The last night

This final day for me in Tucson was spent running around to three different shows to pick up stuff that I had ordered earlier. All the shows were busier today, and people are still arriving to start their shopping.


This has been overall the coldest week I've ever spent at the Gem shows. Would you believe this was a hotel fountain in an enclosed courtyard yesterday afternoon?! Yikes! Today was much more reasonable weather for Tucson.


I spent over 2 hours filling out @#$%$ customs forms this afternoon. Everything has been carefully packed up by the great guys at the Pakmail booth and will be picked up by the UPS truck on Monday, and in a week or 10 days, our intrepid webmistress will be inundated with new stuff to photograph and categorize and upload to the beadFX website.

My overall impression talking to people at the shows is that attendance is down significantly. However, the weekend crowd was more than before, possibly because of the warmer weather and the fact that people whose travel plans were upset by the airport closures earlier in the week have finally arrived.

What I did on my Winter vacation - Tucson

I took a couple of courses at Swarovski as the vacation part of my Tucson trip.

The first course involved rivetting large Swarovski fancy stones onto a bracelet blank. This involved the use of a new rivetting tool (which beadFX will be carrying in the near future, of course). It involves some careful measurement, but was very easy to use, especially with a table-top vise that you can get at any large hardware store.


The next course was really fun. I got to embellish the top of a plain compact case with Swarovski flatbacks. I started with an argyle pattern, but discovered that I can't set a straight line of flatbacks if my life depended on it, so I temporarily gave up on that and started another compact with a random scattering of clear crystal shapes. I'll re-do the other one after I get home and can work on it with better lighting and magnification, and fewer distractions.

Another little project I played with this evening was a kit for a new product that was just being introduced by a Japanese company. I discovered after I opened up the kit in my hotel room that the instructions were in Japanese and the English, or more accurately Japlish, translation was written on a teeny scrap of paper only slightly larger than the paper in a fortune cookie. Step one read, "Mix them well within the proper amount." Ummm, okaaay......

Fortunately, as with a lot of Japanese kits, the pictures were pretty explanatory and I was never a slavish follower of instructions anyhow. So this is what I ended up with:

Not bad, considering the abysmally bad lighting of your typical hotel room.

I'm off for some more product meetings tomorrow and then off to the Swarovski party,one of the highlights of the Tucson "season". Just hope it will be a bit warmer tomorrow as I think the party is outdoors.

The beadFX Buyer in Tucson

I meant to blog yesterday, but as usual for the first full day in Tucson, I hit the Gem Mall running, overshopped and under-hydrated and ended up with a killer headache. You have to have water with you ALWAYS as it's very dry here and we Canadians are just not used to that.

Now that I've been coming here for several years and have learned the lay of the land, so to speak, I can cover the territory much more quickly. The Gem Mall and the neighbouring Holidome are two of the larger shows in Tucson and I use them as a sort of 'home base'.

The first day, I went to 1/2 dozen of my usual vendors. With these people, I don't need to waste time negotiating. They point me towards their newest and most interesting stuff, hand me a big basket and are quick to take my filled basket and hand me another empty one. At most wholesale-only shows, nothing has prices on it or if it does, they will be retail, per strand, or MSR prices. Once I've gotten what I want from that vendor, I leave a business card with the pile of baskets/bins and I'm off to the next vendor. I'll go back in day or two and pick up the stuff. That way they have time to add it up and make up an itemized invoice.

After 2 days of shopping, I have to say that there are a lot fewer buyers this year, fewer even than last year. Some vendors are gone, several others are trying new venues in an attempt to get a different crowd of customers. In some ways, this is a good thing because a lot of the fly-by-night vendors have flown.

But there is still a lot of kitsch around. Everything from gaudy to gorgeous, from tacky to terrific. There's even more tables of "Chinovski" than there were last year.

Tomorrow is going to be some "me" time, in a Busman's Honeymoon sort of way. I'm taking a course in rivetting at Swarovski in the morning to learn how to set chatons and the beautiful large fancy stones. Oh yeah, then there's the Interweave magazine (Beadwork) tomorrow night at the Tucson Art Museum. Great chance to meet up with friends and scout out potential teachers.

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll also be able to incorporate some pictures into my blog. I just got a new phone last week. It takes pictures, of course, but I haven't learned how to get them off the camera and into my computer yet.

Sneak Peek at Upcoming Weeks

A few days ago, I mentioned that the stuff I had sent back from Tucson had arrived. I thought you might l ike to see some pictures of what you'll be seeing on the website over the next few weeks.

First off, for you cabochon lovers, there's some gorgeous dyed Impression Jasper. There will be matching beads as well.



Then, there's a lot more of the large hole beads that proved so popular. The holes in these are in two different sizes. One is large enough to fit the Pandora/Troll bracelets. We will also be carrying sterling grommets that fit these beads for a finished look. The other large-hole beads have holes that are larger than usual, but smaller than the Pandora-sized beads. These are just right for leather or waxed cotton cords, or kumihimo cords.

Of course, there will be lots and lots of great freshwater pearls! Coins, Biwa sticks, baroques, and rounds in lots of colours. There must have been about a hundred pounds of pearls in the shipment







Of course I bought lots of metal beads as well. These are the plated, copper based beads which give you the look of solid sterling for a fraction of the cost. And of course, there is lots and lots of chain, in gold, plated silver, copper and a new enamelled black chain.







Last, but certainly not least, there are the stone beads. Everything from rough chunks of pyrite, pink quartz, amethyst, to ethnic-looking burnt agate, to the best Sleeping Beauty Turquoise.

Tucson Stuff has arrived!

The UPS guy moaned and groaned, but we all helped heave 13 big cartons of stuff that I shipped from Tucson. They're all sitting there on the classroom table waiting for me to open them up. It's gonna be like Christmas here tonight!

Boxes of freshwater pearls, semi-precious stone, Czech glass, vintage Swarovski, cloisonne, and too many other goodies to mention.

And that's not all. While I was there, I ordered other goodies from several manufacturers. These will take a month or two before they arrive. Stay tuned! There'll be lots of new stuff on our website in the coming months.

Better clean out your van before you get here tomorrow, Dwyn.

Calling All Canadians in Tucson! Party Time!!

If there happen to be any Canadians who are attending the Tucson Gem and Mineral shows, John Bead has asked me to invite you all to a party on Thursday the 4th at the Doubletree Hotel on South Alvernon Way.

Check in at the John Bead booth in the lobby of the ballroom for the room number and time.

Tucson - If its Tuesday, it must be ???

I've only been here 4 days, and already the shows are are starting to blur and run together.

Yesterday, I went down the series of shows on the I-10 strip. There are 6-8 hotels/motels along a service road that parallels Interstate 10. Each motel has a different show in it, plus every room on the ground floor is booked with small vendors selling all manner of odds and ends, some of which have only the most tenuous relationship with gems or minerals.

Most of these shows are oriented towards gems, fossils and raw chunks of rough semi-precious stones, so I don't bother looking for beads here, but concentrate on checking out the cabochon dealers. Many of these cut their own stones and their prices are reasonable.

It's very easy to spend the entire day here, wandering from booth to booth to booth, from the vendors selling beaded bags from Tibet, to the "aged hippie" types selling stones guaranteed to "re-align your chakra", to tables made of stone loaded with fossil shells.

I always end up the I-10 Strip day at the Pearl Pavilion. This is what a typical vendor's booth looks like:


You have to remember this is only one vendor. There are probably 50 similar tents at this show alone.

Tucson Day 1

Today was the opening day of the Gem Mall, one of the larger wholesale shows in Tucson. There are two tents here - one about the size of a football field and the other about 2/3 that size. There are vendors here from all over the world - China, India, Africa, Australia. Probably the only major continent without representation is Antarctica.

Although semi-precious gems are the main draw at this show, you can find anything from strands of diamond beads to chips-on-stretchy-elastic bracelets for a $1. It's very much Caveat Emptor at a show like this though. There's lots of glass or dyed howlite masquerading as turquoise, for instance. Tons of Swarovski look-alikes. Although I had to grin at the vendor who was advertising his "crystal" as genuine Chinovski.

None of the piles of stones on strands have prices on them. You have to ask the price of everything.

Today I picked up stock from some of my favourite semi-precious dealers. I remember someone asked us recently if we had any green goldstone. I hadn't seen any around before, but this time I got a bunch in several shapes. Got some beads with large holes that could be strung with hemp, leather or a thinner kumihimo braid.

Picked up more of the rough chunks of pink quartz, citrine, pyrite and several other stones. Bought some interesting dyed impression stone cabs for those of you who like doing beaded embroidery around stones.

More good turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty, Kingman and Campo Frio mines. Some completely natural, some stabilized, but none of these have been dyed or colour-enhanced.

It's still early days yet, and I'll be back at the Gem Mall often. I'm open to suggestions if you have anything you especially want me to look for. I wish I could take pictures of this place to show you, but cameras are strictly forbidden at this and most of the other locations.

Tomorrow I'm off to look for sterling and the brushed copper beads.

Tucson: Coming home

It's the last day in Tucson for me and just as well - it's turned cold and rainy here. I feel really sorry for the people who are showing in tents or outdoors.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm about beaded out.

I feel like if I see one more dyed-howlite-masquerading-as-genoooine-Sleeping-Beauty-Turquoise, I'm gonna barf. You'd think that these vendors know what it is they are selling, but all too often, they don't. So Buyer Beware applies in spades at these shows. Turquoise-dyed howlite has a legitimate place in beading, but I'm darned if I'm going to pay for this stuff as though it was the real thing.

However, I've found some very cool stuff. There's be lots more pearls on the BeadFX walls in a few weeks, as well as nice stones. I found some really nice cabs for a reasonable price. Your favourite sterling clasps will be back in stock and I've ordered more interesting items in non-tarnish brass, copper and bronze that will be arriving from the manufacturer in about 5-6 weeks.

It'll be good to get home and cuddle my kitties again. After a long buying trip like this, I suffer from Companion Animal Deprivation big-time.

Tucson: If It's Wednesday, It Must Be The Best Bead Show

Hard to believe I've been here for five days already, going from one bead show to another every day. Today I covered the Tucson Best Bead Show, the best (IMHO) of the retail bead shows. This is a lampworked bead bonanza, second only to an ISGB conference.

Most of the "big names" in the lampworking world are here: Milon Townsend, Leah Fairbanks, Sharon Peters, Akihiro Okhama to name the first few that pop into my head. Check out Beau Tsai's gallery if you want to see some exquisite seascapes. www.beautsai.com The foreign gallery owners were packing his booth and almost fighting over his works. I'll bet his booth will be empty before the show ends.

There was lots going on at the other booths of the TBBS as well. With throngs of happy customers in all the aisles, you'd never know there's supposed to be a recession going on.

Also, good news for those of you who have been patiently waiting for it. Softflex has finally resumed manufacturing their Extreme 24K gold Softflex. They've also made improvements to the line to make it more abrasion-resistant and also "greener" to manufacture. In addition, they've introduced a whole bunch of new colours. I understand the shipment has arrived in Canada, so I'll be picking up the new gold next week, when I'm back in Toronto.

Ah! Tucson!

It's my first full day here in bright, sunny warm Tucson. Well, actually the locals don't think it's very warm, but heck 18C is plenty warm enough for me.

Today was the opening day for the Gem Mall. This is a wholesale-only show and one of the largest of the 40-odd gem, mineral and bead shows. Imagine if you will, two huge tents - one about the size of a footfall field and the other about 2/3 that. They sell everything from precious gems, semi-precious stones, pearls, finished jewellery, glass beads from Czechoslovakia, China and India, Sterling, base metal findings, watches, etc, etc, etc.

I remember the first year I went to this show, it took me 2 days to cover just the semi-precious and pearl booths. I didn't even bother with the finished jewellery.

I got there right at 10AM. Good thing, too. Anyone remember the Calla Lily beads we had in white quartz or matte black? I saw them at one of my vendors and knowing they were popular, I stopped and grabbed a bunch in several colours. Just as I was finishing up, another buyer came along and swept up all the rest of the Calla Lillies into his basket! In this game, ya snooze, ya lose!

I spent the day zig-zagging through the two big tents, grabbing stuff from my favoured suppliers. Picked up some nice copper findings and brushed silver-plated copper beads from the same guy I bought the finished chain from last year. I'll get some more of that at his other booth at the Rodeway later on. Some really nice untreated Amazonite, not the faded pale stuff, but a beautiful deep colour.

Lotsa new Czech glass buttons including a few humoungous dragonfly buttons. I didn't get that many of any one colour/style because there were so many to choose from.

LAst year I bought a couple of small boxes for displaying rings for use in the store. Everyone kept wanting to buy our boxes because they are just right for packing to a show. So this time I bought a whole case of them to sell.

Tomorrow it's off to the pearl dealers.