Today was opening day for Gem Mall and Holidome. These are wholesale only shows that happen in 4 warehouse size tents. I focused on those things I needed to get today and, hopefully, tomorrow, I'll have enough time to do a bit of wandering to see if I can find any new and fun vendors. Here is just a sample of the pretties I got from Trilogy (carved flowers), Best in Gems (gemstone earring pairs), Silver Planet (sterling and vermeil bead/findings) and CGM (gemstone beads, sterling, vermeil and copper beads and findings). I stopped by a few other booths to see if anything jumped out at me and, fortunately for my budget, nothing did. :)
Here is just a sample of one flat of earring pairs at Best In Gems in Holidome. You can see ruby in zoisite, bumblebee jasper and lavendar moss agate.
Unfortunately I left all the pairs at the booth since they couldn't ring
them up when I picked them out. I was supposed to come back and get
them after lunch and I forgot. Oopsie! I'll pick them up tomorrow.
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| This is just a sample of the pairs I had to choose from. You can see ruby in zoisite, bumblebee jasper and lavendar moss agate. |
After lunch I stopped at the Trilogy both to get more carved flowers. I "discovered" them in 2016 and bought a LOT of flowers. My stash is finally running low. Here are a few of the flowers I bought.
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| My crappy picture of some of the carved flowers I got from Trilogy - red jasper, purple aventurine, tiger eye (it really IS pretty in real life) and evergreen jade |
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| More flowers from Trilogy - frosted quartz, olive serpentine and red jasper |
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| I just LOVED the color of the top row of flowers from Trilogy. Those are gold fumed on carved crystal quartz. Absolutely divine! Below those is purple aventurine and amethyst. |
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I didn't buy anything at Ivory Jack's booth in Holidome but I do think this walrus skull is pretty cool!
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| Part of a walrus skeleton. At Ivory Jack's in Holidome. |
And, since I knew I needed some specific sterling beads and caps I stopped at Silver Planet in Gem Mall. They are reducing their bulk silver so I didn't find the headpins or swirl bead caps I was looking for. But I did find a bunch of other cool beads, caps, spacers, ...
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| Some of the sterling silver and vermeil I got at Silver Planet |
I had fun at CGM - but it was pretty time consuming. They are very busy so you have to "take a number". It took a while for my number to get called in order to ring everything up. While we waited they did give us water and snacks. Thank you
CGM!
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| Sterling, copper and vermeil from CGM. |
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| Oxidized sterling silver chain from CGM. |
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| River stone!!! I haven't seen this for years and I love its neutral color. And it's carved!! Woohoo! |
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| Small faceted river stone and faceted blue lace agate. I just loved the deep green and sparkle in this coated hematite. I think it will make some flashy Christmas earrings! :) |
In the buyer registration area they have some pretty cool things. There is a display with beautiful things made from rhodocrosite. And the turquoise company selling in the marketplace area has some cool sculptures and specimens!
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| Just a taste of the rhodocrosite things you can get in Tucson. Of course beads are also available in this beautiful stone. :) |
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| And, yes, there is TURQUOISE available in Tucson. What do yo think of this turquoise encrusted cattle skull? He had quite a set of horns! And behind the skull are buckets of turquoise rough! |
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| Ye big hunk o' turquoise |
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| Me and a cool sculpture - with many turquoise accents |
And, as we were waiting for our golf cart shuttle to show up and take us to our car, nature provided us with a beautiful sunset to watch.
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| And sunset as it set over Gem Mall tonight. |
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