Quartzsite 2009

Shows 2009

Quartzsite, in western Arizona, just 20 miles east of the Colorado River on I-10, Quartzsite has been a rockhound’s paradise since the 1960s. These days, it is also a mecca to well over a million visitors each year, most of whom converge on this small town in a wave of RVs during the months of January and February.

At this time of the year, 2,000 vendors of rocks, gems, minerals, fossils and everything else imaginable create one of the world’s largest open air flea markets in Quartzsite. Eight major gem and mineral shows as well as vendors of raw and handcrafted merchandise peddle their wares to snowbirds, collectors and enthusiasts, making Quartzsite the place to be the first two months of each year.

For two weeks every winter, the world meets in Tucson as it becomes a bustling, international marketplace of buyers and sellers at the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase.

The “Gem Show” is much more than a single event at one location. Rather, there are thousands of participants and attendees at nearly 50 sites around town. Dozens of shows take place at the same time - in giant white tents, at hotels and resorts and at exhibit halls.

There’s something for everyone at the many open-to-the-public shows - from gold and diamonds to granite bookends and glass beads, and from fine specimens of dinosaur fossils to opals dug from the Australian Outback.

The main event of this two-week showcase is the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show which packs downtown’s Tucson Convention Center over the final weekend. This show attracts thousands of treasure hunters from every corner of the globe and is open to the public. There are displays from renowned museums and private collections along with over 250 mineral, gemstone, jewelry and fossil retail dealers. It also features hands-on exhibits only for school children.

Most of the gem and mineral shows around Tucson are free and hours vary.

Exhibitor Information Request Form

I recently bought what was described as a Munjina Jasper. After some discussion on our forum, it was thought that in fact it was not Munjina Jasper, but Noreena Jasper.

I did a Google search and they sure do look a lot alike. Come to find out that another member, ImageOne (Ron), cleared up the confusion. He shared a discussion between himself and Glen Archer who is the owner of the Noreena claim. It is within a hundred miles of the Munjina claim.

They are both found in the same geologic rock formation in Australia, and both are silicified mudstone with high iron content. That explained the similar characteristics. It was also shared that the Munjina sometimes has a black color and that Noreena usually has white or cream in the same type of location.

I experienced the same cracking while working with this as others have. I did experience a lot of difficulties with breaking where the red bandings are.

Here are some pics of what I received. It was the largest of the two pieces that I actually paid for. The seller sent a bonus piece for free. Turns out it is the smaller of the two that offers a lot nicer cabbing material. Since it is smaller the bandings and colors are tighter and can all be included on a standard sized cab. Where as the largest of the two. The one I actually paid for, only allows for portions of the pattern to appear on a cab. I was really pleased with the appearance of the smaller piece.

Here you can see how wonderful the pattern is on these slabs from the smaller piece with tighter banding and colors. Then finally, a finished cab. One thing that the smaller piece of rough with the tighter banding offered is the ability to place a neat red border around the perimeter of every cab. It’s just the way a lot of the patterns on the slabs work out. It’s a real bonus, and it had it’s way of compensating for the break points in the red banding.

This is really a neat mineral. Fun to cab and great appearance. I have heard some share that they had some difficulties with polishing. This took an excellent polish !

Feel free to contact me for details on having cabs made from this. As always, there are no additional shop costs for special requests.

Thanks for stopping by and reading through this blog entry. Hope you enjoyed !

After some trials and errors, and lots of help from other forum members, I was finally able to complete my first bezel gemstone pendant.

There were some difficulties going through the first soldering.

Any way, worth a blog post!

If your here, show me some love and tell me how you like it. I am always interested in comments and suggestions on how to improve.

So don’t be shy, and please post your two cents. Would be greatly appreciated!

Of course if your like me and just starting out making some jewelry, be sure to join in to the forum and either share your expertise or learn from others.

Thanks for stopping in!

In a thread started by Alana over at CST. “I believe these are some hard times for our business right now” we seem to have discovered common sales experiences in regards to a greater percentage of International sales recently as compared to National. Possibly a connection to the present Global Recession.

I can speak from personal experiences that it is possible to achieve international sales without any special marketing techniques. For myself, that became apparent when I sold Chines Snuff Bottles on eBay. A collectible item. For that reason the international buyers would go the extra step in figuring out how to deal with communicating and purchasing from an English website/store without any extra effort on my part.

This chart that shows how the International Internet is now the fastest area of online revenue growth.
It describes perfectly my own personal experiences with International “buyers”. With the exception of a couple shown on this chart I would say that it closely represents my percentages of International sales when selling Chinese snuff bottles.

So.. without any extra marketing techniques the buyers will come and buy if we are selling something desirable, competitive and collectible. Of course certainly having a simple site translation capability is a big plus.

In order to really get in and get our semi precious gemstone and gemstone jewelry design sites in the face of potential International buyers there are other things I am learning are necessary.

What if we sell gemstones that other Countries mass produce. Things like gemstones that are mass produced and sold cheaply because labor can be pennies on our dollar.

I know that I can not compete with these run of the mill semi-precious gemstones. Basic minerals and especially basic shapes. Especially oval, round and straight forward domed gemstones. It seems like the Asian and India markets dominate mass producing these common semi-precious gemstones. We can compete with the freeform designer type semi-precious gemstones though. Just like the Chinese Snuff Bottles that are desirable. Truly collectible bottles are not able to be mass produced in any market. Each can be and should be unique. Freeform and or designer type semi-precious gemstones are desirable to jewelry designers in many Countries. Unique and unusual freeform semi-precious gemstone cabochon minerals.

I believe that for a Lapidary this opens the door for International sales Making it quite feasible to enter into International SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

But how is it done? It does take a little more than just placing a language translator on our gemstone and jewelry design sites.

I have just started to search for information on how to best communicate my semi-precious gemstones to the International markets, shown in the chart above.

I thought it would be a good start to make a blog entry to maybe stir up some discussion, experiences, advice and guidance from other Lapidaries who are involved with or interested in talking a bit more about how to get our semi-precious gemstones into these markets.

These first couple of terms (International SEO and SEM) that I stumbled upon while searching for information about how to sell Internationally.

Here are a few more terms/phrases that I am still investigating.

Deliver qualified global visitors
Visibility within foreign search properties
Global internet search
E-Globalize
CE Certification
Power supply conversion
Gate way page.

The first most interesting and seemingly a great place to start is with the Gate Way pages which is directly related to SEO and SEM.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we can use keywords and phrase information and construct what is called a “gateway” page, or page that introduces our company/site.

Incorporate our gemstone related keywords and phrases into the text of the gateway page, as well as in the HTML code that is used to build the page. Apparently each search engine is different with the “rules” that must be followed when submitting pages to their search engine, and moreover those search engines within each country has different rules. So apparently we need to learn how to optimize our gateway page for international search engine optimization.

This page will need to be translated into the language of the Country of choice. Looks to me so far like a gateway page for each language/Country.

Then we submit our gateway pages to the various key search engines in the Country of choice. Over time (this will depend on the search engine and market) our gateway page will continually gain visibility within the natural search engine area on each of the key search engines in that Country.

The following may help explain better how the process works.

The Opportunity

In the last 10 years, the total number of non-English searches online has completely reversed to now include over 75% of the total population, and this number is still increasing.

Keyword Density, or the amount of traffic online in markets outside of the US is not nearly the same as it is in the US.

What this means is a much higher chance for a successful long term top ranking in international gemstone and jewelry design markets compared to the US market, if we act before the global markets catch up to the US in online search competition.

The Global SEO Process Steps

First of all, we know that 99% of all searches abroad are conducted in the native language of the user. So gemstone cutters, lapidaries, and gemstone jewelry designers have a chance to be seen globally be those searching for our gemstone related products or lapidary services. We must have a presence in their native language.

The first thing to do is to create an “entry” or “gateway” page that can be submitted to search engines in the global markets we select. Let’s now take Chinese as an example. This Entry or Gateway Page will be consistent with your Website look and feel, and be fully optimized to achieve top rankings in the selected markets.

There are different accents, different symbols and different alphabets, and the rules, regulations, and algorithms vary by market and search engine within each market, which is why a thorough understanding of international search engine optimization is important.

When a prospective customer does a search and finds our gemstone and or jewelry design Entry or Gateway Page, they will see at the bottom a link to our gemstone / lapidary home page, with an explanation in Chinese that once they click on this link they will go to an English only site, and that all subsequent correspondence will be in English.

The prospective customer then clicks on the link at the bottom of the page and is transferred to your main gemstone or jewelry design page. Statistics show that 85% to 90% of foreign users will click through to your English language home page!

From the same site there is a FAQ page that gives us some things to think about.

So… this is where I am at.

Because of the above, it is apparent that I will need a gemstone / Gemstone jewelry design gateway page for each language/Country I would like to target.

I am not sure yet if I need to have a separate dot com for each of these gateway pages, or if we can simply create one.

With a Wordpress Blog, perhaps use the static page that is available, create another separate gateway page, etc..

With a ZenCart, maybe the same. Create a EZ page or something as the gateway page.

It seems a fairly easy and straight forward technique in regards to the gateway page concept. Then simply submit to the various International Search Engines.

I am off to do some more research and figure out how to best create my first gateway page. Probably for my ZenCart to start with. Then perhaps my blog. Likely starting with China, or possibly Spain. The two larger pieces of the pie in the above chart.

One thing…. I have no experience with making the payment process and currencies set for the various countries. I think this will be the biggest challenge.

If you work with gemstones and or gemstone related jewelry or gemstone art work feel free to comment. Very interested in hearing from others who have or are interested in any part of selling gemstones Internationally.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading through this entry!

A follow up from last weeks entry about Morrisonite Jasper. We have talked a bit about this Morrisonite as well as some outstanding Willow Creek Jasper on our community forum as well.

After purchasing from Rare Rock and Gem’s site the other day, would like to share yet more of this great looking mineral. Have not yet decided for sure, but thinking back over all the various Jaspers I have cabbed for gemstone type jewelry, I am tempted to say this is my favorite to date. Right up there with some of the nicer Imperial Jaspers I have cabbed.

Yes, it is expensive. The rough / slabs are pricey, and as a result the gemstone cabochons can be a bit pricey as well. I have no intentions of selling my Morrisonite cabs for any where near the prices I have seen other gemstone cabochon sites selling theirs for. An eighty or one hundred dollar cabochon seen on other sites would likely be more reasonably priced at about thirty or forty dollars. I primarily calculate the cost of the piece and divide that up by the amount of cabs the piece yields.

Ok, so would like to share what I just received. From left to right and from top of the list down.

Outstanding Colored Morrisonite Slab
Good Sized Morrisonite Core
Morrisonite with Very Rare Pyrite Hair Crystals
Nicely Colored Morrisonite Collector Slab
Good Sized Morrisonite Collector Slab
Three Outstanding Colorful Slabs

I have only finished one Morrisonite cabochon from the first group I got last week.

Keep checking back as will be completing several more in the next few days. I will have them up for sale in my store, but am only planning on finishing a very few. These will be primarily for demonstration. Giving customers an idea of the idea of just how unique and beautiful this Morrisonite is as a finished cab. The rest will be made available to anyone interested in requesting specific shapes and designs.

As always, there are no additional shop rates just because a customer makes a special request. To ask for details about special requests, simply contact me. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading through this entry. Keep checking back ! You can also subscribe to the blog RSS feed and stay current on all blog activity via your News Reader, like Google or Yahoo.

Many of you have been doing business with me for almost two years now. You have come to know that I did not start my gemstone business because of dependence on the income. I am sort of in between doing this as a hobby and online business.

Lots going on in the world these days. These uncertain and financially difficult times can put pressures on jewelry designers and cutters. Trying to balance our everyday responsibilities with our families and for some of us, still trying to continue investing in our online gemstone / jewelry businesses. Then for others interested in gemstones and jewelry design from a hobby perspective. It can be difficult to spend even a few dollars on necessary materials like gemstones so as to continue those treasured pastime interests. Read More……..

We had a new member join up to our forum who sells Morrisonite, Willow Creek, Bruneau, and other rarer Jasper type minerals. His site is called Rare Rocks and Gems.I received a package today from Philip. My mouth hit the floor when I opened it. From time to time will receive exceptional mineral rough / slabs. Sometimes it is necessary to really take a close look. Be patient and consider some options prior to diving in to slab the material. That is more so the case with the Morrisonite, and especially the Willow Creek Jaspers. I will be patiently looking at these when considering just how to approach slabbing them.

I little history about the Morrisonite can be found in an article that was recently submitted to the forums Article and Documents pages.

I would like to share some pictures of the Willow Creek Jasper.

Then here are some pictures of the Moorisonite.