The classic Ultra Tec V2 as well as the Fantasy and Concave machines will be at several locations in Tucson in 2011. The Tucson "Show" is really many shows - most of them starting out on January 29 and running to February 13.  (the TGMS "main show" runs on the last 4 days, February 10 through Feb 13th Thursday through Sunday).   You can find a lot of worse things to do than spend some mid-winter time in Tucson.

Besides the Ultra Tec Booth at the Convention Center, in particular, you can see Ultra Tec equipment at Elayne Luer's 'About Lapidary' tent at the Electric Park show - demonstration of the Fantasy machine is planned,  

As usual, Elayne will have a broad supply of Laps, including Zinc polishing Laps which have resurfaced (no pun intended) after a long absence.

Elayne Luer

Some other "don't-miss booths" in Tucson include award winners John Dyer and Andy Gulij.  And...the United States Faceters Guild (USFG ) Seminar 2011 will present a series of lectures, also at:

 

Elayne Luer's 'About Lapidary' location in Electric Park 

-- the presenters are:

Monday, 31 January:

John Bailey: buying rough at shows: tools & techniques

Tuesday, 01 February:

L. Bruce Jones: discussion of gemology for faceters

Wednesday, 02 Feb:

Wayne Emery: professional dopping techniques

Thursday, 03 Feb:

Dalan Hargrave: concave faceting and other innovated techniques

Friday, 04 Feb:

Stephen Kotlowski: performing faceting work for the trade; making the transition from hobby to income producing

Seminars begin promptly at 9:00am.  Each seminar should last one hour, and there will be ample time to answer your individual questions.

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER !!!   2011 Award winners John Dyer and Clay Zava.

 John Dyer, a familiar name to readers of the SomeTimes, has "done it again". 

In the Gemmys Award Competition, this stunning  93.5 ct. Blue Topaz placed first in the Specially Cut Gems Division and Tied forBest in Show.  John has appropriately named it "Blue Extravagance".

John Dyer

And...John figured prominently in other awards.  In the AGTA Cutting Edge Awards, John won faceting awards on these stones...

John Dyer's AGTA Prize Winning Stones

Clay Zava, an AGTA faceting award winner with individual faceted stones in earlier years, in 2011 has scored a first place in the category of Pairs and Suites with a Suite of pastel Cuprian tourmalines, 127.40 carats total weight.
 

Clay Zava

Clay was a sometimes visitor to the Ultra Tec factory before he left California some years ago, to live in North Carolina - to continue his career in faceting.  He brings a special sort of sensitivity to his gem cutting, nicely expressed in his words on his website, and of course, beautifully illustrated with his work (one of them, an earlier award winning green tourmaline, shown here). Clay's website is  www.zavagems.com. You'd enjoy the visit.

The first place suite of tourmalines is shown below...

Now, it's hard to show a very impressive picture of an entire suite of 14 stones - but there they are - 14!  A tour de force - a display of consistent quality in gem cutting.

 

An article in the current Jewelry Artist - Lapidary Journal, "Easier Fantasy Cutting´, a review of the Ultra Tec Fantasy machine byDalan Hargrave.  

Click on the Magazine Cover to be forwarded to their Homepage. 

currently, Lapidary Journal/Jewelry Artist also offer an instruction by Dalan, on line, for a simple Fantasy cut, "Concave Rectangle" - a "beginners" fantasy cut, but impressive on its own.

The Design Can be downloaded here.

 Currently running on National Geographic  Television  is an hour-long the show  called 'Secrets of the Hope Diamond'.  

  It's both an adventure and A mystery story,  in the course of which our representative,  Scott Sucher recreates the famous French  Blue diamond, a 67 carat blue beauty that  was part of the French Court's Crown Jewels  - and was stolen and disappeared forever in  1792.  

There's an interesting contrast between faceting machines of those times and Scott Sucher's Ultra Tec. Please visit the National Geographic TV Website for more details on when the Show is next, as well as seeing some images and video clips.