The shows are a microcosm of the world community. There are the posh, very exclusive top-of-the-line wholesale shows where you must be able to provide documents showing you own or work for a successful jewelry business in order to get in. The floors are carpeted, the atmosphere is professional, and everyone is dressed up.
Then there are the shows open to the public. These include the big Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the Convention Center, which this year runs the weekend of Feb. 8-11. Then there are shows just for minerals, some wholesale, some open to the public as well. Beyond gems and rocks, there are at least three bead shows, a couple for fossils, at least one for New Age items, and others devoted to African and Indian Art. Some shows, like the one at the Holidome, carry lots of finished jewelry as well as loose stones, chains, and equipment. The jewelry supply company Rio Grande has its own show for its customers called Catalog in Motion. A full list of the shows and whether or not they are open to the public, can be found here: http://www.tucsonshowguide.com/tsg/show_index.cfm
Seventeen years ago, when I first started coming to Tucson, I was interested in obtaining sculptural mineral specimens and nature-theme jewelry to put into a catalog I was creating called Heart of Stone. I didn't realize it then, but I was joining the ranks of thousands of gift shop owners from around the country who were hunting down their coming year's inventory. New jewelry designs, with the "in" stones, were available in Tucson before the rest of the country saw them. The latest souvenir idea--be it bookends, geodes with little statues inside, or fairy necklaces--would be interpreted in dozens of ways throughout the shows.
To give you an idea of what the shows are like, let me take you inside one of the motels along I-10. You have to get there early if you want to find a parking space in the motel's parking lot. Otherwise, you'll have to park far away and take the shuttle or walk. (In actuality, the city offers regular free shuttle buses that run routes past all the show venues, so the shuttle is actually a very smart thing to use.)
Even before you get inside the show, there are usually white tents set up outside the motel, for dealers who need more space. Under the tents are tables laden with minerals of all types--specimens from golf-ball size, coffee-table size, all the way up to huge ones weighing hundreds to thousands of pounds. Usually the dealer prefers to sell his minerals in flats--boxes containing anywhere from a dozen to a hundred specimens. The flats are usually sold at wholesale prices. Depending upon the type of minerals he carries, a dealer might also offer slabs, bookends, statues, spheres, eggs, bowls and plates--and all of these are usually available in quantity as well.
Once you're inside the motel, every public space will be given over to displays--parts of the lobby, the entire ballroom, every meeting and conference room, any courtyards, even wide hallways have tables lining them. Moreover, you'll find that all the rooms have been booked. Not for regular people, but for the dealers. As you walk the halls, each and every room holds a different dealer and his wares. The usual way that it works is that a dealer and his/her assistant (often a spouse) rent that motel room and live in it for two weeks. All the furniture (except for the bed and a chair or two) is replaced by the dealer's tables and showcases. Every morning, the bed is made, the bathroom door is closed, the halogen display lights are turned on, and the room becomes a store. Little signs above each doorway stick out and let people walking down the hall find that business. And from 10am to 6pm every day for two weeks, those poor dealers live, work, sleep and eat in the same room. I've talked to the dealers and it is a grinding marathon for most of them.
Although it's keenly interesting and often great fun to shop these shows, in the long run, it's also exhausting to tour one of these hotels after another. Many of them have at least two wings of rooms, three floors in each wing, totalling hundreds of dealers, and millions of items to be seen. Ground floor dealers let their wares spill out onto patios behind and patches of lawn in front of their rooms, which are so expensive to rent that every inch of display space is very precious. Some years the weather is hot, so the rooms are stifling, especially if the air conditioning fails, which it sometimes does. Last year the electricity went out in one motel, leaving frustrated dealers and buyers sitting in the dusky semi-darkness.
The positive thing about the rooms is that they create their own little worlds where you can not only shop, but also get to know the dealer. If things are slow, they love to talk with you and tell you about the materials they're selling. You can introduce yourself, tell them about your work, and begin to build a business relationship that often will last for years. When you buy from them, you give them your business card and that will get you on their mailing list. They will send you either a catalog, or notices of other shows they're doing, or at the very least, their location at next year's Tucson show, so that you can find them again. Often, by the second year, they will remember you and you'll become a regular customer, eligible for special treatment.
The negative thing about the rooms is that when more than three people walk in, the place usually gets very crowded. It's hard to see what's in the displays without bumping into somebody. If that becomes a problem, then what I usually do is leave (carefully jotting down the location and what I saw there that I want to see again), and come back later.
The definitive online guide to the Tucson show, including maps, times and dates, and a listing of dealers by name, show, or type of wares, is this website: http://www.tucsonshowguide.com/tsg/show_index.cfm However, once you're in the city and the show has started, stop by the front entrance of any hotel or even the convention center and pick up a printed version of the guide, which is very helpful.
next, my take on individual shows...
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