Quartzsite 2013 - Early Bird Gets The Worm (Day One)

For the second consecutive year I had the honor of visiting Quartzsite, AZ, on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the context of helping my friend Dave Richter of Rocks & Relics fame begin shopping early from the early. He and I drove down from Atascadero, CA, yesterday and stayed overnight a few hours west of here at Hyatt Hotel in the Coachella Valley. We then got up before dawn and got to Quartzsite and started in on the early deals. The show was behind last year's schedule as fewer dealers were ready today despite the fact we followed the precise same schedule we did last year. Below are some of the things I saw.
Check out the action on Day Two!

Looking west on Kuehn Street on New Year's Eve Day. Tyson Wells Market Center is at left while while Tyson Wells Main Show Grounds is at right.

The Quartzsite warehouses of Village Originals (left) and Western Woods (right), the two main powerhouses in town.

Like last year it was clear and beautiful in Quartzsite but much colder this time around.

Heat-treated Amethyst vugs to create faux citrine vugs.

The color isn't the only thing unnatural about these: their bases are concrete casts and their outer rinds are actually paint over a stucco.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this as by now most people should know heat-treated and yet they still buy them.

A mix of treated and untreated Brazilian vugs.

There is a danger in leaving these vugs in the direct sunlight too long: their color will fade.

Brazilian Amethyst vug kitsch.

A Brazilian amethyst vug pair created from slicing a single in half and here packed in the crate in which it was transported.

Brazilian amethyst vugs slabbed in such a way as I have not heretofore seen.

Brazilian vug wall plates of Amethyst-turned faux Citrine.

I don't really know why people go for this material.

Indonesian petrified wood sphere approximately 3-1/2 feet in diameter.

 Rocks should not look like jelly beans!

This grade of tumbled stones featured at least some natural coloration mixed with the dyed.

Folks, please don't do this at home!

Of course, not everything or even most things at Quartzsite are faux or kitsch. Here is some Arkansas Quartz.

These are generic but quite natural Moroccan fossil marble sculptures.

Moroccan Selenite light fixtures in an ice tower configuration.

These cutsey Moroccan three-candle holders were knew to me this year or else I had forgotten about them.

I'm not a big fan of the faux/reconstituted Hematite but people seem to gobble this stuff up like candy.

No!

Oh God!

Oh God no!

Why?

Please no!

Somebody please shoot me!

There is such a thing as a kitchen table and then there is such thing as kitsch on a table.

This was new and news to me: intensely dyed Moroccan geodes. They almost look like they are fluorescing.

This piece of Brazilian Amethyst is actually large and nicer than it appears in this image and was wisely being kept out of the direct sunlight.

We did not have to shop for this Congolese boytryoidal Malachite directly from the Africans this year because Village had a bunch at a better price.

The early bird view inside Prospector's Panorama.

"Celestial Garden" consisting of a Quartz and Agate geode with Quartz pseudomorph after Anhydrite crystals and secondary growth of Selenite crystals from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Courtesy of Doug True

Large Shiva lingham of Ruby in Fuchsite from India.

Large, gemmy Barite.

Amethyst stalactites with a bit of Calcite in a vug.

 Agatized Coral with Chalcedony stalactites from Tampa Bay, Florida, region.

Large Agatized Coral with Chalcedony stalactites from Tampa Bay, Florida, region.

Agatized Coral with Chalcedony stalactites from Tampa Bay, Florida, region.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).