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The Tucson Gem Show 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
This year’s Gem Show is about to begin. Tomorrow I leave my home in Southern California for my annual pilgrimage to Tucson. This is my renewal, my dose of inspiration that carries me through the year. I recharge my creative batteries by basking in the energy and beauty of literally millions of beads. There is no way to tell you how enormous this show is. The best I can do is to attempt to show you through my posts over the next week. My hope is that I can share bit of this feeling with all of you fellow lovers of personal adornment and beautiful things!
Tents at the African Village, Tucson Gem Show 2009. It is hard to describe the volume and variety of goods from all over the world that arrive in Tucson every February. This month-long show draws vendors and buyers from practically every country. The main focus is gemstones, minerals and jewelry, but ethnic arts, crafts and collectibles are there in abundance too.
An amethyst geode from Brazil outside the JOGS show last year. How they get these giant gems there is a mystery...one that I will solve over the next week! I promise to let you know how they do it.
The super-sized minerals at the show are often as inspiring as the beads, cut gems and jewelry. Its hard to not be impressed when you are standing next to a crystal twice as tall as you are or a geode big enough to be a bathtub. Metaphysics aside, the atmosphere created by so many big, beautiful hunks of mother nature is intoxicating, energizing and at times distracting.
I am not sure who buys these giant rocks or what they do with them after they buy them. Every year I have fantasies of bringing several home for my yard and my studio. I have resisted....so far.
The show is staged in hotels, parking lots and convention centers all over the city of Tucson. Even if you stay for the entire month, it is difficult to visit every venue because there are so many. Since the shows are occupying hundreds of hotel rooms there are less rooms for buyers. Some hotels are fully booked a year in advance for February dates.
People who live in Tucson either love the show or hate it. If they are business owners they are happy for the influx of tourism, but residents seem universally annoyed with the traffic and congestion.
I am excited to see what new treasures await me at this years show. Every year I am surprised and delighted with what I find.
