The sparkle in Cardell Calhoun’s brown eyes almost matches the polished stone he holds out.
“It’s called orbicular jasper,” he says with evident delight, studying what appear to be chocolate, beige and white bubbles and swirls in an elongated slice of stone that he found on an agave farm in Jalisco.
“Nobody knows exactly what material it comes from,” he says, adding an educational tidbit. “Almost all gems are formed in and around volcanoes, from varying gas, mineral, temperature and pressure conditions.”
That makes Mexico, with its abundant volcanic activity, a good place for lapidary artists, which is what Calhoun calls himself.“I’ve been doing this for 30-plus years,” or twelve years longer than he has lived in Guadalajara. Calhoun explains that as a young man in Oakland, California, he was drawn to gems and minerals by learning, through the chance purchase of a ring, about their markup — 500 to 1,000 percent is the norm — and how much he could save by buying stones from wholesalers or even prospecting on his own.
But through the years, the idea of lapidary as a get-rich hobby has lost its luster.
“There’s a lot to it,” he cautions, then launches into stories of danger and deception — the shipments from China that never arrived, the 30-percent tax he paid to Mexico for a shipment from Thailand, the eBay con man, the jewelers who routinely switch your gem for a fake when they reset a stone, the friend of a friend who snatched stones from Calhoun’s home when he looked away, the hours prospecting in the hot sun while carrying heavy loads of gathered stones, the rattlesnakes, and, yes, the narcos with guns guarding remote areas they control. (However, Calhoun says he is not 100 percent certain of the latter and, in any case, is no longer doing many field trips at his age).
But just as the nascent hobbyist is thinking of throwing in the towel, the glow comes back into Calhoun’s face and he says something like, “To see the transformation — the joy of seeing an uncut stone change into a finished product — sometimes you don’t want to sell it. Now I have 1,000 stones. The collecting never stops. I’ve bought collections of uncut stones from widows of people like me.”
Which brings him to his belief that, although he started young, lapidary is a good hobby for retired people.
“I didn’t come to Mexico only because of the minerals. I had visited a lot, and I feel comfortable here. That it enabled me to continue my hobby was a plus.”
Calhoun said he found a paradise for gem lovers near Guadalajara that is almost unknown — the town of Magdalena, 1/2 hour from Tequila. “Within a 30-mile radius, there are a lot of opal mines. Millions of dollars change hands there every year. The best time to go is on Saturday morning. There’s a tianguis just off the plaza, where you can buy opals from dealers or finished jewelry.
“Opals are every color from clear to black. Don’t make the mistake I made, though. Don’t buy them in glass containers filled with water. They all have cracks that you can’t see in the water.”
As for his work schedule, Calhoun explains that, besides teaching English and tending his Web site (www.CLC-Company.net), “I spend 10 or 12 hours a week grading uncut stones and cutting them. Then I pick out some to make jewelry and take them to a silversmith downtown, under the plaza across from the cathedral.”
On Saturdays, he might go to the antiques tianguis along Avenida Mexico near Chapultepec and schmooze with the enthusiasts who meet on the sidewalk along the promenade. “I’ll bring a stone I want to ask about. My Spanish is okay — none of them speak English.”
Calhoun reiterates that lapidary is not for anyone looking for a quick bonanza. “I lost a lot of money in the beginning.”
In fact, his sobering tales lead inexorably to the conclusion that deception is the name of the game in fine jewelry. “The lady who gets a wedding set at the downtown jewelry store — chances are that it’s a zirconia, not a diamond, and it’s made with 10-carat gold, which is mostly copper.”