Thursday, February 2, 2017

Tucson Days 6 & 7

Yesterday we started off at the Sonoran Glass Show.  I mainly went to see Patty Lakinsmith but we did see some beautiful glass creations!  Of course I forgot to take a picture with Patty!  LOL!  But here are the pretties I got from her.


Next up was 22nd street.  We said hi to David Otteson and wandered around to see the sights.  This is another show with wonderful fossils and crystals.  I saw some gorgeous labradorite with purple flash and had to buy some cabs.  These were from Rockpick Legend Co.  I haven't seen purple flash labradorite too often so I just had to have them.  Of course now I need to make settings for them! And I can't forget the Rick Dlarymple - the seller!



I also got some sunstone gems from Dust Devil Mining Co.  Here's a picture of the little pretties (6x8mm) and of Don Buford and his mining partner (totally forgot his name - of course!).


And here are some pictures of the many and varied things you'll see for sale at this show. A petrified dinosaur bone - yes it is longer than the long fold up tables -and  those nodules to the right are petrified dinosaur eggs.  And there I am next to a huge chunk of rose quartz.


And here are lamps and bowls made from various gemstones - beautiful and functional!


And here is a cool witches hat covered with various gemstones!  It is so cool.  And a big petrified wood tree trunk and pieces. 

We headed out to lunch and then went to the Kino Gem show. There I found another of my favorite vendors World Bead Mine (formerly Royal Quality Gems).  I should have taken a picture of Jennifer Ho (who took over the business so her dad could retire - but her mom is still there helping her out!) but I forgot.  Here are some of the pretties I got - man made quartz in a beautiful aqua blue, rutilated quartz rondelles (various types of rutilation) and jade and pyrite leaves.



Our final stop was back to JGM to meet up with Toyo Feng and go to Grimaldi's for dinner.  As I waited for his customers to finish shopping I found a few more pretties for my hoard.  :)  Some aquamarine tubes, amazonite wavy drops, muscovite ovals, green quartz beads and some luscious lapis for a friend in Australia.



lapis


And here we are at Grimaldi's!  Their pizza is good and the Oreo cheesecake are TDF!


Today (Thursday) we hit 3 shows - the Pueblo Show, JOGS and Intergem.  What used to be the wholesale tent at Pueblo is no longer a wholesale tent and is almost entirely jewelry.  Magic Mountain gems is still there (yay!) as is Yau Shing Gems.   We did a quick scan at Magic Mountain but I don't need any cabs so we headed to Yau Shing where I went in search of more half drilled drops.  Their selection seemed to be a bit reduced but I did manage to find some pretties.




We had lunch at Pueblo (I like their BBQ hamburgers!) and then headed to Starbucks and then JOGS.  I checked out the booths of some of my favorite vendors but didn't find anything that got my heart pounding - LOL - so I checked out some new vendors.  I found this beautiful Brazil kyanite and laguna lace agate at The Perfect Gem.


And I stopped by Best in Gems (4th booth of theirs - LOL!) and found more beautiful earring pairs - I'm such a sucker for gorgeous gemstones!


And, as we went looking for the door we came in we ran across these monster crystals.  I'm standing next to one so you can see how big it is.  The amethyst geode is probably 5' across!  Mother Nature is truly amazing!


Next stop was a brief one at Intergem to get some sterling and copper findings from SII Findings.  No pictures here since I was tired and sterling beads aren't all that exciting :)

We head for home tomorrow but not until late at night so we'll get in another full day of gem shows!

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