Tucson Day 1

We arrived in Tucson this afternoon.  Fortunately my mom is still doing well enough (she's in her 80's) to go with me and help me shop for beautiful gems!  We got out luggage and rental car and headed to the JGM Show.  It actually starts tomorrow but Toyo (Feng's Trading) lets me do some shopping while he's setting things up.  Of course he's continually tempting me with beauties that he's pulling out of boxes!  Here are some beautiful, double drilled pearls he has (and a peak at those maroon granulated pearls I'm getting).
       

I like these because they are a beautiful maroon color and look like they are granulated on top.  Very different!
    

And a shot of what I have in my basket so far :)  I'll be going back tomorrow to see what else needs to go home with me.  Aren't those amethyst leaves gorgeous?!!


After doing a bit of shopping with Toyo we headed north and east to find our condo.  We dumped our luggage, freshened up a bit and then went to the Blue Willow for dinner.  They have delicious food and a vegan vegetable stir fry which is quite tasty.  We both finished off the meal with desert - chocolate crepe with strawberries for my mom and a vegan coffee cake for me.  Quite delicious, but, unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures!

The foot at week 15 and the jewelry

A lot has happened since my last blog post!  I'm walking and, as of today, I can rise up on my toes!  Yep I celebrate the simpler things in life as I'm able to do them now.  I spent 6 weeks without putting any weight on my right foot (scootering around on my knee scooter) and then started to transition from walking in the boot to walking in shoes with lifts and now I'm transitioning to shoes with no lifts and barefeet!  Each transition takes some time for the muscles and tendons to get used to the new position.  Once I can walk with no pain and a decent distance with no lifts I can start gentle jogging for small amounts of time each day.  That's a little way in the distance.  I did want to share a before and after picture.  The bone spur (bulge) was pretty big before surgery!

As my foot has healed I've gotten back to making jewelry.  It is taking me a while to get back in the groove.  My creative stints are not as frequent, yet, as before surgery.  Here are some of my recent creations.  They haven't yet made it into my Etsy shop so if you're interested just go to my cserpentDesigns Facebook page and send me a message.

The Purple and The Green - amethyst, peridot and sterling silver

Purple Rose - Artisan lampwork and sterling silver

Palette on Black - Artisan lampwork, my own enameled on copper drops, aquamarine, Swarovski crystals, Czech glass and sterling silver

I'm working on new designs with some of the Mexican Purple Opal drops I got in Tucson in February!  Can't wait to share those with you!

Tucson Gem Show 2014 - Day 1

I'm back in Tucson (along with my mom) for the fun and interesting gem shows!  We arrived this morning, had some lunch at Las Margaritas, mom got a Starbuck's mocha and then we hit the shows!  Our first stop was the GIGM show at the Howard Johnson motel.

I found some beautiful lapis at Afghan Gem Jewelry.  I don't know if I got the best price around but I liked Aman and found some nice polished and faceted lapis beads.  Here's Aman with some of his beads in the background.

Aman from Afghan Gem Jewelry

My favorite turquoise dealer/miner Shellbone and his dad are at this show every year.  I have a camera that works indoors this year so my pictures are better.  Here are Shellbone, my mom and his dad (and I did not remember his dad's name and didn't think to ask! silly me!)

Shellbone, owner of Nevada Turquoise Co. (on the right), his dad (on the left) and my mom

Shellbone has some BIG gold nuggets he and his dad got while panning in Alaska.  This year they went panning in northern California and found a few more nuggets which he showed us, but they don't compare in size to Alaska nuggets.

Next we wandered around the show some more and met this very nice man, Ibrahim, from Morocco.  I got some Orthoceras pendants (also from Morocco) from him.

 

And I just thought the size and color of this gemstone ball was stunning ... I didn't ask what the stone is and I'm not quite sure.  It resembles rhodocrosite but may be pink quartz - I really should ask when I take pictures of things like this.

Our next stop was the 22nd Street show.  I didn't remember if we ever went to this show but once we got inside we did see some familiar companies like Wyoming Fossils.  This is a great show for fossils - all shapes and sizes.  We also saw this neat art by John T. Benedict of Some Distant World.  He uses parts from cars, nuts, bolts, steel and all kinds of other metal things.  Where possible he designs his pieces so the moving parts can still move!  He even has a button you push on that lantern fish to the right of his head so the lantern lights up!  Very cool!

John T. Benedict of Some Distant World in Tucson, AZ

I stopped by Pangaea Industries to see what they had for interesting fossils and stones.  I got some cool herkimer quartz rough (for a sterling or copper sandwich - details below) and an Orthoceras coaster to replace one that got broken last year at home.

We made one final stop at the Pueblo Gem show to see my favorite larimar sellers, Jens and Cynthia of Larimar Conlight.   I did get some round larimar beads ... I have a soft spot for the beautiful, Caribbean blue color of larimar!  I did a quick check at Yaushing Gems but none of the brios/drops pulled me in.  Then I checked in at Thomas Schneider Gems and found some cool roughs in amethyst and citrine and some tumbled peridot that I'll mount in a sterling washer sandwich similar to this:

And here are the stones (not the best pictures, but they're taken in a hotel room) ...

 

Brazilian amethyst and citrine, Arizona peridot

Herkimer quartz

And below is a sampling of some of the pretties I got today ...

Afghan lapis

Orthoceras

Rhodocrosite

Turquoise and spiny oyster

Larimar

Enameling Hoops

I finished up several designs with enameled iron wire hoops and they are all waiting to be displayed at the Fallbrook Art Center Art of the Holiday show on 11/29. I need to make more to sell in my own shops! I think yellow with some yellow aventurine hanging in the hoop would be wonderful and cheery.  Here are some of the designs I finished.

Gorgeous green with BC jade

Lime green with purple micanite and amethyst

Purple with gorgeous charoite!

Turquoise hoop with Pilot Mountain turquoise

 You can see designs I have for sale on my website - http://www.cserpentDesigns.com and you can see more of the items available at the show on my Art of the Holiday gallery web page.

Fun with cluster earrings!

I've been in the mood to make earrings with clusters of gems.  I don't know why - that's just where my muse has taken me.  Here are my 3 most recent creations ...

            
Amethyst and peridot available on Artfire      Onyx, turquoise and artisan lampwork available on Etsy

Beautiful pink topaz!

Senior Games Art Fair (and soccer tournament)

I'll be selling at the Senior Olympics Soccer Tournament again this year. This year I'm old enough to play too! Here are some of the gals who will be selling with me:

We'll be at Hourglass Field in Mira Mesa (just south of Miramar College). Park in the Miramar College parking lot. We'll be there from 9-4 on Saturday and from 8-3 on Sunday. Here's a mapquest link if you need it: Hourglass Field. Hope to see some of you there!

Here are some of my latest creations that you can see in person at the craft fair!