WEST SPRINGFIELD — Collectors, sellers, and buyers alike will travel from all over the country to attend this weekend’s East Coast Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show, while for some who live in the region it is only a “stone’s throw away” at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.
The annual event opens its doors on Friday at 10 a.m.
Some 180 dealers, miners, artisans and crafters from all over the county — and from as far away as Canada, Africa, South America, Asia and Australia — will be selling a variety of “rocks” ranging from 50-cent tumbled stones to $50,000 mineral specimens, from shark’s teeth to fossil skeletons, and lapidary supplies and equipment.
“I run a pure mineral show. That means only dealers who carry minerals, meteorites and other gems and related products can set up a booth in our show. You won’t find sage, candles or other items not related to the hobby,” said Laura Delano of LLD Productions, who produces the show.
But what you will find at the show are products such as beads and jewelry, lamps and other items made using all kinds of gems and stones, including one vendor who sells leather-bound journals with a polished stone attached to the front.
“We try to always have different dealers to keep peoples’ interest and this year we have about 25 new vendors alongside others who have been coming for years,” Delano said.
One of those “different dealers” is Darryl Powell, a seasoned mineral collector, artist and author, who founded Diamond Dan Publications in 1991 with the mission “to produce high-quality, fairly priced educational materials that will help mineral collectors, particularly young ones, to be successful mineral collectors.”
Powell’s interest in collecting began at the age of 10 — he is now 63.
“I was in the fifth grade when my teacher asked us to write a paper on anything. I picked rocks and minerals, then a teacher who lived in the neighborhood noticed my interest in them and went to the store to buy me a tiny paperback on the subject. I got hooked and haven’t stopped collecting since then,” he said.
The idea to create a coloring book was born out of the fact that Powell’s home was strewn with Barney the Purple Dinosaur coloring books that his son, Aaron, loved.
“I thought to myself that what the world really needed is a mineral coloring book. So, I quickly slapped one together with simple black and white drawings that were barely two-dimensional doodles with my text and pictures literally cut and pasted onto pages that I took to the printer for printing,” Powell said.
“We printed 500 copies and, son of a gun, they sold. A friend, who is a salesman, told me if I put more work into them and cleaned them up then they may be profitable. My mom was artistic and a very creative person, and I picked up her ability to sketch and doodle and with practice and a few thousand drawings later, adding shading and other different tools, I improved on my drawings. And from there it morphed into a near fulltime business,” he added, noting all books are created today using sophisticated software which produce high-quality colorful PDFs (portable document format).
That first coloring book was called “Diamond Dan the Mineral Digging Man presents Minerals to Color A to Z.”
“It remains our most popular today and is our mainstay which sells to families, teachers, mineral clubs on others. We now call it ‘The World of Minerals and Crystals’ and every time we reprint it we improve upon the book,” Powell said.
One of the more fun titles in his collection of works is called “The Best Bathroom Book for Mineral Collectors Ever Written, Vol. 1.” There is also a second volume now to purchase.
“I publish a Mini Miners Monthly eBook for young mineral collectors. What I did was to gather a bunch of material from them and place them into a 100-page published paperback filled with word searches, pictures to color, biographies, interesting articles on minerals and other fun things,” Powell said.
Other coloring and activity books produced by Darryl “Diamond Dan” Powell include “Fossils: Traces of Ancient Life from the Sea & Land,” “Minerals of the Bible,” “World Class Minerals,” “Minerals of Arizona” and more. Some of his more educational titles include “Crystals & Crystal Forms: An Introduction to Crystallography for Mineral Collectors,” “Diamond Dan’s Mineralogical Dictionary,” and “Fluorescent Minerals of Connecticut” by John A. Pawloski, Sr. as well as “Herkulees, Medusa & The Baby: The Story of an Historic Discovery in Sprakers, New York” by Bill Stephens.
He also sells mineral note cards, tattoos and buttons, and a notebook.
Each year the show brings in a different special exhibition for visitors to marvel at, and this year’s magnificent display is a gem among gems — some of the world’s most rare examples of beautifully crystallized mineral specimens will be on display from the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas.
For the kids, special booths at the show will offer free mineral specimens. There also will be geodes to purchase that they can have fun cracking open to reveal never-before-seen crystals.
Delano said she was pleased to learn that one of the top show guides for dealers and buyers, Xpo Press out of Colorado, recognized their show in a recent ranking of mineral events.
“They listed us as one of the top 12 mineral shows in the world, and there are some really big ones in Europe,” she said.
In addition to the public show, this weekend will also feature a special show in the Young Building with wholesale vendors. Those attending the wholesale show must be qualified buyers with resale credentials.
Hours are Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is $10 for adults; children under 13 are free with a paid adult. The Eastern States Exposition charges $5 for parking.
For more information, visit mineralshowslld.com.
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