Denver Show Report: New Gems, New Cuts, New Prices
While sparsely attended by a semi attentive “just looking” crowd (probably due to a new venue and location), for me, the Denver show was a hit. There was so much time to shop in peace, unlike in Tucson where you need to constantly worry that what you are looking at will be bought by the next buyer five minutes later. I’m not the only person who has a good eye for gems – certainly not in Tucson. And the best stuff might be one out of 500 boxes. It takes time to find and then you don’t want it to go to the next person.
I went to the Denver Gem and Mineral Show only briefly, but I did wander around a bit and collected impressions. I also bought a few more opals from my friend Adam of A&S Opals. This time I went for smaller and more calibrated pieces.
Most of my time was spent in Westminster at the Hard Rock Summit, and only in one quarter of it: the section with gems and jewelry. There were only about 20 booths, and most of the vendors had little business, but the selection was good, particularly Dudley Blauwet’s booth, where I bought probably 80% of my new goodies.
One of the trends I noticed was an increased amount of specialty cuts: hexagons and kites in particular. Since I know how to set these, I always enjoy getting more of these shapes. The Art Deco jewelry I like and that I partially emulate works a lot with these types of shapes, though they are more expressed in the overall layout and design than the gems themselves. The latter are mostly round diamonds actually, with a few French cuts or tapered baguettes mixed in.
There were a lot of unusual cuts at the Denver show, continuing a trend that started about 18 months ago. It takes a minimum of 6 months to cut a production, and then there might be additional sorting and packaging, and repricing of course (also sets, pairs and individual gems cost more than parcels). So when a trend starts, it can be a year before the appearance of these materials peaks. I think that peak is now, and I think in a couple of years the market will be saturated with these shapes.
Luckily there are other shapes to work with that are also cool, just less trendy. I have gotten into designing a lot with marquis, and with fat ovals like 4x3mm, or more long ovals like 3x2mm (which are almost impossible to find). I also brought back more Asscher cuts.
One of my favorites from the show was a set of seven vibrant 2.5mm ruby hexagons from Mozambique, no heat. But because they were unheated, almost neon, and because of the wasteful cut, I would have had to charge $3000/ct for them and that struck me as too steep for just the look. The rubies remained unbought as far as I know, so let me know if you have steep funds and a million-dollar taste. But not every price is justified. If you think about cobalt spinel for a moment, you will realize that sometimes too much is just too much. I saw a little bit of Mahenge cobalt at the show, and again, after the math, it was going to be $6000-$8000 a carat in my shop, and at those prices the sales are very, very slow (as you can tell because most of my cobalt spinel is still listed).
On the bright side, I was able to obtain a larger lot of Benitoite from my vendor, due to the fact that fewer people came to Denver this year than in previous years. The production is always small and it depends on how many people come to buy it, plus the production size varies. I even got a few additional suites with an orange piece, and one single orange piece that I thought would sell in a day but it is still in the shop. You never know with this stuff…
I was also surprised by a few small lots of hauyne, this time from Afghanistan, and not as clean as the material from Germany. I bought a couple of boxes, the material is not expensive, but opaque and possibly more brittle in setting than even the cleaner specimens.
My largest purchases were most likely spinel (I haven’t counted my boxes but in total there are over 80). Dudley continues to process some of his older lots, which means better pricing for me. There was not as much vibrant material, but I scored some smaller Mahenge Spinel, Mozambique opalescent pinks as well as silver and grey, and a few pieces of Vietnamese spinel also.
In addition to hexagons, kites and marquis cuts, I focused on getting rounds in 4mm, 5mm and 6mm so that my clients have more available center stones for my designs. I have sapphires and spinels coming up in rounds. I also have more teal and yellow colors ready to list, to fill out that spectrum of the color wheel, which I tend very much to ignore (because I prefer the turquoise spectrum as you know). And I did my best to obtain at least a few of the vibrant colors the shop is known for (although a couple of them have already sold).
Last but not least, there will be a few surprise gems for you, or rather, gems I am particularly proud of having snatched. The Clinohumite is already listed, there is also some phenakite, and other gems whose names are more familiar. An outstanding sapphire kite, an opalescent cushion, and a couple of softer gems you will see after setting (rhodochrosite, Mexican fire opal), in the hopes that they make it through the process…
I realize that not everything I talked about is presented here in pictures. I don’t want to let all the cats out of the bag. Just a few of them. But you are welcome to inquire.