1st Annual
Faceters' High-Grade Show
in Portland

This is our brief review of PORTLAND 2008 - the First Annual Faceters' High-Grade Show and Gathering. This eye-clean 55-carat Emerald crystal was featured. Despite one of the worst winter storms in 30 years, and the fledgling nature of the event, the First Annual Portland Show went very well, with faceters coming from as far as Washington, Idaho, and Southern Oregon. Those who didn’t make it really missed-out on some great material at good prices – as well as some fun connecting with other faceters from the region. Here are a few photos of some who made it – and of the left-overs. Saturday stayed so busy that I didn’t get to shoot these photos until Sunday – AFTER attendees had taken their selections! Terry selecting Tourmaline. Expert cutter Mike Funk appears happy with the Green Beryl. Ade shows-off his nice selection of Aqua. Here's a closer look. One parcel of "electric" Green Beryl. Nice Red Tourmaline on offer. More Red Tourmaline. The cleanest bicolor I've seen recently. Huge, chunky, clean Aqua. Monster Aqua!!. Bags of clean material! Following are some of my selections, including some really large pieces of Aqua and Tourmaline. (The emerald got away…) Nice piece of Sunset Tourmaline. Bicolor One. Bicolor Two. Bicolor Three. A pretty green that should finish two carats. 9+ gram Red Tourmaline. The marks are superficial This will be eye-clean! 10+ gram Red Tourmaline. Again, eye-clean stone! Eye-clean Emerald will finish 1+ carat. 11+ gram "KILLER blue" Aquamarine! Another 11+ gram "electric" Beryl. The Second-Annual Pre-Tucson Faceters’ High-Grade Show and Gathering in Portland will be held approximately on the weekend prior to the Tucson shows kicking into high-gear. The exact date will be announced sometime in December or thereabouts. We’re expecting to invite some additional dealers, and I’ll be taking applications from dealers who wish to represent high-grade faceting materials from different parts of the planet. I will insure that dealers have very minimum overlap in materials to insure they remain motivated to attend year after year. If you have a favorite dealer or two, feel free to have them contact me about applying for invitation. I am presently considering dealers to represent Afghanistan / Pakistan region materials, South-American region materials, China & South Asian materials, and some additional African-region materials (Madagascar, Namibia, etc). We’ll also entertain American rough dealers with Sapphire, Sunstone, Opal, etc. And, I may take-on the responsibility of managing small parcels for dealers who can offer materials not otherwise represented and who cannot personally attend. If you are a faceter or equipment dealer or rough dealer and have an idea for a 5 to 20 minute presentation that you’d like to give regarding any of these things, drop a line and we’ll begin planning you into the event. The second Annual will include a social mixer and show-and-tell session; rough purchase time; and presentations. We intend to keep attendance FREE or as nearly free as possible… That’s all for this year – Feel free to write with any questions or suggestions that you may have. Maybe we’ll see you there next year... END OF TRIP REPORT 2008