The Wisdom Pocket Blog Archives

Rob Lavinsky Donates Massive Stibnite

Jan 26, 2024

Dr. Robert Lavinsky, founder and owner of The Arkenstone, iRocks.com, was honored to donate one of the world's largest stibnite crystals to the University of Arizona's Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum.

2024 Tucson Show featuring Schauss and Sanabria Collection Premieres

Dec 7, 2023

The annual Tucson show season is almost here! This year we are very excited to premiere two prestigious collections, Alex Schauss and Raul Sanabria, in addition to all our other new eye candy at our gallery in La Fuente de Piedras starting January 27th!

Artist creates a mural for The Arkenstone

Nov 7, 2023

A new mural from renown artist, Timothy Goodman, makes its way to the northwest patio of La Fuente de Piedras in Tucson, AZ where The Arkenstone sets up for the annual Tucson gem and mineral shows.

Famous mines: The Pala Chief Mine, Pala, San Diego County, California

Nov 6, 2023

Amongst worldwide localities, the Pala Chief mine holds a special spot in the hearts of collectors, a California locality known for old fables and fine tourmalines and kunzites.

What's this Rock?

Oct 30, 2023

Curious about identifying your minerals and crystals? This can be a tricky process, sometimes requiring a good bit of testing and equipment, which is why we don't make guesses off of photos and videos submitted online!

See you in Denver!

Sep 5, 2023

We're excited to be Colorado-bound soon, for the 2023 Hard Rock Summit show in Downtown Denver, opening September 15, and we hope to see you there.

Transcending Barriers

Aug 24, 2023

Rare Earth: The Art and Science of Chinese Stones, recently on view at the Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas, explores the diﬀerent ways that Chinese and Western cultures have celebrated the beauty found in, and created from, natural stones.

Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium Livestream Tickets Now Available

Aug 4, 2023

We hope you'll join our 2023 Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium Livestream on Saturday, August 19, 2023. This is a full day of talks with opening remarks starting at 9:45AM and our first speaker starting at 10 CDT. Talks are scheduled to end around 5PM. Read more about the symposium schedule and benefit auction details.

AGTA Las Vegas Gem Auction is LIVE on MineralAuctions.com!

Jun 2, 2023

MineralAuctions.com (a subsidiary of The Arkenstone, AGTA firm-member) and the American Gem Trade Association are pleased to announce the follow up to the our featured AGTA-member gemstone auctions hosted online for worldwide participation.

Enhancements Coming Soon to MineralAuctions.com!

May 23, 2023

We're rolling out some updates to MineralAuctions.com to better meet the needs of our customers, effective June 15, 2023!

Rock Roundup: April 2023 Edition

May 1, 2023

Welcome to the monthly rock round up where we recap some of our favorite and interesting specimens that we've uploaded this month. In case you missed it, here's a quick rundown on some of what we think you should check out!

Peruvian Treasures

Apr 26, 2023

Between the recent Peruvian finds of saturated chrysocolla, deep green fluorite, and mirror-like pyrites, this region of the world is definitely experiencing a resurgence in interest from mineral collectors. We blended a combination crystals from newer finds and old classics (think old Peruvian rhodochrosites from the Jack Halpern collection, plus new chrysocolla specimens from Tentadora) to showcase a range of beautiful material from an assortment of Peruvian localities.

Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals Benefit Auction #2 Recap

Apr 20, 2023

The Arkenstone and MineralAuctions.com were honored to assist the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals (Portland, Oregon) in a second deaccession benefit auction, following our successful partnership hosting the 2022 Rice Museum Benefit Auction. The online auction concluded on April 8, 2023 and featured sixty lots of mineral specimens, gemstones, rare lapidary material, and objet d'art formerly in the Rice Family Collection.

The Search for the Perfect Stone

Apr 1, 2023

This year at in Tucson, The Arkenstone and Dr. Rob Lavinsky were featured in an interview by Rachel Monroe of The New Yorker titled, "The Search for the Perfect Stone."

The Arkenstone Heads West!

Mar 17, 2023

Our Spring West Coast Road Show is coming up fast, and we've enjoyed our annual San Fran trips over the last decade. This year, we're adding LA to our list, too. We hope to see you for minerals and light bites. Please make sure to let us know if you're looking for anything specific, so we can pack with you in mind! This is also a great opportunity for us to hand-deliver specimens to clients who might be interested in delicate species that might be concerning to ship, as well.

Rare Earth: Crystalline Treasures

Feb 23, 2023

Rare Earth: Crystalline Treasures, ran through September 5th, 2022 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and featured more than 200 spectacular mineral specimens from around the world. Many of these were on loan from the renowned collector and mineral dealer, Dr. Rob Lavinsky. The exhibit was uniquely interwoven with various themes and stories that make inspirational connections between architectural design & earth materials, art+science+culture, carvings and illustrations, striking color, fanciful formations, and a few cases at the end that took a deeper dive into crystal form.

2023 Tucson Show Schedule and Events!

Jan 16, 2023

It's that time again! The annual Tucson show season is upon us.

Collector Profile: Dr. Erika Pohl-Stroher

Jan 12, 2023

Dr. Erika Pohl-Ströher collected the minerals in her collection over a period of more than 60 years. The specimens are arranged according to geographical regions. Considering that Dr. Pohl-Ströher had no intention of exhibiting her mineral collection and therefore did not make a conscious effort to ensure that she obtained specimens from all over the world, she has succeeded remarkably well in setting up an extensive, comprehensive and magnificent collection that includes minerals from every continent.

Collector interview: Alex Schauss

Dec 16, 2022

In this interview by Tomasz Praszkier, Alex Schauss shares some of his family history, and talks about his career researching nutrition and botanical medicine, and how these disciplines relate to his passion for mineralogy.

Competing with Thumbnails: Little Crystals, Big Impact

Sep 27, 2022

What even is a mineral competition? How do you determine a winner? What makes a mineral ‘competition worthy’? David Tibbits shares his perspective on competitive displays, specifically regarding thumbnail specimens.

A New Standard In Thumbnail Storage And Display - Crystal Showcase Boxes

Sep 5, 2022

To further assist our customers in enhancing their collections, we're proud to announce our exclusive partnership with OPENALLDAY as the sole North American distributor of their Crystal Showcase™️ boxes, an upgraded way to show off and store your favorite thumbnail mineral specimens. View these Perky Box alternatives.

Why “Collector Gems” are Enchanting

Aug 4, 2022

Besides their inherent beauty, gem collections are appealing for their scientific information. Collectors can learn much about a mineral’s chemical composition and geological origins from a gem’s size, color and clarity. Each of the stones in the Arkenstone auction is a true mineralogical wonder—not just in the geological sense but also as a representative of the species itself.

The Art of Collecting

Jul 15, 2022

The team at The Arkenstone has been busy with our recent collaboration with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History on our RARE EARTH installation, bringing together specimens from the museum, Dr. Lavinsky's personal collection, UCSB's Woodhouse collection, and private collectors.

Photo Atlas of Mineral Pseudomorphism

Jun 17, 2022

We just received notice that Photo Atlas of Mineral Pseudomorphism will be pulled from the Elsevier publication list due to plagiarism in the main introduction of the text. Intellectual scholarship demands integrity, both of which I hold in the utmost respect.