Nearby caves, 1 dry, 1 wet, beckon curious   

        Gem show briefs   

Top this, Easter Bunny

Chris Richards / Staff Anthony Williams, left, and Carl Patterson-Markowitz, both 6, of Burton Elementary School, hunt for the choicest pieces of malachite. Students visited the Tucson Convention Center show for free yesterday. They came from Apache Junction, Rio Rico, Nogales and Globe, as well as Tucson. Chris Richards / Staff Luke Byrd, 4, of Winkelman Elementary School marvels at an assortment of shiny, sparkly minerals.

Famed and fabulous Fabergé eggs draw exclamations of wonder from schoolkids as nearly 5,000 descend on Gem & Mineral Show

In 1894, Peter Carl Fabergé crafted the Renaissance Egg to impress the court of the Russian czar.

The egg, constructed of white agate, enamel, diamonds and rubies, did the same yesterday for some Tucson second-graders from First Southern Christian School.

"That's really cool!" said Nolan Reynolds, 8, one of nearly 5,000 kids to visit the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show on field trips yesterday.

"Mommy doesn't make Easter eggs quite that fancy," said Nolan's mom, Lynn Marry Reynolds, who chaperoned the trip. "It must come from a different Easter Bunny than the one we have."

"A richer one," chimed in Samuel Rutherford, another child from the class.

A few feet away, Corbett Elementary School 10-year-olds Eric Lehnhardt and Joshua Schulter, were taken aback by the Forbes Magazine Fabergé display, which included the Hoof Egg.

After analyzing the display for a few minutes, Eric offered his perspective.

"This is a unique display," he said.

Such scenes could be seen and heard all around the Tucson Convention Center yesterday, when the show opened its doors free of charge to teachers, students and chaperones from around the state.

The four-day show, which normally charges $5.50 admission, features 60 Fabergé objets d'art from several collectors and dealers. The show is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. today and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. tomorrow.

Students came to yesterday's show from schools throughout Tucson, as well as Apache Junction, Rio Rico, Nogales and Globe, said Bear Pitts, coordinator of the show's annual school visit program.

Teachers are using the show as an opportunity to teach their pupils about science. Sally Schroer, a third-grade teacher at White Elementary School in the Tucson Unified School District, had her pupils write about their favorite gems in their journals yesterday.

Schroer's class has been researching gems and minerals in recent weeks.

Schroer, who has attended the show each of the 20 years she's lived in Tucson, brought a group of 30 pupils to the TCC for two hours yesterday, then stopped for lunch at Kennedy Park.

Schroer said she was happy with yesterday's trip because it gave her pupils the opportunity to learn about gems and minerals while also giving her a chance to browse the jewelry selection.

Alex Molina, 8, one of Schroer's pupils, had plenty of fun at the show yesterday. He laughed when he saw a Vasily Konovalenko stone carving, and later admired some Fabergé work while his father, Gene, held his hand.

"Wow! It looks like a merry-go-round," Alex said when he saw a replica of the Fabergé Carousel Egg. Alex said he liked the egg so much because it had more design than the others.

Gem shows can be somewhat stuffy endeavors, but yesterday's event was anything but.

Some of the show's dealers had just as much fun as the kids. They tweaked their displays to gear them toward children. Thousands of items were available for less than $5.

"We're specifically set up for the kids," said the aptly named Roger Gemme (pronounced "Gem," of course) who, along with his wife, Elaine, runs a gem and jewelry business based in Ojai, Calif.

They have been coming to the show for about 13 years. Their booth was one of the more popular, with several kids swarming around at any given time.

"I love to see the kids' eyes light up," he said.

* Contact Phil Villarreal at 573-4130 or prv@azstarnet.com.

Gem show profile

Call the guy who knows every facet

Doctoral student at UA is expert mineral identifier

His University of Arizona geosciences professors consider him a whiz kid.

An international mineral collector's journal referred to his acumen as "encyclopedic."

Many, including those at the Tucson gem show, call on his expertise to identify specimens.

But mineral aficionado Marcus Origlieri, 24, considers his mineral "recognition" skills as only an offshoot of his hobby.

Nonetheless, mineral enthusiasts at the top of the "hobby" have taken note of his ability to identify, not only the specimen, but the country, state, county and mine where the mineral was extracted.

That hobby has fetched him nearly $100,000 in the last 10 years that he's been identifying minerals for private collectors.

The blue cubes of fluorite, for example, are from Rosiclare, Ill., he says. The orange-red wulfenite, of course, is from the Red Cloud Mine in Arizona's La Paz County. But the yellow wulfenite that looks like sulfur is from the Hilltop Mine, south of Tucson.

Origlieri attended his first Tucson gem and mineral show at age 7. And within a few years, collectors noted his mineral identification abilities and took him on continent-hopping acquisition trips and on tours of the world's great mineral museums.

The bimonthly collectors' journal, The Mineralogical Record, stated that Origlieri identified a giant chloritoid when several dealers were stumped at a Denver mineral and fossil show.

Tucson mineral collector Jim Bleess watched Origlieri sitting immersed in front of a drawer of specimens at a viewing last year of a local private collection. "You had to walk around him. He wasn't budging," recalls Bleess, who himself has forgotten to eat when he's looking at minerals.

Origlieri says his methodology for learning mineral species is simple: He studies their characteristics intently, checking the luster, color, cleavage and shapes.

And his doctoral studies in mineralogy? "I just wanted to learn the stuff since I was a kid," he says. "That's why I'm getting this Ph.D."

But Origlieri modestly insists that his skills for recollection don't cross over into other disciplines.

"It's just the minerals," he says. "I don't know anything else."

Looking to save serious bucks? You might want to go faux

Eric Hedricks' tiny swirls of tanzanite are clear and blue and sparkly. But their greatest selling point is they really aren't tanzanite at all.

Simulated tanzanite is the latest addition to the growing roster of stones that merely mimic the real thing. Synthetic, pseudo-synthetic, simulated and imitation stones are flooding the market as modern-day alchemists test the limits of their skills.

"It's an inexpensive alternative," said Hedricks, a dealer for T.G.I. Wholesale at the Four Points Sheraton, 350 S. Freeway. Synthetic versions of stones that would bring upward of $20,000 if they were mined are strewn carelessly across dealers' tables, selling for no more than $20 apiece.

Hedricks admitted sales of the lab-grown stones have been slow. For buyers in search of tanzanite's deep, rich hue, the simulated thing fails to satisfy. "It will never replace the real thing," he said.

But synthetic-opal producers, who've been faking stones for nearly 30 years, say they've actually improved upon what nature has to offer. Robert Addington, director of I.C.E. Industries, says he's discovered a process that results in opals that are as beautiful as their pure forebears and far more durable. The stability and strength of these pseudo-synthetics, made from crystalline and colored resins, allows jewelers to shape them in entirely new ways, he said.

Addington's cakes of opal substance - shimmery stuff that weighs no more than plastic foam - are being cut into gemstones, inlaid in silver and carved into cameos.

"If they had the mined opal supply to fulfill the demand, that would be wonderful," Addington said. "But until then, we're selling thousands every month."

Bob and Susan Thompson, who also have a booth at the Four Points, say they'll stick with selling the opals pulled from their mine in Eastern Idaho.

"I've seen it," Susan Thompson said of the suddenly ubiquitous synthetic. "It's beautiful, but it's not opal at all."

Thompson said women sometimes come into their shop wearing cheap, imitation opals that are no more than tinsel embedded in glass. Those fakes have been fixtures of the Old West tourist circuit for years, she said. "One woman came in with 15 stones, all exactly the same," Thompson said. "I knew immediately it wasn't opal, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I said 'Well, you got a good deal.'"

Higher quality artificial stones were first manufactured in the 1970s, when a Swiss lab that was already churning out hydrothermal emeralds and laser rubies asked Dr. Pierre Gilson to tackle the stone. Gilson's method was later sold to a Japanese company, which Addington said has been unable to replicate Gilson's results.

Unable to produce its own synthetic opals, Earth Chemicals of Japan has been busily suing small-time dealers that call their wares "synthetic," saying only opals made the Gilson way deserve the designation.

But the flap hasn't deterred dealers from selling the fake stones, nor has it slowed science's search for more.

"The color isn't as deep," Hedricks said, "but simulated tanzanite is pretty cheap."

* Contact reporter Hanna Miller at 434-4078 or hmiller@azstarnet.com.

For visitors

Nearby caves, 1 dry, 1 wet, beckon curious

Kartchner Caverns State Park

Arizona 90 between Benson and Sierra Vista

Mineral lovers: There's a wet cave in Southern Arizona. But if you want to get a look inside, and you haven't booked a tour, you'll have to head southeast for an hour and then wait in line at sunrise for one of the 100 tickets sold daily.

There are cave rooms with 100-foot-high ceilings and dazzling crystalline columns of calcium carbonate formations. The guided cave tour will last about 60 minutes.

To reach Kartchner Caverns from Tucson, take I-10 east to Exit 302. The park is nine miles south of the Interstate on Arizona 90.

Hours: The park is open daily from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. The cave is booked for tours through April, but the park sells 100 tickets each day, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Fees: The park charges a $10 fee for cars with up to four people, with $1 for each additional person. Cave entry and a guided tour are free for children through age 6, $6 for those 7 to 13 years old and $14 for those 14 and older.

Telephone: 520-586-2283

Colossal Cave Mountain Park

16711 E. Colossal Cave Road in Vail

About 35 minutes from downtown, there's a dormant limestone cave on the site of a former ranch. The cave's history dates to A.D. 900.

Hours: Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Fees: The $3 entrance fee will gain you access to the old ranch, the nature trails, a museum and the research center. Horseback rides start at $20 per person for an hour.

The 45-minute guided cave tour costs $7.50 for adults, $4 for those 6 to 12 and is free for those 5 or younger. Telephone: 647-7275

Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse

6541 E. Tanque Verde Road

If you're looking for a faux Wild West experience, this is the place for dinner. The specialty: cowboy steaks that include T-bones up to 2 pounds. The menu includes leaner meats from filet mignon to grilled chicken breast.

Directions to Trail Dust Town: Take Speedway east to North Wilmot Road and turn left. Follow Wilmot Road to find the restaurant, just past East Pima Street on the left.

Attire: Casual. Anyone caught wearing a tie will be subject to clanging cowbells and having the unfashionable thing snipped off.

Hours: Daily from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are advised for weekends and daily for parties of 20 people or more.

* Contact reporter Jeannine Relly at 573-4213 or by e-mail at jrelly@azstarnet.com.

Gem show briefs

Gem-studded pieces

of sculpture stolen

Several pieces from a 27-inch-high gemstone sculpture valued at $200,000 were reported stolen Wednesday from a dealer at the Gem & Jewelry Exchange show, 411 W. Congress St.

According to a report filed with the Tucson Police Department, gem artist Arthur Lee Anderson said he left the gem sculpture disassembled in several boxes in a display case at his booth Tuesday, the last day of the show. When he returned Wednesday morning the boxes had been rifled and the legs, skirt, arm and base of the sculpture had been stolen, he told police.

The Fredericksburg, Va.-based artist identified the statute as a barebreasted woman holding two snakes. He said it took him two years to complete the sculpture, which had a skirt with 800 gem pieces. The gemstones in the sculpture included amber, black jade, obsidian, garnet and quartz, he said.

Police have some leads in the case but no suspects, Sgt. Marco Borboa, a TPD spokesman said yesterday.

- Jeannine Relly