The last two shows in my calendar each year are held in November in the UK and are the SUSSEX SHOW ( at Haywards Heath) followed the next weekend by the OXFORD SHOW ( at Kidlington, Oxford).
View of main sports hall of show exhibitors at Haywards Heath College pic by Colleen Thomson
The Sussex show is organised by the SMLS (Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Society) and is renowned for its excellent and well run show and hospitality shown to visitors and guests. The show caters for everyone including activities for the youngsters (gold panning and lucky dips ) and has exhibits and themed display cases in the entrance foyer / atrium of the College, which has been hosting the show for the last 3 years.
For the fluorescent enthusiasts, this show boasts an impressive and quite wonderful display of several cabinets positively glowing with vibrant pink, violet , blues and yellow rareties under the long, medium and shortwave fluorescent lights in a specially modified and darkened room for visitors to enjoy.
As the show progressed into the afternoon, it was wonderful to see so many friends and I was delighted to see that Trevor Devon ( SMLS) who had been released from hospital days earlier and celebrated his 80th birthday with us, was determined to come to the show.
There were several talks throughout the show for interested parties to attend. One such talk was on the mining and exploration project in Weardale at the historic Greenlaws Mine, given by the project leader Pete Ward. This is the presentation that Ive done many times for clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.
In case you missed my blog on Greenlaws that I did a few years back: https://www.thomsonminerals.com/post/2019/11/03/historic-greenlaws-mine-weardale-project-update
After the Greenlaws Mine presentation and before the next speaker, there was an opportunity for another type of presentation. This was a delayed event due to ill health, that should have occured some weeks previously as part of the Desaultes symposium where Martin Stolworthy ( on right in photo below ) was inducted into the Micromounters Hall of Fame by another recipient of this honour, in this case, Roy Starkey BEM.
Martin has been the Chairman of the British Micromount Society for many years and the Chair of the Norfolk Mineral & lapidary club. He is a great proponent of macro photography using stacking software, and regularly gives talks to various clubs on micromounting and collecting minerals in Britain and abroad.
The show was a busy one and I didnt get a chance to look around the show (other than to watch the Greenlaws presentation and Martins award presentation and pick up a few classic pieces from nearby dealer friends). However, it was a fab weekend spent with a group of wonderful mineral friends once again and I'm looking forward to November 2024 and doing it all over again!
The next show was the following Sunday in the lovely county of Oxfordshire and the
Oxford Mineral & Fossil Show in Kidlington, approximately 60 miles North West of London.
I'm one of the organisers for the Oxford Show which runs four times a year at Exeter Hall, and we have seen many changes over the years. We always cater for the collector market and as such our exhibitors tailor their stock to suit, not having much in the way of metaphysical; beads or similar. The average price for specimens is also pitched at REALISTIC and affordable amounts for the majority of collectors.
The show starts with packing the car with boxes of rocks and display stands, invariably in the dark ( at BOTH ends of the day!) and often in the rain too ;-)
Its always a bit of a rush to make sure the road signs are all up on the route to the show and be at the hall to ensure the tables and layout are as they should be (often it needs tweaking or sometimes a complete redo!!) and the other exhibitors know where they are in the hall, BEFORE I can even think about unloading my stuff.
Thank goodness for extra pairs of willing hands (thanks Sara) helping to unload the car and help setup (and do it all in reverse at the end of the show too).
If you see me flailing about at the start of any show, knee deep in half empty boxes, its because my poor ADHD brain is about to explode because I cant decide what to do next, so I try to do all of it ALL AT ONCE. :-/ A cup of tea is ALWAYS welcome! (Builders, no sugar thanks) ;-)
Lots of interesting stuff about on the tables around the hall - and again wonderful to see many friends who stopped by to say hi.
These included Sally and Neville Hollingworth who some people may know as the couple who found the well preserved and extensive remains of at least one juvenile, two young adult and six fully grown adult mammoths that roamed 200,000 years ago and were unearthed at Cerney Wick, near Swindon, along with tools used by Neanderthals, who probably hunted these enormous beasts.
This find was well documented on the BBC TV programme hosted by world renowned naturalist David Attenborough
Sally and Nev are already working on other exciting projects
Other lovely folks about on the tables:
Jonny always has interesting new bits from Indonesia and other far flung places brought back from his travels and also a wide range of polished cabs.
Alex was sorting out some fabulous pretties from Mt. Malosa, that came home with me. (I will be releasing some real beauties from here shortly including smoky quartz, Aegerine, butterscotch coloured Zircons etc)
Davina is a gemmologist and has some fabulous gems and decorator pieces aswell as collector grade specimens.
Martin and Sue (The fossil Dude) have a diverse range of fossils and some minerals available. They also run their own small show in Gloucester at the Abbeydale Community Centre at the beginning of December.
The most interesting (to me at least!) and arguably the rarest item at the show, was a single specimen of something I had never seen before and had never heard of.
The dealer who had this item had personally sourced it direct from the miners who had found it and thankfully brought it to his attention.
The dealer is Otto Barron and he specialises in Ethiopian Opals.
Otto spends much of his time in Ethiopia and works with geologists and local people. All of the opals are ethically sourced, and he had a large variety of different types and colours that were new to me, both rough and polished cabochons.
It was interesting to note that many came from salt flats.
He then began to tell me of one specimen he had that was unique and as far as he (and other experts) were aware, had never before been found.
When he first saw it, out in the salt flats, he couldn't believe his eyes.
He has since shown it to many people (NHM and other museums, gemmologists etc) and they all agree that his eyes were correct - the large opal, about the size of a walnut, had very clear and distinctive bright yellow flakes of GOLD included within the gemstone.
This exciting and apparently unique find has got the experts in a spin - nobody has heard of this before, let alone SEEN it. It has occurred naturally, and yet the two minerals do NOT form together in the same environments. Weird. WONDERFUL!
...and no - it's NOT for sale. ;-)
looking forward to other interesting finds at the next Oxford Show in March 2024 (Sunday 3rd). Hopefully see you there?
Colleen