Tucson Day 3

Today (Sunday) started out quite rainy.  In fact when we got to Gem Mall it was pouring quite nicely.  Here's a picture of the muddy parking lot.

a rainy day at Gem Mall/Holidome

 Of course we didn't let something like a little rain slow us down.  :)  The first thing we did was stop by Best In Gems to pick up the earring pairs we picked out on Saturday.  Here they are!

Here we have bumble bee jasper, sonoran jasper, turquoise and ametrine

And these beauties were picked out for a fellow designer in Australia.  It's pretty trippy when I shop for her (Annette Piper Jewellery). I message her on Facebook using an ipad, show her pictures of some things I picked out, tell her prices and she lets me know which she wants or tells me to look for some other color, shape, ...  It's pretty neat knowing I'm "talking" live with someone in Australia while I'm in Tucson.  I've done this with a designer in England too.

Bumble bee jasper, K2 jasper, chrysoprase, turquoise, ruby in zoisite, ametine and sonoran jasper

She'll be shopping remotely later today (Monday) when I'm at the Pueblo show and picking through half drilled gemstone drops.

After we picked up and paid for all those pretties we continued to visit the vendors on my "need to visit" list.   Lucky Pearls was first on that list.  I didn't think I would find anything but, somehow, I managed to find some pretty pearls.  Tassels are hot right now so I got some tiny pearl rondelles and I got quite a few 2 and 3mm gemstone strands and I plan on combining the 2 for some beautiful tassels.  Look for that in future designs!  And here are the pearls I got (and some smoky quartz beads my mom got).

White baroque pearls, black (but they look purple) potato pearls, teensy pearl rondelles and smoky quartz beads

Next up was the Intrinsic booth in Holidome.  They have some absolutely wonderful gemstone earring pairs, pendants and, often, some different gemstone strands.  Here are the pretties I got.

Strands of tsavorite, apatite and phosphodiderite, pairs of parrot wing chrysocolla, mexican purple opal, laguna lace agate,  cherry blossom agate

chrysocolla strand, pink tourmaline in quartz, chrysocolla in quartz

Here is a picture of what the pair bins look like.  We have to dig through the bins looking at each pair to find the ones that we want.

 

And here are the piles of strands I got to pick from.  Gemstones are FUN!

After all that work we were ready for lunch.  The coffee/espresso booth also had a vegan sandwich so I got one of those.  It was quite good and so are their mochas ... and they have almond milk for those who don't want dairy.

After lunch we went to Gem Mall.  We stopped by the Intrinsic outlet booth and had more fun picking out pretties.  Here is a sample.

We headed over to Gems Ocean, checking out other booths along the way.  I bought some beads from them several years ago and loved that they had some unusual cuts.  They didn't disappoint.  I found this cool drops that allow me to add a bead inside the hole.  Pretty cool!

Crystal quartz, grey moonstone, amethyst and black onyx

My foot was getting pretty tired by this point so we looked around at a few more vendors and then called it a day.  The rain had stopped but all the clouds kept me from getting another beautiful sunset picture.

Tomorrow - Pueblo, back to JG&M to check out the opals and more gemstone earring pairs, then Kino Electric Park to visit another favorite gem seller and see if I can find some monstrous opal chunks that I saw another person post and, if we have time, we'll check out the Miners Coop.  Hopefully they haven't all closed up shop due to the rain.