Tucson Day 2

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.

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.

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

More flowers from Trilogy - frosted quartz, olive serpentine and red jasper


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.

I didn't buy anything at Ivory Jack's booth in Holidome but I do think this walrus skull is pretty cool!

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, ...

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!

Sterling, copper and vermeil from CGM.

Oxidized sterling silver chain from CGM.

River stone!!! I haven't seen this for years and I love its neutral color. And it's carved!! Woohoo!

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!


Just a taste of the rhodocrosite things you can get in Tucson. Of course beads are also available in this beautiful stone. :)

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!