur news, including newly discovered titanosaur Notocolossus gonzalezparejasi, newly discovered hadrosaur Eotrachodon orientalis, researchers in Antarctica, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Fair, and more. Plus, dinosaur of the day Fosterovenator, a rare juvenile theropod from the Morrison Formation. Visit http://www.IKnowDino.com for more information including a link to dinosaur sites near you.