David's AW News: 30 Years!

Greetings from the 60th Edition of the IHGF Delhi Fair.

Mr Chatterjee, Toni and I are at the huge Indian bi-anual trade show. It's a big deal because this is the 60th edition.. Actually 30 years of trade shows. It's changed a lot over the years, and many familiar faces, old friends, competitors and the odd fraudsters are here. More than a few read this newsletter.

I have been attending more years than I'm happy to admit. It was here that I met Mr Chatterjee, who became a good friend and our agent.. our Man in India. He is a well known figure in the show.. mostly because he is tall, towering above most other Indians and sports that trademark white flash hair style and always wears the brightest of clothes. I feel a bit like AW and this trade show have grown up together.. see below why.

Last week I was telling you about the noisy city of Varanasi and our search for silk, if you missed it you can catch up here.. 

But I also found time to make a YouTube video about it.

Thanks for watching and supporting my YouTubes.. (I'd be very happy if you could like, comment and share).  This is still just a hobby for me, I'm not super slick at it, but I quite enjoy making them. I was quite happy (erm excited even) to see the second video I made in Nepal the other week actually kind of go viral.. 190k views.. It was about our visit to Bhaktapur near Kathmandu. We had heard that the Gen Z were planning more protests there.. which I mentioned in the video.. and then the protests happened.. and the algorithm liked that I guess.

After Varanasi.. we took a train to a small city in the middle of nowhere. Between Varanasi and Kolkata. Where we met up with an actual mine owner. A rather exuberant fellow, with a lively young team all absolutely passionate about gemstones.  We wanted to see an actual gemstone mine.. we arrived in the evening and checked in the only hotel in town, which was cheap, dodgy with a damp and dark nightclub on the roof that pumped ot thumping Punjabi music - our new mining friend and his team insisted on buying us drinks and food there. We kept asking for the music to be turned down (we were the only guests) so we could talk.. but the DJ kept winding it back up to head banging levels after one soft song. 

The next morning after breakfast with the whole team.. we took two cars and drove out of town.. 20 minutes we understood. But an hour and half drive through actually beautiful countryside, lakes, forrests, passing other-wordly rock formations, we began to ask how much further? The road was small but well maintained.. It felt more like central Java in Indonesia than India.

A strange place and finally we arrived, went off road for a while bumping over a dirt track. Then told us we would need to walk a while.. through a narrow ravine a little flooded in parts but we clambered past.

We eventually came out into a fairytale scene.. a landscape, a small open cast mine with a small lake in the bottom and the whole area shmiring in the sunlight. Mica shards used in glitter covered ground. Our mining friend picked some up and showed us how the mica slid between fingers and was actually like ice thin sheets of crystal. The mica is cleansed, crushed and sold to cosmetics companies. But amongst the mica deposits are found actual gemstones..  Here just lying amongst the shining rocks we could pick up chunks of brilliant blue Aquamarine, black Tourmaline and chunks of ruby Garnet. Guys armed with nothing more than a trowel and a bucket were collecting gemstones ready for sorting.

A magical place.. you could feel the gemstone aura.

We were only there a short time.. and the guys chatting on the phone told us we had to leave, the area was being cleared ready for a blasting. Oh I said I want to see.. they said no of course not, they have strict safety procedures. The whole area must be cleared.. so we clambered back out to the cars.  

The mining guy has a government license to mine - he told us he has five such mines. The mica is mined commercially, but the gemstones, almost a by-product, are collected, sorted and taken by truck to Gujeratt on the opposite side of India to the artisan town of Khambhat where his brother (he explained) distributes to artisans and they buy back the finished products.. The other day our man and his team checked into a hotel near the tradeshow.. and set up one room like a private trade stand to show off the raw and finished products.. We were impressed!

We have a deal to exclusively sell their production in Europe.. 

Anyway standby for 30 YEARS..

This tradeshow is celebrating.. but across the world of AW we will be soon celebrating another 30 years celebration. Stand by for something special. 

Halloween is so close! Scary close. 

And we have free or discounted shipping for you along with a 5% discount on your whole order.. See below. 

I have to go now.. We have finished at the trade show and now its time to go to Goa for a few days. 

Take care. 

Namaste from India 

David