Getting Better One Show at a Time

Getting Better One Show at a Time

Consider this a preview of a preview — some of the material I’m getting ready for SLO, laid out over my new turquoise poster.

This weekend I’ll be setting up The Little Lapidary at Gems by the Sea in San Luis Obispo, September 26–27.

Every show gives me an excuse to change things a little or a lot. Not because I’m trying to settle on one formula, but because The Little Lapidary keeps expanding in directions I find interesting.

Turquoise is still a major part of what I bring, but the tables now include fossils, unusual specimens, rough material, other cabochons, jewelry, ultraviolet fluorescence and educational displays. I enjoy all of it, and I suspect different visitors will find completely different things that catch their attention.

More Than a Sales Table

One thing I’ve become increasingly certain about is that I don’t want The Little Lapidary booth to be only a place to buy rocks.

I like the educational side of lapidary too much for that.

I want someone to be able to stop, look at something unfamiliar, ask what it is, learn a little about where it came from or how it formed—and then move on without feeling that they need to buy anything.

That is one of the things I enjoy most about gem and mineral shows myself. Sometimes the best thing at a booth is the rock you have never seen before or the conversation that starts because of it.

So, I’ve continued adding information and displays alongside the material for sale. Some of that material will eventually make its way into the Learning Center on The Little Lapidary website as well.

A Few New Things Coming to San Luis Obispo

There will be quite a few things on the tables this time that I haven’t brought to earlier shows.

  • Indonesian copper chrysocolla rough and slabs, including material with visible native copper
  • Stegodon fossil bone bracelets paired with Peruvian turquoise
  • Dinosaur bone cabochons from Utah
  • Grape agate from Indonesia
  • New cabochons and unusual lapidary materials I’ve been working with
  • More examples of fluorescent and organic gem materials
  • And, of course, plenty of turquoise

The Stegodon bracelets are a good example of where my interests tend to lead me. I recently started making bracelets using fossil bone beads from Indonesia that were sold to me as Stegodon, paired with Peruvian turquoise.

Stegodon was an extinct relative of modern elephants that lived in parts of Asia, including Indonesia. I had the fossil beads and turquoise sitting on the table, started arranging them together, and liked the result enough to make several bracelets.

They have a wonderfully prehistoric look.

“Flintstones wear” may be the best description I’ve come up with so far.

A New Turquoise Display

I’ll also be introducing a new Turquoise of the American Southwest poster at the show.

This has been another project that combines two things I enjoy: turquoise and education. The poster highlights 15 turquoise mines and districts across the American Southwest and Sonora, with examples intended to show just how much color, pattern and matrix can vary—even within material sold under the same mine name.

I’ll write more about the poster separately because it deserves its own post and eventually will be for sale online.

For now, it will make its debut in San Luis Obispo.

Come Visit

If you’ll be at Gems by the Sea at the Alex Madonna Expo Center in San Luis Obispo on September 26 or 27, please stop by The Little Lapidary and say hello.

Look at the rocks. Ask questions. Check out the new turquoise poster. See what fluoresces. Pick up something strange.

And for those who can’t make it to the show, I’ll continue adding more of these materials, stories and educational resources to the website after I get home.

Back to blog