The best layed plans...

Once again at the mercy of technology. It's Sunday, day five of the Tucson Gem Show and I finally have Internet! It's not for lack of trying. At one point I tried to post from my phone. I got onto blogger. I even logged in and typed out a post feverishly wielding my stylus, but when it came down to pushing the post button? The post button wasn't active. But enough of failures,I have seen so many wonderful things and met so many wonderful people. Where do I start.

If you've never done Tucson during the Gem and Mineral Show season it's wacky. Every convention hall, hotel, motel, city park, and vacant lot is filled with dealers from all over the world peddling their wholesale gems, minerals, fossils and beads and everything else you can think would go with it. Last year was our first year and it was overwhelming. This year we came with a shopping list, a map of shows, and a game plan.

Our first stop was by chance but it was on my hit list. Deep in the heart of the Tucson year round gem and mineral district was the Madagascar Minerals and Gems Show. We encountered a dealer of mineral specimens and fossils who could win a sales award. He redefined not taking no for an answer. He was there to bargain. We started out looking at a pair of earring sized Ammonites and wound up walking out of there with a flat of them (50 pairs) a stone dinner plate with fossils in it (not sure how we only got away with buying one) and this bowl that had fossil critters arranged in them artistically. It isn't natural but it's awesome. We had dropped some serious dough but it was a very good bargain which we found out a few days later.

From there we went to the Manning House Bead Show. A very different show than last year but they had some cool dealers. The ladies from Goddess were there(they have boothes at several of the venues). I made a few purchases and we pressed on to the next show. I was taking classes at the Manning House and would be back later in the week.

Not all shows start on the same day,which is nice because it spreads it out over a few weeks but confusing if you don't look at the schedule before walking into a venue. I mention this so that you don't make the same mistake we did. We tried to go to our next show one day early. They weren't set up yet. So we pressed on.

Next on the tour was the Renaissance Bead Show. A very small show filled with some gem and bead dealers there was one with felting supplies and there was a lot of worked glass. There were glass beads, lampwork and fused glass.

We met two ladies manning a booth that sold hand painted glass beads from Ghana. It was a charitable organization called Nyame Adom Foundation of America which assists orphaned children in Ghana to be self sustaining. One of their ventures is making hand painted glass beads that are then sold through a website. The sales from the beads goes to food clothing, medicine, education and more supplies to make the beads. You can find more information on their website at www.beadtofeed.org. 100% of the proceeds goes to the orphans.

More to come... I have to go out and do more shows!!