During the first five years of the International Baltic Jewellery Show “Amber Trip” expanded surprisingly fast, congealed and gained a peculiar assortment profile. Admittedly a number of this year's exhibitors – 160 constitute exactly half a result of the fifth edition of the International Fair of Amber, Jewellery and Gemstones Amberif (in 1998 in Gdansk there were 320 stands) but the proportions in size of Poland and Lithuania should be taken into consideration.
Although in free Poland amber has gained importance in economy and culture, I have an impression that in Lithuania it has reached even better position. The Amber Trip showed it even in the moment of the opening. It was participated by the ministers of the republic's government and Algirdas Brazauskas, still popular and respected ex president and prime minister of Lithuania. An interesting accent provided a presence of ambassadors from Poland and Turkey, presumably being a result of a large number of exhibitors from these countries. Polish exhibitors took over 23% of the stands, offering silver and amber products and processing devices, and the Turkish ones 15%, offering products made of gold and silver. I had a pleasant opportunity to show ambassador Janusz Skolimowski all the Polish stands and notice his genuine interest in our artists and producers' achievements. A share of Lithuanian exhibitors did not exceed 42% of the whole and they clearly dominated as it comes to purely amber offer. But on the whole the fair in Vilnius does not have such amber dominant as the Gdansk one. According to the organizers' estimation the proportions of the assortment are as follows: products made of silver and gold – 35%, amber products – 35%, pearls – 10%, processing devices – 8% and watches – 4%. A positive change at the Vilnius fair is an elimination of amber substitutes which were often to be found during the previous editions, for example in a form of a Mahometan rosary.
Almost whole Lithuanian amber offer is based on a material from Sambia. Amber from Ukrainian deposits has not been present in ready-made products and a raw material from Wolyn was presented only at 2-3 stands. Curious things were the offers of two small family companies from Lithuanian Baltic coast. The married couple Lukauskas, working on the Kuronian Spit – just like another married couple Ona and Pranas Zube from Karkle, a village between Klaipeda and Polaga – systematically dive for amber in shallow waters known to themselves and out of this characteristic material (sometimes with a small amounts of silver) they produce various decorations referring in their form to the past (even as old as Neolithic figurines from a famous neighbouring Juodkrante).
A Latvian company from Liepaja, belonging to Irma and Ilmars Denis obtains amber for a bigger scale from the Baltic Sea, a bit North of this city. It offers unique products with silver and in accordance with current fashion trends but always made of natural gemstones, not subjected to a calcination process. A lighthouse keeper from the Cape Kolka (northern end of Latvian coast), befriended with this company, for many years has been collecting large lumps of amber recovered by himself, being the Baltic one of course.
These are the place which nowadays are not too known as it comes to amber output, quite far away from the main source – the deposits of the Eocene Gdansk Delta. On the attached map they are marked with red ticks. 2008-04-01 | 
