Day 4 - and we go some more!

I may actually catch up on my posts today. Here are our adventures from yesterday.

We started out at GL&W at the Grant Inn. This venue has an interesting mix of sellers. Outside you could buy inexpensive beads, shells, purses and wood carvings among other things. Inside the wholesale pavilions you could buy the normal variety of precious and semi-precious stones and beads in addition to jewelry, gems and minerals from Aghanistan, Africa, Pakistan, India and many other locals. We wandered among all the booths and were drawn to one selling fossils from many locales including Morocco. We live in Morocco for 2 years so we struck up a conversation with Joe Aaronson at Pangaea Industries, Inc. It turns out we lived in Morocco before he was even born! Now does that make me old?? LOL! We did buy some fossil coasters and pendants that were both found in Morocco since they really do look cool and who doesn't want to have a 350 million year old ammonite hanging around ones neck? Here's a picture of Joe and of some of the cool fossils we got from him.



We made a short stop in the 2nd pavilion and bought some cabs - malachite/azurite for me and bloodstone for my mom since it was one of my Grandpa's favorite stones. Then we headed out to meet some of my mom's old work friends at the Old Pueblo Grill. We had a wonderful lunch. Good food, wonderful company and great service. It was a nice change from our dinner the night before! Here is a picture of our wonderful and patient server.



After lunch we went back to GL&W at the Grant Inn. I found Kalpataru at this location (they often have something different at each venue), got some really neat sterling and gemmie beads and then we headed down to Globex at the Days Inn and the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show at the Riverpark Inn so I could look for some cabs for some friends. We first wandered through Globex and it reminded me of a middle eastern bazaar. There were folks selling barrels, buckets and boxes of rough stone along with polished cabs and strands of gemstones. We saw scarves, leather shoes, interesting hats, carved statues from wood and stone, giant slabs of stone with gorgeous pictures from the stone patterns - all for sale. And there were gyros, arizona fry bread, lamb kabobs, kettle corn and much more available for eating. It was pretty amazing!

Our next stop was our final visit to the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show at the Riverpark Inn where I dug through cabs at Magic Mountain Gems (again) and fortunately was able to find some nice ones in the right price range for my friends. By the time I was done with that we were done in and ready to eat and go back to the hotel. We ate at Chop Stix which is near our hotel and headed back to the room. We were amazed to see the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile in our hotel parking lot. That is not a sight you see everyday. Here it is the next morning ...





And that ends our adventures from yesterday.

Day 2 in Tucson (written on day 3)

I remembered to take pictures yesterday! So now you'll see some faces to go with the places. We started off the day at Magic Mountain Gemstones at the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show. I found some more cabochons I just had to have. But, when they figured out my total, there were some I didn't need so bad since the total was a bit more than I budgeted for. Nevertheless what I got is wonderful and I can't wait to use them in designs! Now, silly me, I didn't get a picture of Colin - the guy who patiently answered my questions and waited while I agonized over what I couldn't afford and then kept track of my running total - LOL! At least I hope his name is Colin since I'm terrible with names, but that's the business card he gave me ... Here are pictures of the wonderful cabs I just had to sit and pick through ...



And I just had to share a picture of the very vibrant bumble bee jasper. A beautiful yellow and black!


Next we headed just down a few booths to Larimar Conlight. Jens and Cynthia are the owners but Cynthia is the sales person. She is absolutely wonderful to work with, is clearly proud of what she designs and sells and has wonderful things in all price ranges. I was looking for larimar since it is a beautiful stone and sells well in San Diego. I had an idea of what was "good" and what wasn't but wanted to check with her just to make sure my ideas were right. Fortunately - for those of us who just can't afford the price point of absolutely round beads, she had some nice faceted, not-quite-so-round beads, nice cabs in a range of prices and quality and some loosed beads which allowed me to get some different shapes without buying an entire strand. Here is a picture of Cynthia and my mom.

Aren't they both lovely ladies! And here are some of the lovely larimar necklaces and pendants available at Larimar Conlight.



After I did my picking and choosing of larimar we wandered through the show to see other vendors I thought might be interesting. I wasn't doing well at choosing vendors from the book description, but during the wander to find them I did find some other interesting vendors - including one where I got some nice diamond files and diamond tipped drill bits. Then we had lunch there at the show where they were barbecuing hamburgers/hot dogs/veggie burgers fresh on the BBQ. I do love a fresh BBQ'd hamburger and these were good.

Our next stop was at the Tucson Bead Show where I hoped to reconnect with one of my favorite lampworkers, Colleen Girard. I just LOVE her twisty beads!I wasn't sure I would find her there since the website for the show and her website disagreed on whether she would be there. Alas! Colleen was not there, but the visit wasn't a total waste.

On our way to look for Colleen we walked by PJ Tool Supply. I couldn't think of any tool I just had to have, but my mom wanted to check out the metal stamps. I'm so glad she did because we found the funnest stamps for sale there. I'm not going to tell you what they are since I'm going to use them for some future designs. But they are unique as far as I know. I did get a picture of all the helpful young men (am I dating myself by calling them young? LOL!) working hard to answer questions, help customers out, run a cash register (this was their first show with a cash register so they didn't know all the ins/outs of it yet), dig out inventory, ... As I was waiting for them to total everything up I did find a tool I had to have - a small brass caliper. Magic Mountain let me use theirs to measure beads/cabs and it was just so handy. I have a larger digital one at home - but this one I can leave in my gemshow bag (along with my loupe) and no batteries are required. Here are all those helpful guys!



I checked out the clasps by Star Clasps to see if I liked them, totally forgot to stop by Ezel findings (drats!), my mom found the gal who does beautiful beadwork. A few years back my mom bought one of her gorgeous, mega-beaded bracelets at the Pasadena Too Bead True Blue show. Next we were off to JOGS!

I specifically went to JOGS to find You and Me Findings since I hit them up for sterling beads and things at just about every show I go to. I looked them up in the JOGS show pamphlet and couldn't find them. I asked about them up front and fortunately one of the JOGS people knew where they were located in the building and led us there. Apparently they changed their name ... to Merico Corp. Unfortunately they were already packed up!! What was up with that??? The show still had another day to go. Not only were they almost completely packed up - the guy doing the packing had no idea if they were showing anywhere else. I was not happy and made sure I sent them an email about this when I got home. I haven't heard back from them yet - who knows if I will.

And that was it for day 2 in Tucson. Well we did have a very nice dinner at the Metropolitan Grill. Good food, nice atmosphere and the only issue was a very pleasant server who was in a hurry to leave - even if we weren't done talking to her yet. A little odd (she rushed off, after asking for our orders, before my mom gave her order ... kind of strange since what would she have served my mom if she didn't take her order?), but in every other way the service was great.

Day #3 will have to wait - the sleep beckons ...

I'm in Tucson!

I'm here! Yay! I already did some fun shopping too! My mom is with me for another great Tucson gem show adventure. I'm sure I'll wear her down with all the venues I plan on visiting. We landed this afternoon and by the time we got our luggage, car and checked in at our hotel it was 5PM. I checked the show listings earlier and found that the Pueblo Gem and Mineral show at the Riverpark Inn was open until 7PM. It is also a show recommended by a fellow gem-aholic Robyn Hawk. She talked about it in her blog Tucson Gem Show - Live!. I just love reading about her daily experiences in Tucson. She showed pictures of some cabs at Magic Mountain gemstones so I had to go there. They have some gorgeous cabs! I have a tray set aside so I can finish looking tomorrow morning. Can you imagine they actually wanted to close up at 7PM tonight? LOL!

I also visited several of the opal vendors, including Hopkins Opals where we bought some gorgeous cabachons and Opal My World. We also stopped by Opalcolors/Outback Sunstone Mining Co. where we bought some gorgeous Oregon sunstone briolettes. We picked out sets with a prominent reddish-orange spot in the center of the brio. They look nice against a white background, but the color really pops against your skin!

Since everyone was closing up their booths we figured it must be time to leave and find some food. I actually planned ahead and did a google search for food places near this show. As I looked through various restaurants Caruso's popped up as a promising Italian restaurant. It had great reviews, has been around since the 1930's and seemed like a perfect spot to eat since I knew we wouldn't get lunch today and we would be hungry. I'm glad to say the reviews are spot on. We both had the only salad offered - Italian and it was perfect. For the main course I had the pasta special for the day and my mom got spaghetti. Both were delicious, as was the garlic bread they provide. We both love to eat the heels of bread and when we asked for just garlic bread heels our waiter gladly brought us some. The only thing they lack is a good selection of black teas. If you like the generic black teas (aka Lipton's, Farmer's) you'll be happy. However, if you like other types like Earl Grey or Darjeeling - bring your own tea. They will gladly provide you with hot water.

Tomorrow I'll try to take pictures to share. Goodnight and have sweet, sparkly dreams!