Tucson - Day 3

Back again and these posts are getting later and later at night!  Today we started off at Tucson Electric Park.  Our hotel is near Holidome and it was a nightmare of traffic this morning!  The show opened today and anyone showing up at 9:45AM was in for a looonnnnggg wait to get into the parking lot.  I knew it would be a mess which is why we went elsewhere this morning.  One of my favorite gem sellers, Royal Quality Gems, was at TEP again this year.   I couldn't find a web link for them.  Here's a picture of me with the owner and his wife.

My next stop was Miland Tools.  I had a list to check out and Miland gladly showed them all to me.  I changed my mind on a few things and added some texture hammers to my to-buy list as well.  Miland makes his own tools and has a money back warranty if you don't like the way they work.  I love visiting with him and his son!  Darn it if I didn't get pictures of him again this year!  After that we wandered around TEP just to see what else was there.  My mom bought a beautiful cabachon from Zee and we saw this interesting rock fish art and I would LOVE to have this chunk of stone with malachite azurite in it!

Next was lunch and then Holidome!!!  No pictures from Holidome but I finally found those darned rhodocrosite heart brios!  Yay!  Hopefully the gal who wanted them likes them - LOL!  If not there are others who will.  And, of course, I visited my favorite sterling bead seller, Kalpataru, again.  And I made another quick visit to Lucky Gems for more rondelles (at the request of some friends).  My mom and I wandered around some more, stopped to check out a few more places - one of which had the rhodo brios as well as some lovely ametrine brios and faceted ovals - quite yummy.  My mom also found some beautiful fluorite at one place (I'll have to dig up the card and update the blog later) where I also found what they called "cocoa quartz".  They said it's natural.  I've never seen it before - but I love the rich brown color - so I bought the 4 nicest little strands.  After Holidome my mom and I joined some other beading friends for dinner and goodie show-and-tell.  Oh - what beautiful and interesting things everyone bought!  Lights out now and I'll write for you all tomorrow.