Tucson Gem Show 2010

Just back from the Tucson Gem Show, I'm still in awe. A gemstone and jewelry mecca, the Tucson Gem Show is the largest show of its kind in the country. Always wonderful, always exciting gems, lapidary, and jewelry, always an adventure in international relations, the 2010 Show was not a disappointment!

First stop is the Holidome. You can easily spend several days here. I limit myself to one. You can easily spend Day One in the registration tent. Online registration for admittance of wholesalers is a must, lest you spend hours in a tent packed with more unregistered wholesalers than its maximum capacity.

This is the venue for pearls, beads, and findings of all kinds. Especially for the hobbyist and particularly for jewelry-makers in the business, the Holidome serves the needs of those whose passion or livelihood depend on getting ample and varied jewelry supplies, all in one place.

• Lucky Gems, based in New York City, has a big presence at the Holidome with Leo Wong, owner, heading operations right there among shoppers at the Show. Operations, such as pricing and paying, were a bit more chaotic than last year. That's where Lucky Gems could stand some improvements. That said, nobody's selection of pearls, beads, and stones is larger.
• Pearl Concepts, also a New York City pearl company, again had the same spot on the Gem Mall floor as last year. This is not insignificant. For those of us, like me, who pay less attention to the Show organization than to the gemstones, we wander for what seems like miles looking for our favorite vendors! Pearl Concepts seems to have the most lustrous pearls at the Show.
• Clasp On Clasp Off makes clasps for necklaces. Duh. I'll bet you guessed that. What you may not know is how beautiful they are. Custom made mostly from sterling silver, clasps purchased here are checked for proper functioning, or they won't sell them to you. I like this, when vendors stand behind the quality of their products.

Day 2 takes me to Frontage Road between Congress and Starr Pass Boulevard. This Gem Show venue is fully integrated vending: everything from A to Z is sold here, from gemstone roughs right out of the ground to finished jewelry and beyond to some clothing items like wool sweaters, shawls, and alpaca knit hats. A first and dubious product connection to gems was the sheet vendor, selling 800+ count Egyptian cotton sheets sets at incredible mark downs. Unfortunately, I couldn't rationalize a Cal King sheet set with that many threads for my jewelry business.

Fortunately, Direct Diamond Importers, an unlikely diamond importing company in Iowa, presented a pair of diamond earrings I just had to have, for my jewelry business, of course. The price was below any, I repeat any, earrings of 14kt gold and comparable diamond weight than I had ever encountered. And, believe me, I've been looking.

This Gem Show venue is the place to find the unusual, the unexpectedly rare finds in gemstones, jewels and lapidary resources. This is the place to find the usual also, including my neighbor, Jon Tuncel of Mythos Designs. I buy my supplies of Tahitian black pearls from Jon and frequently encounter him in La Jolla while walking to the open air market. On more than one occasion, I've come home with a pocketful of black pearls instead of white bread, milk, eggs, and butter. Jon is an incredible jewelry designer and brings stunning jewelry supplies in from Bali.

Day 3 wraps up my time at the Gem Show, so planning for 1.) optimal use of time and 2.) minimal spending is essential. Besides being near broke, at least deeply in short-term debt, this is the time when my credit card breaks down or renders inoperable for one reason or another. This year, it was a security shut down of my credit card purchases. Your card has been canceled, a saleslady said to me, showing a big CANCELED printout on what would have been the receipt of a big purchase. Okay, this helps with plan item #2, but the time I spent undoing the unnecessary card cancellation entirely wrecked plan item #1.

A young Moroccan fellow on Oracle Road in the Fossil District helped me out with #2. He took my cash for five astoundingly beautiful pastel-colored onyx bowls at 20% discount. While bargaining toward that agreeable price (Moroccans are big time bargainers, but so am I), we got to talking. He said he was from a town in the interior of Morocco, where it's beautiful but hot. Fifty degrees Celsius, he said. I'm not exactly sure what that temperature that is in Farenheit, but it's got to be hot, which it was also in the tent on Oracle where he was vending his Moroccan stuff. He offered me a few mouthfuls of his pumpkin seeds to stave off the mighty hunger that arises from hot gem show shopping. He was the nicest Moroccan youth I'd ever met. And every time I have pumpkin seeds in that beautiful onyx bowl, I'm going to think about that nice Moroccan man from the hot city somewhere in the interior of Morocco. I shall perhaps see him again on Oracle Road and buy some more beautiful un-black onyx bowls from him next year.

Three days is not enough. I'm already planning for next year's trip to Tucson: to stay a little longer, save more money this year, spend more there next year, and make wonderful jewelry creations now, from my Tucson Gem Show 2010 treasures!