So excited are we! The time has finally come for us to resume our annual trek to the Tucson gem shows after a long Covid-induced hiatus.
At the end of this month, we’ll head to Arizona for a week of visual feasting on the wares of the world’s best gem cutters and dealers.
Often referred to simply as “Tucson”, this event is not just a single big show, but a loose grouping of 50+ individual shows, that together take over the entire city and its environs. Ranging in size from small to overwhelmingly enormous, each show is devoted to a subsection of the overall gem and mineral trade. We try to leave enough time to visit a wide variety of shows in order to come back with fresh perspectives and… of course… lots of goodies!
Our first priority is always to search for exceptional-quality colored stones, both faceted and cabochon, to fulfill specific custom orders and to use in our ready-to-wear original designs. (So, if you’re dreaming of a certain color, shape or type of gem, let us know. We’ll text you photos of promising candidates directly from the show floor!)
This year, we’re catching a super early flight in order to attend a relatively new show to the Tucson constellation of shows: the Ethical Gemstone Fair. A small but growing group of gem dealers have joined together in a strong effort to move the gem industry farther along toward social and economic justice for the people who work in mining, cutting and polishing gemstones. This topic has always been important to us and we’re thrilled to see a show specifically composed of dealers with a committed ethical approach to gem sourcing. We’re looking forward to seeing those we already know and purchase from, and to meeting new contacts. We’ll share our experience in next month’s email!
And last but not least, we’ll be looking for plenty of the fun, crazy, earthy, captivating and charmingly odd stones we love to use in our less formal creations. Perhaps considered to be more “mineral specimens” than “gems”, to us, these fanciful creations of nature are no less fascinating and exciting to work with, and certainly fit our standards of *fine jewelry for everyday life*.
The shop will be closed the week of January 29th, and we’ll reopen on Tuesday February 7th.