Showcase at the Munich Show 2015

The Munich Show is over, it was a lot of work, hard work to make everything working well. Me and some friends had two showcases with hundreds of exhibits. In one we showed all the members of the Garnet family with rough specimen as well as faceted gems from all over the world.  Many of the roughs were found by ourselves at european localities, small alpine Almandites, austrian Tapozolites, Hornblends with red Garnet crystals, Eklogite and single crystals bigger than golf balls from tyrols Stillup Valley. My focus was (what a wonder!) on faceting gems and I displayed one of my smaller faceting machines with some tools and lots of Alpine Gems like the Moonstones (scroll down for lots of pics & descriptions from finding a big rough and the faceting of this "Zillertaler Mondstein"). The big Smoky Quartzes from Val Val in Switzerland and the Clear Quartzes from Habachtal, Salzburg also were shown in my showcase. Also some different coloured Beryls from all over the world. And not to forget the Idaho Garnets from my friend John E. who works nearly the whole year out in the fields for hunting gems and meteorites.
Beside many interesting contacts the total of 4 days seems to be to short to see all fine exhibitions from international collectors & museums. Many impressions, conversations, many walked miles and only some short hours of sleep. I was exhausted but still found time and leisure to do some gems for this newsletter. Here they are.


Something rare and really hard to find: Alpine Moonstones

		Alpine Moonstone   7 rough Moonstones and a very big faceted one with 15.65 cts. in best eyeclean clarity, Siebenstern design. My friend Fabi found it in summer 2013, 15.65 cts. sorry, not for sale!

Some pics from the gem as rough and the locality (2800 m above sea level) in the Zemmgrund in Tyrols Zillertal:


The beautiful landscape at the locality around the Moerchner mountain:











The rough Moonstone directly after Fabi found it:




Here are some pics from the faceting and the rough cleaned stone ( a little over 70 cts.) with its silvery-blue shimmer.





The pavilion showed some cracks and it was tricky to get the best  possible result between some cracks and the difficult 2 cleaveage planes:


The pavilion after polishing:


Some words from Fabi about his carreer of being a rockhounder and finding this Moonstone:

"In the year 2002 I got a quartz-crystal for my first big step in life – school. From this point I was very interested in everything which had to do with minerals and crystals. Only with a small amount of money I bought my first small pieces. Every times I was in the mountains I just had eyes for the ground. But only hiking around it was only luck to find some crystals. Some years later in the age of eleven I visited the “Berliner Hütte” the first time because my dad heard about the discovery of some quartz crystals. But we had no idea where to seek. My next trip there was more successful because I was there with a strahler who knows the region and the find spots. He told me where I should search and for what. I tried but it was hard for me not just digging in the sand and mud. He said “have an eye for the signs of alpine clefts” but I continued digging behind him in the mud – maybe that is a general “young-boy-problem”. Surprisingly I found some really good pieces. That was in the year 2010. Three years later, I was 17 by now, I found my first alpine cleft around the Saurüssel. But still I had an eye for the small pieces around old clefts. I found some clear and shiny apatites up to two maybe three centimeters in diameter – in the earth of an old cleft. That was my best trip for that moment. And it wasn’t over. The last day my friend and I were hiking up to the Mörchnerkar again. We enjoyed the last day. Found some beautiful hematite pieces and quartz crystals. After we decided to walk down he just wanted to visit one of his old clefts. While he was digging in it I decided to check the earth below him. I found a clear piece of adularia. I put it in my trouser pocket and took some photos of its clarity. But then I didn’t consider it anymore. In autumn I showed it to Uli. He told me that it is a rarely piece because of its clarity. The rest you can see in the Pictures."



My Showcase at the Munich Show:

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