the buying action begins - July '09

Workin' day II
We have now recouped from the flights and had a day to walk around Arusha so that we all can get acclimated to the city and the climate.The weather here is not much different that what we were experiencing back home in the US.

Our primary broker has arranged for us to view what is available this week. This is through a handful of local dealers, runners and cutting firms. Sometimes we end up with some nice surprises.... like this fabulous Tanzanite.

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Nice juicy blue/purple Tanzanite trillion - beautiful stone, great look, but badly in need of a recut. We were really trying to focus on acquiring rough, so this was outside our thinking at the time. If I recall it was near 15cts or so. Maybe next trip.

So here's the two guys I'm traveling with. On the left is Peter Torraca of Houghton, New York. And on the right is Gene Flanigan from Millersburg, Pennsylvania. I think they are having some fun, but I should wait until later in the trip to see how they are doing.

Basically, every 5 to 10 minutes a fresh parcel shows up for us to review. And generally, we take turns on who goes first, but sometimes it really does not matter as we all have different interests. I tend to prefer the larger roughs, so many of the parcels were not a good fit for me. Whereas, other cutters have a different view of what they want to work on.

Here is a parcel of light-toned Grossular Garnets from the Lolatema Hills area just south of the Tanzanite One location near Mererani. The largest piece is about 2 grams, with many smaller goods that would not normally be suitable for me. I ended up with a small batch, and Peter cherry-picked some pieces as well. It finishes out ever so slightly richer in color than what you see here.

And now, the find of the day....

This, is a really premium parcel of pink to red Mahenge Spinels. They were not large crystals, but what color! Both Peter and Gene worked through this and made a nice score. Did I mention they were very pricey??


More to follow as we work through day III.

Summer 2009 - back in Tanzania

With some planning, I was able to get myself back into Tanzania for another buying trip. As it has been my preference over the years, I really like to tackle the more difficult travel situations with other like-minded 'gem people'. And so this summer I invited two of my friends to travel with me. They are both gem cutters and excellent at their craft, but this is their first time working in Africa.

On our first day, since we have a short wait to meet with our brokers, we take a tour of the city centre of Arusha. This allows us to 'get our legs', and shake off some of the jet lag.

As we move through the day, we come across an 'infamous' piece of signage that we laugh about as we walk the town.

Then, as head back to our hotel before lunch, one of the guys takes a photo of a street vendor directly across from our hotel.

As we work our way through town, we walk past buildings that were constructed in the 1950's and 60's when the British were still investing in the country. Independence came to Tanzania in the mid-60's, and there has been little re-investment into infrastructure since then.

Being in a tropical location, we find fruit is abundant - and it is everywhere.

We're still in our first day, and our brokers are near ready for us. So we are heading off to the building where most of the gem and rough trade are located. Along the way we are accosted by a multitude of street vendors who are hawking their wares - this one happens to be primarily maps. Of course.... I am sharing with him that I don't need a map that I already know my way around town. He chuckles to himself...... and I hear him say as I'm walking away "stupid muzungu".

Here you can see this really is an industrious area. This is early afternoon, and it appears everyone has something to do, or someplace to go.














As we get close to the broker's building, we can see some interesting additions to the architecture nearby.

We've now entered the building and have worked our way up to the second floor. As we wait for everyone to show up, we have a look around. Lots of activity on the street below, and it is either food related, or gem related.

And then we watch as some kind of deal is 'going down'. If this was in a city in north america, we may be thinking some other kind of 'deal'.

As I move into the next post, we will begin to see some more action with regards to actual rough buying.

Preparing for next African trip - completing final projects

4.75ct Zircon custom designed pear shape

3.75ct Chrome Green Tourmaline triangle outline

8.72ct Golden Scapolite emerald cut with a barion-style pavilion

1.36ct Tsavorite Garnet in an asymmetrical trillion

Some recent faceting work post January 2009 Tanzanian trip

Some recent work performed during spring 2009. Most all of these were from the Arusha and Umba Valley trip in January.

3.49ct Tanzanian Malaya Garnet in an emerald cut with 'scissors' style facet arrangement.

6.62ct Tanzanian Chrome Tourmaline square antique

3.19ct Tanzanian Umbalite Garnet

12.14ct Tanzanite Oval

5.89ct Tanzanite trillion - my personal favorite of this batch of work.

12.21ct Tanzanian reddish-orange Zircon oval

......next up, the June/July 2009 trip to east Africa!