Out of Money= Bye Bye Tucson

I am fairly certain that the Tucson Gem Fair goes on for ever.  It's endless, a bottomless pit of beads metals and rocks.   I mean it may be possible to see everything there is to see but I have never even tackled one fourth of it.  Did I mention its massive?   Running out of money and heavy suitcases--- thats what prompts me to leave every year.

When we began our trips to Tucson seven years ago, you could fill your suitcases to the brim- as long as you could lug them out of the car onto the sidewalk, you were golden.  Times have changed!  I shipped 150 lbs of beads home UPS and we still had to shuffle weight between our 4 bags at the airport.   Bless Southwest for letting you take 2 bags on for free you can actually take 7 more for $50 each (cheaper to ship UPS or FedEx Ground).  So we packed up our jewels, our piles of receipts, business cards and our new design ideas and headed for home.

Everything You Can Think Of

This is Taunya Olsen of Ellie Collections.  We love to do the Gem Fair together, I think this was our fourth.  It's amazing, we some times buy the same beads but never ever come up with the same finished designs. Taunya is one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet,  but something very sinister happens when she gets a really great deal.

After a particularly long day of shopping, I was done! Finished! Dead! And just at the moment I was ready to throw in the towel, I saw these little babies. I mean who wouldn't want to wear happy little traffic cones?  With that I was buoyed up and ready to roll again.  Didn't I tell you- They have everything here?

They even thought of parking for you man!

I'm telling you if they don't have it at the Gem Fair I swear- you don't need it!!!!!

Tucson Gem Fair 2010

I can't think of a better place to kick off a blog about wearing jewelry, buying jewelry and stacking on style than the Tucson Gem Fair. I am in lovely downtown Tucson for my 7th show. Always at the begining of February, The Tucson Gem Fair is the largest gem and mineral buying show in the world. It is so hard to explain how massive the scale of this show is. Have a look at this photo.

This is one vendor's booth, which is crammed next to another vendor's booth and on and on until you have filled a tent the size of a football field. Next to this tent is another tent equally full of jewelry. Imagine close to 30 of these tents spread out around Tucson. It is one of the most overwhelming things you could ever behold. I cant even get through two of these tents in one day. And I am a crazy fast shopper!!!