Tucson 2011 - Day 4

The older I get, the longer it seems to take me to recover from a whole day of Tucson Gem show. It's noon and I am still in my robe, drinking coffee and taking it easy.

Yesterday I hit the Grant Inn (old Rodeway) show. I've always enjoyed it as there is a range of the $1.30 booth (cheap beadwork) to clothing designers and a great source of bulk findings in different metals. Rumor has it that there will not be a show at that location next year.

I had not been to the JOGS show before and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was in a large building, not a tent. Walking in reminded me of an old downtown department store. The displays were nicely done and a lot of them were a cut above the messy table of things for sale. There was a whole wing of Russian amber and it was like being in a different country. There was Guatemalan bead work from a cooperative, Native American silver & turquoise and lots of just plain interesting things.



I found these agate beads that they were calling Wood Agate. What great rusty colors that made the beads look like they came out of an old iron factory. I was right to think they would make a good combination with the black steel wire work that I have been playing with. Wrought iron looking wire and rusty beads- great pairing. What do you think?



One of the most interesting thing I found was this old ivory. Mr. Doak found a lot of ivory scrap in England 35 years ago tucked away in a warehouse. It was decades of the cutoffs from making brushes and piano keys. He bought it and brought it to the States. It's legal, old ivory. He, and his family do this as sort of a hobby and take a booth at Tucson about every 4 years. As it's a hobby material they don't sell at any other time. I bought a baggie of piano key trimmings. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but the thin strips fascinated me. I could have totally ruined my remaining budget buying other bits & pieces, including pound bags of interesting scrap. I enjoy manufacturing scrap of any sort. Finding jewelery in such castoffs fascinates me. Update: they do have a website, it's
William V. Doak.
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I realized that I had not shown you what I had to purchase as I was leaving the Best Bead Show the other day. I guess you could say that Beverly Herman, from New Orleans, made me do this. She tried the Dragon Bracelet in the latest BeadWork and we've been going back & forth about bead crocheting with these long Magatamas. So far no success as they are difficult to crochet and they are directional. They have to be strung in all the same direction. However, we've not given up just yet - there has to be a way to make them work correctly.