A few of the Tucson shows are open earlier than the weekend, so here we go. JOGS and 22nd Street Show are two of the early open shows and they both have free parking. As the days progress the other shows will open.
JOGS used to be a wholesale show, but is now wholesale and retail, with various IDs issued. The JOGS has around 800 vendors, with some not rock-related. We saw garments and gift store items from India, wood carvings, purses. Primarily we saw rocks, geodes, beads, silver, and finished jewelry. We always shop for druzies here. After having fun sorting through these druzy piles, the rest of the time is hunt and seek things we didn’t know we needed. You never know who you might see. While selecting opal doublets, we ran into a gentleman from back home also carefully picking through the opal doublets. Often we see opal triplets, but seldom doublets, which have a thicker opal layer than the triplets. It was nice to go through the unsorted boxes of opals. So many opals!
After sorting opals I looked up and saw a man I recognized, but couldn’t place him. I finally remembered I had seen him on TV selling jewelry. We have a friend who often talks about the information she learned from Jay King. I often watch the Jewelry channels which are famous for women gushing over the jewelry. Jay knows the history of the rock as well as the manufacture of jewelry. Our friend Beth often comments on what she learned from Jay, so I collected an autograph from him for our friend. He commented on the triple Dinosaur Bone pendant I was wearing. He mentioned that he has sold Dinosaur Bone on a limited basis before. You never know who you might see at the gem shows, so keep your eyes open.
JOGS does not allow picture taking, but some of the dealers were agreeable, so you can see a few things we enjoyed. My policy is to always ask if I can take a picture. Beautiful carved jade sea turtles were the first things that caught my eye. Later I was impressed by gem grade rhodochrosite, some including galena. They had great slabs, carvings and fascinating stalactite rough. They had some rough stalactite pieces with beautiful eyes. I was inspired by a couple small slab pieces and purchased them. Much of their rhodochrosite was solid crystal, dark pink and interesting quality.
This show is a good source for turquoise, including buckets from various closed mines. Treated and untreated turquoise, finished jewelry, cabs, and lots of rough are available. Bonnie was wearing the untreated Sleeping Beauty piece I recently made, and we didn’t see any that color verifying that it is a rare beauty! Even the dealers were amazed at this old stock piece.
A big dog bone
Natural Topaz rough
Boxed of Moroccan Ammonites
Friend Jacquie and Bonnie looking for a knight in shining armor at 22nd stree.
Lots of petrified wood
A Really unusual fossil
What you’d see if you were about to be attacked by a Romanian cave bear.
This booth had everything from mastadon tusks to a megaladon mouth.
Bonnie in a sea of fossils and geodes.
Beautiful iridescent Canadian ammonites
Beautiful butterfly displays in abundance at this booth.
After lunch we moved on to the 22nd Street Show. The tent has grown again, and is packed full of vendors, has new lighting, and a wide variety of stuff. Major Fossil dealers are selling large dinosaurs, lots of Moroccan sellers, high quality Australian rock, crystals, cabochons, hand made jewelry, knives. I also saw the miners from the Prospectors TV show, and spoke with Geoff Notkin from the Meteorite Men. If you are bringing kids, this show has a wide variety and prices covering the gamut.
I was lucky to find something today that has been on my wish list for a few years. This hint is some bait so you’ll come back for tomorrow’s blog where I will show you what I bought!