BY SUZANNE WADE

“What is Tucson?” someone recently asked on the Orchid online forum for jewelers. “Is it worth traveling a distance for?”

Dozens of responses came from as far away as Thailand and Brazil — and were all a resounding, “Yes, it’s worth the travel — wherever you’re traveling from!” But the first half of the question — “What is Tucson?” — proved to be a little trickier.

The simple answer is that Tucson is a collection of gem and mineral shows. But that doesn’t even begin to do justice to the glorious hodge-podge of merchandise on display in this desert town during two hectic weeks in February.

An elbaite (tourmaline) specimen from Mozambique, 7.8 cm; from the Bill Larson Collection. Photo © Jeff Scovil.

Quartzsite may offer more bargains, Munich more artistry, but Tucson offers everything, from the work of world-renowned gem carvers to rough material sold out of the back of a pickup truck. And that’s just the beginning: in various venues at Tucson, you can find delicate mineral specimens and five-foot-high amethyst geodes; handcrafted lampworked beads and heaps of mass-produced gemstone chip beads; exquisitely preserved fossil fish and coprolite by the pound. If you wander just a little way from the 25-odd official gem, mineral, jewelry, bead, and fossil shows, sidewalk vendors offer pottery, African art, and T-shirts. When you’re ready to take a break from shopping, you can take courses in everything from gemology to bead stringing, and perhaps even try out that rolling mill or graver that you’ve been eyeing in the mail-order catalogs.

“Going to Tucson is like going to the local swap meet, going to the Louvre, and going to Disneyland, all rolled into one,” says Caryn “Bede” Walsh, a jewelry designer and bead enthusiast from Apache Junction, Arizona, who has visited the Tucson shows for each of the past six years. “It’s a lot of fun, and there’s excitement everywhere. It’s traditional to unveil new treasures at Tucson, so you’re looking at new minerals, a new way of cutting, a new way of presenting [gems], or some fossil exhibit that’s new. And you’ll hear not just different accents, but people speaking their native tongues, so it has a very international flavor.”

	Gem cutter Gerry Galarneau and his partner, Larry McCoy, start cutting stones in the summer to be ready for the Tucson shows. Shown here is a pair of concave-cut ametrines, cut by Galarneau, set in earrings by Donna Law. Photo: Jeff Scovil.

“There’s this international community there for about a month every year, which is quite amazing,” says Los Angeles jewelry designer Beth Rosengard. “[It’s amazing] the resources and the people and the energy and the spirit — and the incredible variety of materials. I don’t think you can find it anywhere else.”

Tucson is a giant, exotic bazaar,” says Judy Willingham, a relative newcomer with two years of Tucson under her belt. “It’s not just one parking lot or even in one section of the city. Every fraternal hall, every open space, every hotel is hosting some sort of show.”

This year, the total of shows will top 30, ranging from shows featuring thousands of gem dealers from around the world to showroom shows exhibiting the eclectic wares of a handful of local artisans. While many are wholesale only, others will be open to both wholesale buyers and retail customers, while others will focus on the retail trade almost exclusively. A complete list of shows is published in the Lapidary Journal calendar and by the Tucson Show Guide on their Web site.

New this year will be a Bead Renaissance show at the Shriners Sabbar Temple on South Tucson Boulevard. The show will feature 35 exhibitors offering both handcrafted and manufactured beads, as well as vintage beads, bead books, and beading tools.

The theme of this year’s Tucson Gem & Mineral Society show (the “Main Show”) is African materials — covering such specimens as this azurite crystal from Tsumeb, Namibia. 4.7 cm high; from the E. Asselborn Collection. Photo © Jeff Scovil.

Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers will also expand their show offerings with the opening of the Gem Mall site, two blocks from the Holidome show. Although a permanent structure is planned for the future, this year a giant tent will house the expected 100 to 150 exhibitors. The site will also continue to provide hundreds of free parking spaces, which Walsh calls one of the best bargains in Tucson.

A familiar sight to returning visitors: a table groaning with agate at one of the open-air markets that stretch along the freeway that parallels Highway 10. Photo: Michael Leslie.

For gem enthusiasts who don’t have a retail license — and so are denied access to the large wholesale shows — a new retail show run by GJX (Gem & Jewelry Exchange) may make a trip to Tucson even more worthwhile this year. The show, which will be open to the public for a small admission fee, will be held in the big GJX tent near the Tucson Convention Center on February 14-17.

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show — the club show that started the whole Tucson phenomenon — will be held February 14-17, and will feature exhibits focusing on the gems and minerals of Africa. Open to the public, the show also incorporates a strong educational component for children, including a hands-on maze of earth science displays.

Adult educational opportunities will be found at AGTA’s (American Gem Trade Association) show at the Tucson Convention Center February 6-11, where a full spectrum of classes in gemology and jewelry design will be offered.

Tucson offers a wealth of gems, both in the form of loose stones and carved objects. A Brazilian blue-green tourmaline cut by Mark Gronlund (photo © Jeff Scovil)

Classes can also be found at Rio Grande’s Catalog in Motion show at the Tucson Hilton East, February 8-11, where the company will host several introductory jewelry-making courses, including classes on stone setting and bead stringing. This year, several prominent jewelry schools, including the Revere Academy and the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology, will sponsor presentations as well.

Two Nigerian spessartine garnets, 7.81 tcw. (photo © Jeff Scovil).

For pure gemstone artistry, visitors can stop by the Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association show at the Radisson Hotel City Center to view a special exhibition from the German Gemstone Museum, brought to Tucson by the Idar-Oberstein Group gem dealers. The hotel will also host a Crystal Galleria in the patio, featuring carvings and sculptures by such noted artists as Lawrence Stoller, Amador Braojas, and the members of North American Gem Carvers.Although dozens of shows and thousands of vendors would seem enough of a draw to make Tucson supreme among gem shows, Tucson lays equal claim to fame in its role as the place to see the new and noteworthy. “I go with the idea in mind that I want to look for the unusual and the unique and different — stuff that I can’t get in the Los Angeles area, where I live. And we have four excellent commercial gem and mineral shows a year, plus tons of club shows,” says Beth Rosengard. “But I can’t stay within my budget [in Tucson] because there’s always something else unique and different to see.”

An exquisitely carved bottle of chartreuse quartz with a Mexican opal stopper, by carver Gil Roberts

With such a reputation, Tucson draws gems dealers, bead makers, and mineral and fossil sellers from across the globe. “If you are a cutter or a wholesaler, Tucson is the place to be,” says gem cutter Gerry Galarneau of Phoenix, Arizona. “Tucson is the biggest venue we have for reaching customers who use new [gem] designs. They are very interested in seeing new - that’s what they’re there for.” Galarneau’s preparations for the February shows begin the summer before, when he and partner Larry McCoy start cutting hundreds of unique concave-faceted gemstones to sell at the show. “The buyers we’re after appreciate the uniqueness of design and the quality of the work,” he says. “We will have buyers in Tucson who can step up and buy the whole line of custom stones that we have made.”

Betty Sue King of King’s Ransom in Sausalito, California, also tries to introduce new material at Tucson — this year her big find will be a fossilized coral with distinctive grey and white patterns. “I always try to find something new. It might be a new color, a new shape, or a new combination, but there’s always something,” King says. “New [items] are exciting because designers get something different to work with, and that puts them on the creative edge. Plus I have other things to offer in combination with pearls, and that makes it more fun for me and more fun for my clients to come by and sniff and scratch.”

Beads — stone, glass, handmade, vintage — are among the fastest-growing segments of Tucson trade. Amber French made this necklace using beads she bought in Tucson.

Beads have become another big Tucson draw in recent years. “I find a lot of beads in Tucson and I find every year there are more and more,” says Walsh. “There are vintage dealers now, for example, and I didn’t find that at first.” Walsh notes that beads are readily available at a number of wholesale shows as well as the dedicated bead shows, and the options include glass, stones, pearls, handcrafted, and manufactured beads.

Caryn Walsh made her Sonoran Sensation necklace using Bali silver she bought at the Rodeway, pearls from the Holidome, citrines from the shows along the freeway, and glass beads that she made from supplies she bought at the Best Bead Show. Photo: David Orr.

The shows also attract a variety of bead buyers, says Amber French, a bead maker from Texas. “There’s more art appreciation [in Tucson] than I’ve seen in New Mexico or Texas,” she says. “And the more appreciation you get for a specific work, then the more you’re going to see of it, and you’re going to have higher quality.”

French notes that the Tucson shows have proven to be an excellent opportunity to introduce jewelry designers and store owners to high quality, handcrafted beads. “People get really interested, and start asking where the technique originated, how it’s done and what it is, and then they start really looking at the beads and often times they start buying,” she says.

The result is that in a relatively short period of time, Tucson has become one of the biggest bead draws in the country, as well as a gem, mineral, fossil, and jewelry extravaganza. “There were so many [bead] artists whose work I had seen in books, but had never met,” French recalls from her first trip to Tucson. “And that’s where they were.”

“That’s where they were,” could be the Tucson motto. Whether you’re looking for fine rubies or faceting rough by the pound, mineral specimens, great fossils, beads by the bushel, or the newest jewelry tools, you’ll find them somewhere in this desert oasis. Happy hunting!