So far, I've discussed four shows and I've just scratched the surface of what Tucson has to offer. Here are some others worth seeing:
GLDA (Gem & Lapidary Dealers Association) Wholesale. This show is at the Starr Pass Marriott Resort, southwest of downtown. Marriott Starr Pass is a fairly new resort complex set into a hillside desert landscape and is quite spectacular. Although it is at the west end of Starr Pass Road, it's actually not that far from downtown. If you get there early, you can park in one of the hotel's remote lots (there are no visitor parking lots immediately adjacent to the hotel). A shuttle bus runs quite frequently between the parking lots and the resort complex.
GLDA used to have its show at the former Holiday Inn next to the convention center. This is the third year at this new venue. The primary strength of this show is finished jewelry, although it does sell loose gemstones, including colored stones and diamonds, also fancy colored diamonds. If you are in the market for top-quality finished jewelry, this is the place to visit.
Days Inn. Open to the public. I've been to Marrakesh and Fez in Morocco and this show is the closest I've come in the States to the experience of a souk, or outdoor market. It's a cross between a rock show and a bazaar, complete with food cooking on sizzling grills, music, jugglers and dancers, ethnic jewelry and statuary, and wares laid out on carpets on the ground. You might want to save it for last and come just for its entertainment value, but don't bypass it entirely because there are some wonderful small gem dealers here with beautiful stones at great values. The Days in is on the west side of I-10 close to downtown.
Rio Grande's Catalog in Motion. Open to Rio Grande customers, which is open to anyone who wants to register. This is a cross between an equipment show and a major educational conference. For those who don't know, Rio Grande is one of the largest jewelers' supply companies in the country, if not the largest. Every year they rent out the lower portion of the Tucson East Hilton on east Broadway and invite all their customers to come see what they have to offer.
If you are a jeweler with a fascination for tools and equipment, you will walk into the ballroom of the Hilton and thing you've died and gone to heaven. The entire place is packed with booths featuring everything from tiny saw blades, jeweler's files, and rotary disc polishers for Foredom tools, through pearl stringing tools, stone setting tools, engravers, wax-carving tools and injection machines, casting and soldering equipment and laser welders, all the way to CAD-CAM programs and machines that will automatically carve 3-D waxes of whatever you design on a computer. Just about every category of tool and equipment that Rio Grande sells has at least one product, often new, on display.
But what is absolutely the neatest thing is that for every piece of equipment out on display, there is someone demonstrating how to use it. You get to watch and ask questions, compare different models, and often save money because many of the items are slightly reduced in price for the duration of the four-day show. For people like me who love to learn how to work things, this is paradise. From the proper way to hold an engraver, to how to use a mini-lathe, it's all demonstrated here at your request. Plus, most of the books that Rio carries are out on racks for you to leaf through so you know what you're buying. Can this get any better? Well, yes, it can:
In addition to the small sales-related demos going on in the ballroom, the lobby has an area set up as a lecture hall with a jeweler's bench on a raised platform and a special closeup camera set up so that you can watch a live video on a big screen with a closeup of whatever the lecturer is doing at the bench. And for all four days of the show, jewelry experts will be offering free demonstrations of special techniques, from texturing metal surfaces to carving wax seats for gemstones. There is seating in this area for about 100 people, and most every session is SRO, so make sure you get there at least 20 minutes early if you want to get a seat.
In addition to the free lectures, there are also fee-based workshops on everything from pearl-stringing to beginning jewelry topics. So if your town doesn't offer jewelry-making classes, you can come to the Catalog in Motion and soak up a wealth of information on techniques and equipment. If you are new to jewelry-making, or you are a beader or wire-wrapper and want to get a better idea of what is involved in metalsmithing, you can come here and get a hands-on introduction.
Rio Grande offers this event both to serve its customers and, of course, to sell more equipment and supplies. So you have to register, but you can do that at the front desk. I really don't know whether or not you must have a customer number to get in; if you are concerned about that I suggest you contact them at their website: www.riogrande.com or call them at their 800 number, also listed on the site. And while you can't buy anything directly at the Catalog in Motion, order forms are handy and you can place orders right there, which is really helpful if you want to save on their discounted show specials.
Arizona Mineral and Fossil Shows, The Executive Inn Mineral and Fossil Show, and The Mineral and Fossil Co-Op Even if you don't collect fossils or use them in your jewelry, I would urge you to stop by at least one of these venues before you leave Tucson. They are absolutely fascinating. Yes, they have flats of ammonites, slabs of fossil fish, piles of shark teeth and other fossil-y things for sale, but they also have the most amazing things on display. One year I saw full standing skeletons of a wooly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger, a small dinosaur, and an ancient crocodilian on display. And the Chinese usually bring their restored baby wooly mammoth that was found frozen in an ice sheet somewhere. It's more fun than a museum because you can get up close to all the displays, and also talk to people who know all about them. A must for fossil-lovers.
Lastly, there are several bead shows that are all worth visiting, as well as various mineral shows in the smaller hotels. You can easily spend five days here shopping continuously and still not see everything. But I hope this gives you a "taste of the Tucson show." If you don't have the time, the money, or the inclination to come out here and fight the crowds and walk eight hours a day sorting through zillions of items until you find fabulous gemstones, don't worry, because I'll be there doing it for you, and bringing the best of the show back to the Heart of Stone Studio website!
Next, tips on what to pack....
Comments