Fred Thiele says the difference between a museum and his Gilbert-based shop, Natural Expressions, is that it doesn’t cost to get in and everything is for sale.
Indeed, his shop could be a rock hound’s delight to explore.
Inside the shop, which really is just a converted house on Williams Field Road east of Gilbert Road, there are wall-to-wall displays in shelves and cabinets of the rocks, minerals and crystals he has, some of them set as jewelry or lamps or even paired with pewter dinosaur figurines. An old bedroom has been converted into a high-dollar display room.
While there is no room to put anything more inside, it’s not the end by any means. Out back there is an acre of land with crates filled with all kinds of offerings from geodes to petrified wood to dinosaur dung.
On the back of the lot is some saws, tumblers and other equipment for small local jobs, though most of the company’s production work is done in Mexico.
Despite its humble appearance, it really is an international business.
The collection comes from all over the world. There are some things from Arizona, but it’s less prominent than items that have been mined in, for example, Morocco, Brazil or Russia, though world events have stopped recent imports from the latter.
“I’ve always said I’d love to go over there and go exploring,” he said. “There’s got to be so much everywhere there.”
His customers are mostly jewelry makers, either large companies or local crafters. It can also be local collectors or people who want to display items, though he recommends that be done indoors, lest the item be stolen when outdoors. Some of the pieces can be quite costly.
One group he does not really serve is landscapers.
“We have people every day, they bring a sample, ‘this is what I need,’” he said. “‘So you need to go run down the street and find your materials.’ We crush (rock), but it’s high-dollar stuff.”
This has been a second career for Thiele, 78, who moved from Colorado to Tempe age 12. He had always had an interest in rocks, but his father, who was an executive for a large independent phone company, told him not to waste his money on that.
Instead, he worked his way up from shoveling landscape rock to having own landscaping and grading company. Thiele is full of stories from those days as Arizona grew up.
He retired early and spent his time on a houseboat on Lake Powell, sometimes scrambling up hills to collect rocks.
But he got bored. He started going to rock and mineral shows to learn how much the stuff he was finding was worth. That led to making connections and eventually opening the business 34 years ago, growing it steadily over the years.
“In the rock business, everybody knows everybody,” he said about making those connections to succeed.
Thiele remains active in the yard and working the phones to gain that inventory from around the world. But he also declares he is ready to sell it if someone comes up with the money. It’s time for that second retirement. He would like to get a small motor home and go exploring.
“I would really like to get rid of it,” he said. “And I’ve told guys, I’ll stick around till you learn everything and for at least six months or whatever you need.”
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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