A Tab-Mounted Gemstone Pendant

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Maria Langer

I make my first tab-mounted gemstone pendant.

The definition of cabochon from Merriam-Webster dictionary.

I have about 500 gemstone cabochons in my collection these days. When customers marvel at them on display, I joke that “I make jewelry to support my stone habit.” Sadly, although it’s a pithy punchline, it’s also kind of true.

I made this Picasso Stone Jasper in sterling silver and copper pendant recently.

I use the cabochons (or “cabs”) three ways:

I make silver and/or copper framed pendants from cabochons I select from my collection.
I let customers select cabochons from my collection and make silver and/or copper framed pendants for them.
I sell cabochons from my collection. (Yes, I mark them up from their purchase price. No, I don’t double the cost to come up with my price.)

That Rose Quartz Cab

I purchase most of the cabochons at gem and mineral shows or directly from lapidaries. I do, however, also have a CabKing cabochon maker, which I can use to make my own cabs from rough or slabs. While I’m glad I have the CabKing, I honestly don’t use it enough to make it worth buying. The trouble is, it takes a long time to make a cab — sometimes an hour or more per stone. So unless I can’t get a cab elsewhere, it just doesn’t make sense for me to make it myself. At this point, I use it to make cabs from local stones such as petrified wood, obsidian, Ellensburg Blue agate, and Washington State jade.

But back when I first got it, I made a bunch of cabs from stones I’d bought to tumble. One of them was a piece of rose quartz that, for some reason, I’d cabbed into a triangle. (What was I thinking?) The piece sat in my collection for well over a year. It was time to do something with it.

Tab Mounting Ideas

I pulled it out on Sunday and took a good look at it. I wanted to use it with one point down, but I knew that it would look ridiculous framed in wire. And then I realized that it might be a candidate for a new (to me) technique I wanted to try: tab mounting.

Tab mounting requires you to take a piece of metal and cut tabs into it that you can then bend up and over the stone to secure it in place. I had seen a few videos about the technique and even read up on it in some of my jewelry making books. Coincidentally, I had passed on a jewelry making class in Tacoma that very weekend that covered tab-mounting. (I had already driven to the west side of the mountains three times this autumn and felt that was enough.) Maybe it was time to try it myself.

I took out a piece of paper and started sketching — which is something I rarely do. (I have no drawing skills.) I came up with an idea that might work, however, and got very excited about giving it a try. Unfortunately, I was at my day table booth in Pybus Market for the day and had agreed to meet a friend at the neighborhood winery afterwards. So it wasn’t until Monday morning, after dropping off my truck for some maintenance, that I had a chance to explore my idea.

Making the Pendant

Here’s the sketch with the stone positioned on top. Because the stone was translucent, I wanted the area behind it to be mostly empty.

Here’s the sketch without the stone. I shaded in the area that would be cut away.

I glued the sketch diagonally on one end of the metal strip.

Here’s what the piece looked like after it was cut.

I started by re-sketching the idea. You see, it required a lot of cutting with a jeweler’s saw — a skill I learned last year during the three-day Beginner Intensive Metalworking class at the Tacoma Metal Arts Center. I’d been taught to take what I wanted to cut and paste it onto the metal with rubber cement. After it was cut, the paper could be peeled off.

So I traced the stone on paper, drew dashed lines to mark the center, sketched in the tabs I’d need to cut out, and then drew the pendant’s border around the stone. I shaded in the area that would be cut away, mostly so I wouldn’t make any mistake about where I cut.

Then I prepared the metal. I planned to use 22 gauge copper for this first experiment. I needed a piece approximately 2-1/4 inches wide so I cut a strip that wide with my bench shear. I wanted the metal textured and decided to use my rolling mill to keep the texture uniform. It was important to roll the copper before cutting it since rolling it tends to stretch it a bit. I picked a texture plate and rolled it out.

Next, I cut out my sketch with a pair of scissors and glued it to the textured metal. It didn’t matter which way the texture ran so I placed it on the metal to minimize waste.

Now the fun part (not!): cutting. There were two cutting techniques required for this piece:

Cut around the outside of the template. This was easy — I did it with a pair of metal shears.
Pierce cut along the black lines inside the pattern to remove the shaded area. This required me to drill a small hole in the shaded area (to pierce it) and then thread a thin blade on my jeweler’s saw through the hole. Then, resting the piece on my bench pin, I sawed on the lines. Although this wasn’t particularly difficult — the jeweler’s saw is made for this kind of work — it was time consuming. And I did break three saw blades. (#4/0 blades are a lot thinner than the #2 blade I use for most of my work. Fortunately, I buy all my blades in 24-blade package.)

Once it was cut out, I peeled away the paper and cleaned any remnants of glue off the piece. Then I spent a while doing my least favorite thing: filing and sanding the rough edges. One of these days, I will find the perfect tool for doing this quickly and consistently. Monday was not that day.

At this point, I could have mounted the stone and finish up. But I wanted to use another technique to add some creative elements to the metal: fusing sterling silver onto its surface. I dug into my sterling scrap bag — I recycle all my sterling silver — and pulled out a piece of 22 gauge square wire. I cut it to length and curled its ends into a pair of spirals. Then I took my beloved solder cutting tool and chopped up the remaining square wire into tiny pieces. I positioned all this silver onto various places on the textured copper and laid it out on the charcoal block at my soldering station.

I cannot say enough good things about this torch, which can supposedly reach 2500°F and doesn’t have sissy features like child-proof ignition.

I used my new Blazer Big Shot butane torch to melt the silver onto the copper. This is something I’d learned earlier in the month at a jewelry making class. It’s not difficult to do, but it does require your full attention and quick reflexes. I wanted the tiny chips fully melted but I wanted to retain the shape of the swirls. I think I did a decent job, although I wish I could have melted the left swirl a little better.

As you might imagine, the copper got very hot — glowing red. I let it cool naturally on the block for a short while, which really didn’t make sense because charcoal really holds the heat. Finally, I quenched it in some water and dried it off. It was very black. I used a 280 grit radial polisher on my flex shaft to clean it off, then repeated the process with a 400 grit polisher to give it more shine.

I was going to do some fire painting to bring some more color into the copper, but so little copper showed through the silver that I didn’t think it was worthwhile.

Here’s the almost finished piece. I still have to add a bail at the top. It’s interesting the way the silver appears shiny in some places and blackened in others. I like that look. I’ll probably make a pair of simple copper with fused silver earrings to go with it, using the same spiral motif.

So, instead, I just mounted the stone. It was easy enough to do: I pulled the four tabs forward, bending them where they joined the rest of the piece. To my utter amazement, the stone fit perfectly between them. I bent the tabs back over the stone. It was all very easy to do since the piece had been annealed when I melted the silver.

I’m very happy with the results. I know that this kind of jewelry isn’t for everyone, but neither are my sterling/copper framed cabochon pendants. I think it’s important to have a variety of items to appeal to many people. I can see making a “line” of jewelry in this style. Every piece, of course, would be different.

I can make silver pendants this way, but I can’t melt copper onto them. I’d have to use other techniques to make the pendant’s backing interesting: texturing, stamping, antiquing, etc. It’s exciting to me, in a way, because I get to try different things. When I show them at art shows, etc., I see the reaction of shoppers and learn what works and doesn’t work.

Two Jewelry Classes

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Maria Langer

I take the camper to Tacoma to learn more about making jewelry.

Note: I actually wrote this and much of the post after it about my new cargo trailer back in early October while I was still traveling. I can’t tell you how many blog posts I start writing and don’t finish. This one’s done. I’ll try to get the other one done this week, too.

Last September, I took a 3-day intensive beginner metalworking class at the Tacoma Metal Arts Center in Tacoma, WA. It was an amazing experience that really transformed the way I think of making jewelry. I learned a bunch of metal working skills and how to use new (to me) tools that would take me to the next level in my work: cutting, soldering, texturing, shaping, and polishing sheet metal using jeweler’s saws, shears, torches, flex shafts and attachments, dapping blocks and punches, rolling mills, texture plates, and burnishing tools. I left class with the basic tools I’d need to practice what I’d learned.

Getting Serious about Jewelry Making

Over the winter, I decided to get serious about making jewelry. I paid a contractor friend to frame in a 12 x 24 foot space in my absurdly large garage so we could make an insulated shop for me. That would give me a climate controlled space to work on jewelry projects. While I was in Arizona over the winter, I shopped for the tools and equipment I’d need to set up a full-blown annealing/soldering station and jeweler’s workbench. When I returned from Arizona, I ran the wiring in the new shop and my friend returned to put in the insulation and drywall while I fastened T1-11 paneling to the two outside walls facing into the garage. Then I painted the inside of the room and added some trim around the windows. I installed the two glass-paned doors last week with another friend. The room is large and bright from its two windows and four track light setups, with an 8-foot ceiling and 288 square feet of loft space above it that I’ll likely never use.

Some shop tools purchased from Rio Grande earlier this year: a Durston Agile 110 Rolling Mill, a Swanstrom Round Disc Cutter, and a Precision 12″ Bench Shear. (Catalog photos not to scale; the disc cutter is actually quite small.)

With the help of the folks at Rio Grande — my primary supplier of metals — I purchased a few rather costly quality tools: a Durston rolling mill, a Swanstrom disc cutter, and a PepeTools ring bender. I also acquired a set of dapping blocks/punches and a metal shear almost as good as a true guillotine style cutter. I moved my jeweler’s bench into my new space, putting it right beneath one window where I’d get plenty of natural light. I built a solid workbench for the corner where I bolted down the rolling mill. Then I moved in the rolling storage cabinets I’d been collecting for years, set up one as my soldering station, another as my rock storage and jewelry photography studio, and a third as storage for the display and packaging equipment I’d accumulated. Half the room is set up as a jewelry studio while the other half is my regular workshop with the big workbench I built several years ago, my tool chest, and the rolling cart I’d converted into a storage and charging area for my power tools. My table saw, miter saw, tile saw, and Cabking cab making machine remain in the garage, on the other side of the wall. (The room is big, but not that big.)

Now, in addition to the sterling silver and/or copper framed gemstone cabochon pendants I’ve been making for a while, I also make textured and etched silver and copper earrings, soldered silver and copper stack rings, hammered bangle bracelets, silver plated “spoon rings,” and novelty keychains. This gives me a full range of products to offer customers when I show and sell my jewelry. I make these items in my shop and make my cabochon pendants when I go to shows.

This summer, however, I realized that I was ready for more.

Classes at the Tacoma Metal Arts Center

The Tacoma Metal Arts Center (TMAC) offers a variety of jewelry classes. Although I wanted to take the three-day course again with a different instructor to polish my skills and learn things from a different person, the dates and times it was offered did not work with cherry season, which requires me to be at home every day for three months — roughly June through August. There were a few one-day classes in September and October that looked interesting, but I wasn’t interested in coming to Tacoma for just one day. And then I saw the two one-day classes offered on the weekend of October 12 and 13: Molten Magic and Possibilities of Precious Metal Clay.

Molten Magic’s description was as follows:

Ruth [the instructor] will show you how to cut a shape from copper sheet for your project, then you will cover it with texture through the molten magic of melted silver! The result is a wonderfully rich surface texture of ridges and waves. Then, you will learn how to apply an iridescent patina with a torch by flame painting the surface.

Possibilities of Precious Metal Clay was described as:

PMC (aka Precious Metal Clay). Create fine silver jewelry from a clay: this material works like earthen clay so it can be shaped and formed, textured and refined and then fired. The result is precious metal in pure silver. Once it is finished into silver you can polish it or apply a patina for that vintage look.

These two seemed perfect for me. I was interested in taking my sheet metal work to the next level and fusing silver and copper sounded very interesting. As for PMC, I had actually bought some of the stuff and a bunch of tools to work with it but because of its cost, I was hesitant to get started. This would give me the information I needed to try it with confidence — or realize that it wasn’t really for me.

I signed up and planned to spend the weekend, camping out in their back parking lot in my truck camper as I had done the year before. Not only would I save on overnight lodging, but I could bring Penny the Tiny Dog along.

Molten Magic

Although I’d been hoping to get to Tacoma the evening before Saturday’s class, a big project at home kept me busy until 4 PM. By the time I prepped the camper, it was 6 PM and sunset was less than 30 minutes away. I try hard not to drive in unfamiliar places at night, so I didn’t depart until 5:30 AM the next day. Of course, I still had to drive in the dark over Blewett Pass, which I seldom drive. It wasn’t light until I got to Snowqualmie Pass.

To give you an idea of the variety of food items Metropolitan Market offers, he’s a shot of some of the mushrooms they had for sale that day.

Traffic was light and I got there early. So I kept driving and stopped at Metropolitan Market, a supermarket that is so posh it makes Whole Foods look like a Smart and Final. I parked in the lot, got out to visit the restroom and buy some snacks, and then took Penny for a walk down the adjoining residential street. Then it was back to the TMAC, where I drove into the alley behind the place and backed the truck into the narrow parking area, trying (and failing) to use up only half the width of the space. The back gate was locked (as I knew it would be), so I got Penny set up in the camper with food and water, locked it up, and walked around front to the main entrance.

I was the first student to arrive. I met the instructor and chatted with her for a while. She must have thought I was a nut, talking to her as if I’d known her for years. I do that. The second of four students arrived before the 10 AM start time. The third arrived loudly 20 minutes late, after class had already begun. The fourth never arrived.

The instructor, Ruth, did not have a very structured teaching style. It was all very casual. There would be no specific project. Instead, she told us about the techniques we’d be using, handed out sheets of copper and scraps of sterling silver, and encouraged us to practice on the copper scraps in a bin near the rolling mill. Then she took us back to the polishing and soldering stations and demonstrated how to clean off the metal with wheels on three bench grinders there and then use heat from a torch to oxidize the copper enough to get different colors and patterns. She showed us how to melt silver onto the copper, including how to somewhat control how the silver melted by using heat to guide it across the copper.

Then she let us go to it.

There were three soldering stations and three of us so it worked out well that the fourth person hadn’t shown up. We each played with the sample copper for a while. One of the scrap sheets I’d taken had been run through the rolling mill and had a pattern on it. I managed to get shades of orange and pink on it. Later, I’d turn it into a pair of twisted metal earrings suitable for sale. (Yes, I can make jewelry out of scrap metal.) My silver melting wasn’t quite as interesting. I couldn’t come up with a suitable shape, so I’d traced a plastic spoon. No matter how I looked at it, it looked like a spoon. And I didn’t like the way I melted the silver on it.

Meanwhile, my two companions were working on nice projects. I felt uninspired. And disappointed. You see, I had already played with “fire painting” copper so it wasn’t new to me. The only thing I’d learned was that you could polish off the color to start over — I normally used “pickle,” which is an acid that removes oxidization — and that it was possible to melt sterling silver with the same little butane torch I used to solder and anneal.

Ruth spent a few minutes showing us how we could create a chain for a pendant using sterling silver wire and jump rings that she provided. I liked the chain on the sample piece she’d brought along, but it had been created with 14 gauge wire and she’d give us thinner 16 gauge wire. I played around with it for a while but didn’t like what I was doing.

Here’s the pendant I made in class. I finished it with a leather necklace and added a pair of matching earrings. They sold as a set on the first day I displayed them in my booth.

Then I got an idea for a pendant that would consist of three textured copper panels, each of which had silver wire melted on it. I’d join them together with jump rings. So I cut some of the copper sheet and went at it with two different hammers. Then I took some of the wire she’d given us to make a chain and made a zigzag pattern with it. I made tiny dots with more wire. I melted the wire to the copper without allowing the zigzags to get completely molten so they were fused onto the copper without losing their shape. I polished off the oxidation and then used the torch to apply just a tiny bit of color. I liked the result. I fetched some copper jump rings from my camper, colored them a bit with the torch, and put the whole thing together. Funky, but I liked it.

By this time, the day was pretty much over. Amy, the owner, came in to do some paperwork and she took photos of what we’d made. I felt that I made a respectable showing; everyone seemed to like the pendant and earrings. My companions had created more things than I had, but I didn’t mind. I had some ideas and that’s all I needed.

More at Metropolitan Market

After class, I went back to the camper — I’d checked on Penny at lunchtime — and put Penny on her leash. We walked the mile or so to Metropolitan Market. I parked Penny at the outside dog parking area where an Australian Shepherd was waiting for her human. I bought some things for dinner from their extensive prepared food area, remarking to the person behind the counter that if I lived nearby I’d be 300 pounds and flat broke.

Penny and I shared a gelato — I scooped some of mine out into the lid of the container for her — and walked back. Then we climbed into the truck and drove to a local U-Haul place that filled propane tanks. One of my tanks was completely empty and the other was only 1/4 full. I did not want to run out of gas overnight. That done, we returned to our parking spot and I backed all the way in so my back door was only a few feet from the back gate.

I heated my dinner in the camper’s oven — I wasn’t plugged into power and hadn’t brought along a generator so the microwave was useless — and worked on some earrings while I waited for it to finish heating. After dinner and another quick walk with Penny, I stretched out on my bed to read.

I slept well. During the night, I was treated to a rainstorm. The only thing I love more than hearing rain on my camper’s roof is hearing it on the metal roof of my home.

The Iliad and The Odyssey

I was up at 5:30 the next morning. I lounged in bed for a while, like I do at home, and then got up, threw on a pair of sweatpants, and made my coffee. I did a little web surfing at the table while I had my coffee. Before I knew it, it was 7:30. I made breakfast and ate it as Penny came down off the bed to let me know she was ready to go out.

I put the leash on her and we walked down the alley. There was a Bartell’s pharmacy about two blocks away and it looked like the kind of place that might have a refrigerator case. I really felt like having some orange juice. They had every sugar or alcohol drink in that case except real orange juice.

We crossed the road to a coffee shop. They didn’t have orange juice either. But they had a nice staff that let me bring Penny in so I bought a latte and caught up on Twitter at a table near the window while Penny ate a dog biscuit and a nearby dog watched her.

At one point, a young guy came over and complemented me on how well behaved my dog was. That got us into a conversation about dogs in public and how the owners really needed to keep them under control. I pointed to the other dog. “That’s a well-behaved dog,” I said.

This is the edition recommended by my friend.

I noticed that he was reading The Iliad and asked him if he was reading it for a class or if he was just reading it. He told me that he’d always wanted to read the classics and figured he’d start with the first one. (At that point, I found myself wishing he was about 20 to 30 years older and single — I felt the same way about reading the classics but needed a bit more motivation to actually do it.) I had recently explored reading a specific translation of The Odyssey that a friend had recommended. I told him about it and looked up the translator’s name for him. He said that was next on his list and he’d look for that version. I think he really will.

Possibilities of Precious Metal Clay

By that time, it was 9:45 and I was running the risk of being late for class. So Penny and I hurried back. I put her in the camper and went into class. I arrived at about the same time as one of the previous day’s students, Ellen. Two other students joined us. Again, there was a no-show.

This instructor, Meredith, had a more structured approach — but not much more. She spent some time talking about PMC — what it is, how it works, etc. She sent around examples of her own work — some of it with problems she pointed out as examples of what can go wrong. She handed out 9 gram packets of PMC3, bunches of 10 standard playing cards (which are used to gauge thickness for rolling), tiny pieces of plastic needlepoint grid (for a simple texture, a small sheet of foam (for creating our own textures), and long pins with masking tape flags on the end (for cutting clay). She seemed a bit disorganized; she’d forgotten to bring along work surfaces for us. Instead, we’d be rolling out the clay on the same teflon surfaces we’d use to dry it on. All the other tools were laid out in piles on unused benches and workspaces.

And then she let us go to it, again, without a specific project.

I guess wanting a specific thing to make is something that affected me more than my companions. I suspect that it’s because I’m pretty new to art — so new that I usually don’t provide a straight answer when people ask me how long I’ve been making jewelry.

Although I’m a visual person when it comes to learning, I’m not visually creative. (My creativity has always come with words; I have always been a writer.) Show me how to make something specific using a set group of techniques or skills and I’ll make it. Then, as I make it over and over, the creativity comes out. You can see that in my silver framed jewelry. Dorothy taught me how to make a pendant in her style using her materials and tools. The more pendants I make, the more my materials, tools, and final products differ from hers. I look at a stone and I think about how I could make an interesting pendant from it. The idea clicks and I make something creative and new. But when it all comes down to it, I’m just doing the same thing over and over, with minor twists that make something new.

Although Ruth had provided a project idea — the sample pendant she’d made for the course description — I hadn’t been interested in duplicating that. And Meredith did provide many examples of what we could do with PMC, but there were too many. I guess I was expecting her to walk us through the process of creating some of these things rather than giving us an overview of how to make them and then answering questions to help us complete our own personal products.

My problem was that I lacked ideas.

I made two textured pieces that could be earrings or charms. It took only minutes to do, even with the custom texture I created in the foam I’d been provided. I was interested in creating a bead and had picked out a small piece of cork clay to form a bead around. I had a few false starts — you have to surround the cork with clay before applying a texture (duh). My mistake was choosing such a small piece of cork; it meant that I was working with a very tiny object. But the damn clay is so expensive that I can’t imagine using it to make anything large. And we’d only been provided with 9 grams of the stuff so I was afraid to use too much right from the start.

Around lunchtime, Meredith set out a timeline for the rest of the class. All of the pieces had to be fired for about 45 minutes in a kiln. It took 30 minutes to ramp up the kiln to 1470°F. After that, we’d have to brush, tumble, and burnish our pieces, which would take at least another 15-30 minutes. With the class ending at 4 PM, that meant we’d need to get everything in the kiln by 2:30 at the latest.

I decided to use the rest of my clay to make a rectangular pendant with shapes adhered to it. This would enable me to practice “gluing” pieces together. What I made was ugly, but it did let me practice techniques. I worked and fine-tuned my pieces until 2:15 and laid them all out on the heating pad with the others to dry.

Compared to everyone else’s work, mine was pitiful. I didn’t even take a photo of them.

Meredith loaded the main kiln, which she’d brought along with her, and, while the kiln was coming up to temperature, talked to us a little about kilns. She’d brought along a smaller kiln designed for enameling that also worked with PNC and wound up firing that up for a few more pieces. Then we waited, asking questions and looking at more examples.

Finally, it was done. Meredith opened the kiln shortly after it was finished firing, opening and closing the door at short intervals to cool it slowly. She pulled out and quenched our pieces in a bowl of water. As I expected, they were all covered with a white film. She had us brush them off with a brass brush that put scratches in my pieces. I was pleased to see that none of them had any problems, although none of them had gotten any nicer.

Then she prepped the tumbler and dropped all of our pieces in. We cleaned up our workspaces while we waited. The owner, Amy, had come in and we shopped. TMAC is an excellent source of jewelry making tools and equipment at reasonable prices. I bought a small hand drill and two silver hallmarking stamps (.925 and .999FS).

Out of the tumbler, my pieces still had a lot of white residue on them. Meredith told us to burnish them with steel. I found a suitable tool and went to work on one of the pieces. The silver shine popped out. So now it was ugly and shiny.

Of course, I’m half joking here. Although my work wasn’t anything to be proud of, I had learned quite a bit about working with PMC and am no longer afraid to play with the 30 grams I bought earlier this year. I’m hoping to get my tiny desktop kiln running again; it’s the perfect size for this kind of work.

I just need some ideas.

After Class

Although I’d originally planned to spend the night in Tacoma, it was early enough to get a start for my next destination: Yakima. I needed to pick up a cargo trailer that I’d be converting into a mobile jewelry studio.

But I think you’ve read enough here. I’ll cover that in another blog post.

Snowbirding 2019: Wickenburg Gold Rush Days

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Maria Langer

I spend a week in Wickenburg, showing and selling my jewelry at the Gold Rush Days Art Fair.

Posts in this series:
• The Long Drive
• At the Backwaters Campsite
• In Mesa and Gilbert
• A Quick Stop in Wickenburg and Forepaugh
• Off Plomosa Road
• Camping at the Big RV Show
• A Trip to Organ Pipe with the WINs
• The Tucson Gem & Mineral Shows
• Wickenburg Gold Rush Days
• Constellation Park Interlude
• White Tank Mountain Park
• Bumming It in Phoenix and Apache Junction
• A Dose of Civilization
• Return to the Backwaters
•

After Tucson, I headed up to the Phoenix area for lunch with a friend, my annual FAA flight physical, and some shopping. You know: the usual socializing and errands. From there, I headed to Wickenburg.

At Sophie’s Flat

It was Tuesday and I was supposed to meet my friend Janet in Wickenburg on Wednesday morning. It was late afternoon when I got into town, after stopping for a moment to get a pollo asado burrito at Filiberto’s on the outskirts of town. From there, I decided to try the campground at the rodeo grounds (Constellation Park) for a campsite for one night. I didn’t even have to pull in to realize that it was already packed.

Gold Rush Days is Wickenburg’s big annual event and has been for more than 50 years. A completely made up event — it’s not associated with any historic “gold rush” in the town — it’s a big draw, especially since it hosts Senior Pro Rodeo over the weekend. Wickenburg, which had become an old ropers’ town since I moved out in 2013, took its rodeo seriously and the place was overflowing with the horse crowd.

Since the campground there was full, I continued down Constellation Road. I figured I’d pull over on BLM land and just park for the night. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over. So when the road forked, I took the left fork onto Blue Tank Road and followed that all the way out to Sophie’s Flat, which I knew from my horse owning days. It had been a stop along the Land of the Sun Endurance Ride I volunteered on every year and my friends Janet and Steve had stayed there with their horses one year long enough for a BLM ranger to chase them off.

The site had changed. It looked bigger than I remembered it and it was surrounded by welded pipe fence. There was a pit toilet in a trailhead parking area. There were already about a half dozen RVs parked, including one horse trailer with living quarters that had set up a fence for their two mules.

I found a level area away from anyone else and pulled in for the night. My burrito was cold by the time I ate it, but it wasn’t worth getting out the generator to run the microwave to heat it up and heating it on the stovetop would have taken too long.

Camping in Town

Janet and I were planning to camp with the other show vendors in the downtown park walking distance from the show. The goal was to get their early enough that we could set up next to each other.

Of course, I’m an early riser so I was heading back into town by 8 AM. I stopped at a gas station in town where I could dump my tanks, top off my fresh water supply, and refill my propane tanks. I was early enough that there was no line — there would be a week later — and got everything done by a little after 9 AM. So I went over to where I was supposed to meet Janet and waited.

When Janet came, we shuffled around our campers so she was at the end and I was in front of her facing the opposite way. The idea was to have enough room between us for her to park her truck and enough room behind my trailer to park my truck. That worked, at least that first day. Unfortunately, someone took up half my truck spot the following morning when I went to set up my booth and didn’t move until Sunday evening. I got creative with my parking and, fortunately, no one seemed to mind.

I had more socialization to attend to later that day: lattes at the airport with airport friends and dinner (which a shower first!) with my friends Jim and Cyndi and some of their friends. I also managed to get some grocery shopping in; my cupboards were bare and my refrigerator was empty.

Setting Up for the Big Show

The Wickenburg Art Fair was the first outdoor event I attended where it really mattered what my booth looked like. I’d been at a county fair the previous summer (which I didn’t even really count as an event because it was so dismal) and had been at a rock show in Mesa in early January. Neither of those had any rules about booth appearance. But this show was different. It was juried and had serious artists. My booth had to look good if I expected to ever come back.

Setup day was Thursday. I offloaded my tent and tables and a lot of my display material from the trailer into the back of the truck and drove it over. I backed into a spot near where my booth would be and got to work setting everything up. I did it by myself, despite the fact that there were other people around to help me. The way I saw it, I had to know I could do it myself and the only way I’d know that is if I actually did it.

I was baffled about how to set up my tables inside the booth and asked Janet and Steve, who were setting up their double-sized booth nearby, for advice. Since my booth was on the end, I could be open on two sides so she recommended that I put my three tables around the outside of the booth so people didn’t have to worry about walking in. So after a few trials and errors, I figured it out and set everything up except the merchandise. I’d do that in the morning, before the show opened.

I buttoned up my booth by dropping the sides and fastening them down for the night.

In the morning, I ran another load over to the show: my merchandise. It was early when I arrived and I got a parking spot. I offloaded everything, tucked it into my booth, and then ran the truck back to the camping area. I took my electric assist bicycle back to the show after securing Penny in the camper with food and water. Unfortunately, artists were not allowed to have pets in their booths.

New Pendants
Four of the pendants I’d made just for this show. Clockwise from top left: Sonoran Sunset, Evans Mine Turquoise, Chinese Turquoise, and Campitos Turquoise. Since taking this photo, three of the four pendants have sold.

The vendors who hadn’t set up the day before showed up and worked quickly to get everything set up by opening time at 10 AM. I worked mostly inside my booth, utilizing a few of the new displays I’d made. I’d also made some new turquoise, chrysocolla, and azurite pendants, which I put on display on the seven-piece “neck.” I set three trays of cabochons for custom piece orders out on the side table which was less likely to be seen. When I was finished, my booth looked respectable, if not downright professional.

Wickenburg Booth
My booth in the morning sun on Friday. You can see my bike parked in the little alley to the left. The building behind my booth is the library.

First Place
I’d like to think the prize wasn’t really for my natural wood display, which Janet had given me.

I took a moment to enter my Heirloom Rosary in the Art Show Contest inside the library. It wound up winning First Place in the jewelry category. To be honest, however, I’m not sure how much competition I had. But you can be that I’ll show the ribbon with the rosary at future events.

My booth was cold, although it did warm up a bit when the sun finally hit me. Arizona was having a cold spell that would stick around for a few weeks. My booth was wonderfully warm for the two hours when the sun hit it and much cooler for the rest of the day.

The Art Fair

Shoppers began arriving even before setup was complete. It wasn’t long before I was making sales. That day — Friday — was the best of the three days. I sold a lot of earrings and a handful of bracelets and rings. I also sold a few pendants.

Janet had a great first day: she sold a very large painting to a repeat customer.

Saturday was supposed to be the big day of the show, although no one expected things to get busy until after the parade. Unfortunately, Saturday was also overcast and cold so the crowd we were all expecting never materialized. Still, I did reasonably well, fueled, in part, by a woman who bought 12 cabochons for her daughter, who is just getting started with wire wrapping.

For my own comfort, I’d planned ahead and brought my little electric heater into the booth, along with an extension cord. I’d spotted an outlet on the side of the library building and I plugged in. With the heater under the table pointed right at my legs, my bottom half kept warm all day.

It was lucky for me that Janet had Steve with her. In the middle of the day, he’d go back to the campers to let out his dogs and would also let out Penny. I really hated cooping her up for three days in a row like that, but although I do have paperwork showing that she’s an emotional support animal, I hate to play that card. So she stayed in the camper, warm and cozy, while huddled in my tent in front of a heater.

The weather improved on Sunday, but it was still chilly. I think I did a little better than I had on Saturday. The woman who’d bought the stones came back to buy more. I sold a few pendants and more earrings.

I also had some visitors: my neighbors from home who were staying in Scottsdale for a few weeks. They stopped by to check out my booth and take in the show but decided to skip the rodeo.

For me, the show was all good. I’d covered my booth fee on the first day so there was no stress. I was very pleased with the show and decided to do it again the following year.

Shutting Down

The show ended at 5 PM with a mad rush by the vendors to pack up their booths. Rather than get my truck and fight them for a parking spot, I packed everything up, took down the tent, and got everything ready to move. Then I took the bike back to my campsite, locked it up, put Penny in the truck, and brought the truck back to the show grounds. I got a relatively close parking spot and made about 10 trips to load the truck back up.

Meanwhile, Janet and Steve were working hard to get their big booth with its wall panels taken apart. They didn’t need any help, despite the fact that it was getting dark. In fact, Janet returned to camp before Steve, telling me that he’d sent her away so he could finish alone.

Before it got fully dark, I needed to offload the truck and store everything neatly inside my trailer. It had gotten to the point where everything fit inside like pieces of a puzzle. I finished up in the dark, with a lantern stuck to the ceiling of the trailer.

Then I pulled out the bottle of champagne I’d been saving for the end of the show out of my fridge and brought it over to Janet’s camper. Steve made it back in time to join us for the last round.

Breaking Camp

It wasn’t until after 8 AM the next morning that we all hooked up and pulled out. By then, about half the vendors had already gone.

I had some aerial photo work to take care of from January that required me to get photos printed and mailed to a client who didn’t have a computer. Janet had paperwork to do for other shows she was planning to attend.

We both pulled out of the camping area and wound up meeting a short while later in the parking lot next to CVS and the post office. After jumping through a few hoops, I got my photos printed and mailed. I also mailed in my application for a show in Borrego Springs in mid March, which was longer than I’d originally intended to stay south. Janet did her paperwork and got it in the mail. We went for lunch at a Mexican place in the shopping center and then went our separate ways. We planned to meet up again for camping and hiking near Borrego Springs before that show.

I had one more stop before my next destination: that gas station to dump and fill my tanks. From there, it was more off-the grid camping, but close enough to civilization for more socialization and conveniences.

Snowbirding 2019: The Tucson Gem & Mineral Shows

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Maria Langer

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A quick overview of my experience with the craziness that is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows.

It rained almost all the way to Tucson from Organ Pipe National Monument. I got into the outskirts of the city before noon. I’d used Google Maps to direct me to a laundromat and it’s probably a good thing that I did. When I went into the camper to fetch my laundry, I saw that my roof was leaking.

I stripped the bed and set up pots and pans under the leaks atop a rubber-backed mat. My goal was to keep my bed dry.

It looked bad. Water was pouring in around the big skylight over the bed and through seams in the sealing slightly forward than that. My comforter was catching most of it. I moved quickly, fetching pots and pans out of the drawer under the stove and positioning them to catch the water. This was not a good situation, but I admit that I was surprised. I’d been in the camper in heavy rain before and had never had a leak.

That’s when I noticed that the skylight wasn’t fully closed. It was open just a tiny crack. I pulled it down the rest of the way and latched it securely. Could that have anything to do with the leaks?

Once the situation was under control, I brought my laundry in and sorted it into two washers. Then I went back out to pull my comforter out from under the pots and see how much water had soaked through. I was lucky; very little water had gone through to the blanket and sheets, which were pretty much clean. I brought the comforter into the laundromat and threw it in a dryer.

Then I went back into the camper with Penny and heated up a can of menudo for lunch. Nothing like hot soup on a cold day.

First Shows

Not my first time

I should clarify something here. This isn’t my first experience with the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I’d been to the show once before, in 1995. That’s the winter I lived in Yarnell, AZ to get away from the cold winters at home in New Jersey. My future wasband flew out to join me and the two of us drove down to Tucson, badly damaging my MR2’s front bumper in an accident along the way, to meet up with my future wasband’s cousin, Rick. Ricky believes that certain crystals have certain metaphysical properties that can make your life better. He was in Scottsdale visiting his aunts — really long story there — and met up with us to go to the gem and mineral shows. We were late (because of the accident) and he was pissed.

I honestly don’t remember much about that trip except a general feeling of being overwhelmed. I don’t know what shows we attended, although I don’t remember any of them being big. And I don’t remember what, if anything, any of us bought. I don’t think a trip could be any less memorable. Maybe it’s because I was still stewing over my accident and that nasty dent in my bumper.

After I had lunch, empty and repositioned the pots and pans under the leaks, and got my clean, folded laundry stowed into the dining area of my camper, I headed toward my first show. But before I tell you about that, let me tell you a little about the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows.

Every year, from the last week or so in January to the second week or so in February, Tucson is basically taken over by at least 50 individual gem and mineral shows. They range from small shows in the lobby of a motel or the parking lot of a shop to huge, multi-tent shows spread out in big parking lots and expo centers. There’s an app to keep track of them, but it isn’t very well designed; it just tells you where each show is and lists each show’s vendors. You basically have to know which show you want to go to to make the best of the situation. I didn’t know where I wanted to go. And worse than that, I was driving a truck and pulling a 12-foot cargo trailer that I would have to park at each show.

Penny on the Table
While water dripped into pans on the bed, Penny’s bed was relocated to my dining table. She didn’t seem to mind.

But while I waited for my laundry to dry, I did some research with my friend Google. I knew I wanted to go to the show at the Kino Gem & Mineral Show because that’s where a friend of mine was showing his lapidary work. I also wanted to go to the JG&M Expo, which was a wholesale show. I had a list of possible shows and I separated them into areas. I figured I could hit at least two of them that first day, which was a Sunday.

So I headed to the Kino Sports Complex. I found a parking spot not far from the main area, near a few other large vehicles or trucks that were towing trailers. It was still raining on and off and there weren’t many people out and about. That’s probably why parking was so good for me. I put Penny in the camper and adjusted the pots and pans on the bed. The dripping had pretty much stopped, but I left the pots and pans in place. I made sure Penny had plenty of food and water and left her alone, locking the camper door behind me.

The Kino show was mostly smaller tents, although there were a few large ones with multiple vendors inside. Very much like what I’d seen in Quartzsite the previous month. The very first vendor I found was Nadri Gems, my source for about 90% of the cabochons I bought in Quartzsite. The guy I usually worked with was there, too, and he remembered me. (How could he not, considering I’d spent about $500 so far?) Knowing this would be my last chance to buy the kind of stones they sold, I filled a tray and made another big purchase. He took about $20 off the total for my purchase.

I walked around the rest of the show, looking at various merchandise. I bought some cord to fix a wind chime I have and a bunch of beads from another vendor who had been in Quartzsite and had already pre-qualified me for wholesale pricing. I was looking for turquoise and certain tools — that was my main reason for coming — and wound up buying a few small turquoise cabochons from a vendor in a big tent that had water running over the astroturf on the ground beneath the booths. (I was glad I’d worn my hiking shoes; the soles were thick enough to keep me above the floodwaters in various places I walked.) I got into a conversation with him about Sonoran Sunset, a stone that had been in high demand from my customers. He told me “there’s a guy set up behind the Howard Johnson who sells that.”

I kept walking around. A lot of the booths were closed because of the rain. I never did find my friend’s booth. There was just too much to look at but it was the same stuff over and over. After my long drive, camper leak situation, and laundry, my internal battery was down to 50%.

I went back to the truck, let Penny out for a run around the wet parking lot, and got into the truck with her. Then I told Google to take me to the next show, JG&M. I was very surprised to find that it was actually quite close by. In fact, I could have walked. Instead, I parked outside the gate where there was room for my rig and walked around the fence to the main entrance.

This was a huge show — actually three shows: Gem Mall, Holidome Show, and JG&M Expo — set up in multiple huge tents. I had to register and because I have reseller information, I could get a wholesale buyer badge. This is a huge benefit to me because it saves me the cost of sales tax. (The jewelry I make is taxed when I sell it.)

Inside the tents were mostly beads. Honestly — I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beads in my life. All kinds of beads, all kinds of prices, all kinds of gimmicks and sales to get you to shop at one booth rather than another. There were “bead shows” in Tucson, too, but I couldn’t see any reason to go to them after seeing all the beads at this show.

I did wind up buying some beads. I had a blue opal cabochon that was blue and dark gray. I wanted beads to match it so I went from booth to booth and pulled out the cabochon to match. I eventually found what I was looking for at a price I was willing to pay and bought them. I didn’t buy much else, though. Other than beads and imports and finished fine jewelry for jewelry stores, there was nothing much else that interested me.

Well, on second thought, that isn’t really true. One guy did have leather necklaces with sterling clasps that I use for my pendants. Good prices. He also had some display items, including a “neck” that could hold seven chains. I stocked up on the necklaces and bought a neck.

Penny on the Bed
Penny waited for me nestled into my comforter, which I’d stowed on the dry side of the bed while in transit.

When I was finished there — understand that I really breezed through — I decided to try to track down the guy with the Sonoran Sunset. I asked Google to take me to the address of the Howard Johnson. For the first time, Google failed me. It led me to an address inside the local university property, nowhere near where I wanted to be. (Yeah, I know: operator error; garbage in, garbage out. But Google should know what I want!) I pulled into a parking lot and tried again. Fifteen minutes later, I was driving on a narrow road past a handful of small motels, including the Howard Johnson. There were tents set up just about everywhere, but because it was getting late — nearly 5 PM — and the weather was still iffy, many of them were closed. But I figured that since I’d come that far, I should go all the way. I found parking in a muddy lot nearby, left Penny in the truck, and went in search of the Sonoran Sunset seller.

And this is where it got weird.

You see, the motels had been rented out to gem and mineral dealers. They had stripped the furniture out of their rooms and set them up as little showrooms. So as I walked past the doors to the motel rooms, they were all open with their front window curtains pulled aside and set up as shops. One after another with cases of stones. No beds, no night tables, no furniture at all. Just display cases. In some cases, they’d even draped the walls with curtains so the rooms had absolutely no resemblance to a motel room.

I wandered around, past the rooms and tents that were open. I looked at a few things. I never did find the Sonoran Sunset guy. He was either set up in one of the closed booths or not there at all.

Casino Del Sol

By this time, it was getting late, my internal battery was down to 20%, and I was very interested in finding a place to camp for the night before it got dark. My WIN friends in Organ Pipe had mentioned Casino del Sol so I asked Google to guide me there. It choose a weird route through a few neighborhoods but eventually put me at the entrance to the parking lot for a hotel casino complex.

Understand that Arizona does not normally have gambling. Most native American tribes, however, do have gambling. I’m pretty sure this one was for the Tohono O’Odom tribe. I call it the Indian’s Revenge — they suck us in to gamble and make money to support their people. I’m not a gambler, but I have a certain affinity for casinos — one of my favorite ways to spend a day in Vegas is walking the strip, through as many casinos as possible to see how outrageous they have become.

Casinos, of course, usually make an excellent overnight parking spot for RVers. Not only do they have big parking lots and access to restaurants and other amenities, but they also have excellent security. I’ll take a casino parking lot over a truck stop (or Walmart parking lot) any night.

Casino del Sol took overnight RV parking to extremes. There had to be at least fifty rigs parked in one of the outer lots and some of them looked as if they had been set up there for a while. This wasn’t parking — it was camping. I later found out that they had a two-week limit for free RV parking. Two weeks! No wonder so many people were camped out there.

I parked on the other side of a parking lot divider from a motorhome. Penny and I got out just as the motorhome’s owners got out. “Do you mind me parking here tonight?” I asked. I’m pretty sensitive to people parking right next to me and wanted to make sure they weren’t.

“Oh no, not at all,” the woman said. That started a conversation about where I was from and what kind of dog Penny was. I asked about restaurants in the casino. I was thinking about prime rib again. “There are restaurants,” they told me. “But they’re expensive.” They told me about a certain special on a certain night of the week that was a good deal. I don’t remember the details because I knew I wasn’t going to be around. Then they got into a car with another couple and drove away in search of a cheap dinner.

After settling in Penny, I went in for dinner. The steak place, which was supposed to be really good, was closed on Sunday nights. (WTF?) I wound up having Chinese food and sushi. It was good. It was my first meal in a restaurant in over a week. While inside the casino, I discovered that there was another gem and mineral show there, To Bead True Colors/Colors of the Stone, although it was closed until 10 AM the next morning.

Back in the camper, I stowed the pots that had been collecting water earlier in the day. The leaks had stopped — but so had the rain. I put away my laundry and made the bed, which was remarkably dry. I got everything organized.

And then I went to bed.

Breakfast and the Casino Show

I made myself coffee in the morning and took Penny for a walk. Beyond the regular parking lot was a gravel and dirt area where even more people were parked with RVs. We walked between the two areas. Then I put Penny in the camper and went into the casino for breakfast and to check out the show.

I learned a lot at breakfast. I sat at a table for two in the outer part of the only restaurant that served breakfast and they sat another woman who was by herself at the table next to me. She was a jewelry maker from Toronto who came to Tucson every year. She used her budget to cover the cost of transportation, a room in an AirBnB, jewelry making classes, and tools and materials at shows. She was having breakfast before going to the show in the casino.

We chatted for quite a while. I realized that I had the wrong focus in Tucson. I shouldn’t be buying stones and other materials — I could get that cheaper in Quartzite in January. Instead, I should be focusing on educational opportunities and seeing demos of tools and equipment I might find useful for my work. I should be building skills and getting new ideas. She gave me some names and I jotted them down. It will completely change how I approach Tucson next year.

Words of Wisdom from an Unlikely Source

Some of the few actual words of wisdom I remember from 29 years with my wasband is this: “Any job is easy when you have the right tools.” (He used to say that when we watched “This Old House” or “Yankee Workshop” on PBS.) Every time I buy the perfect tool for a task, I think of that.

I have a shit-ton of tools now and lots of jobs that were impossible for me 10 years ago are now very easy.

I got on the express line to sign up as a wholesale buyer for the casino show and, with my badge hanging from a lanyard, went in. This show had a lot more of what I’d come for: tools. I saw a few demonstrations and even got hands-on experience stamping metal the correct way (with the correct tool). I also learned the most valuable thing I learned in Tucson: how to quickly and effectively polish my wire framed pendants. (Hint: it involves a Dremel (or flex shaft) and a specific radial polishing wheel.)

One of the booths sold the full range of Wubbers hand tools and had two women doing demos — they just happened to be the founder of Wubbers, Patti Bullard, who had designed all the tools, and her daughter. Their demos gave me some great ideas for new bracelets and chains; I bought three of their tools. (You can see Patti Bullard’s tool demos on YouTube.)

Chain
In just 10 minutes, Patti Bullard showed me the basic skills I need to make bracelets and chains like these. I’ve since made a prototype of the beaded bracelet in copper.

I also found a booth selling precious metal clay tools — I’d decided to explore that when I got home — and bought a few items to make it easier for me to get started. There were lots of hands-on classes going on and I regretted not planning ahead and signing up for some of them.

Two More Shows

I was done before noon. I took Penny for another walk and pulled out with my rig, which I’d already prepped for traveling. My destination was the JOGS Tucson Gem and Jewelry Show at the Tucson Expo Center. Google Maps guided me. I ended up at a huge X-shaped building near the freeway. The parking lot looked crammed. Against all odds, I drove in, stopping by the valet parking station to ask where I might park. The guy was very friendly and pointed to an area with a few U-Haul trailers. I thanked him, squeezed into a narrow entrance to a disorganized dirt lot, and backed into a spot next to a U-Haul relatively close to the main entrance.

I went in, registered as a wholesale buyer, and walked into the show. The very first booth I saw was all tools — exactly what I had been looking for. Well, not exactly. The truth of the matter is that what I really hoped to buy in Tucson was a large jeweler’s anvil. Spoiler alert: I did not find one. But I did look at a lot of different tools for different jobs.

The rest of that show was about 60% beads and 20% fine jewelry for resale. There was another Nadri Gems booth — those guys are everywhere — and I bought two very nice azurite with chrysocolla cabochons. I bought some more beads. I bought some display pieces. Although I tried to do the building without wandering off path too much, I eventually failed, lost track of where I was, and had a senior moment: which way was out? Too many of those bead booths looked too much alike. I finally got back on track and headed for the exit.

There was a food court outside and I treated myself to Salvadorian food — a sort of thick-shelled soft taco with beans and chicken. Tasty.

I went back to the truck to stow my purchases and let Penny out for a walk. I liked my parking space and I knew that my next destination, which was closer to downtown Tucson, would probably not have such accessible parking. So rather than drive, I put Penny in the camper, locked it up, and called a Lyft.

I was headed for the Kent’s Tools Jewelry & Lapidary Tools and Supply “Show.” I put “show” in quotes because when I got there, the “show” consisted of one guy who made cabochons and did pretty basic wire work under a tent in front of the shop’s entrance. The shop, of course, was Kent’s Tools, which is like a candy store for anyone who is serious about making jewelry or working with stones. This shop has everything — although it was out of stock on the anvil I was looking for — with good prices and a knowledgeable staff. I bought some texturing hammers, a soldering tripod with screen, a metal stamp, some polishing wheels, a brass hammer, and a bunch of other things to outfit my shop at home. All my purchases fit in a big shopping bag. Lyft took me back to JOGS.

Another Night, Another Casino

At this point, I felt done. It was late afternoon and I’d bought most of what I’d come to buy. I didn’t feel capable of looking at another single bead and knew that any show I went to would have lots of them. So I decided to try Tucson’s other casino, Desert Diamond, for an overnight parking spot. It was near the airport and a lot closer to the freeway than Casino del Sol.

The Desert Diamond Hotel.

There were a lot fewer RVs parked at Desert Diamond, and that was okay with me. I found a parking spot on the edge of the lot, not far from an open area where Penny could run loose. Rather than go in for dinner, I decided to have a light meal in my rig and try to organize some of the things I’d bought.

I was asleep by 9 PM.

I the morning, I went into the casino for breakfast. I walked in through the nearby hotel entrance because it was chilly out and I didn’t want to spend more time outdoors than necessary. I got a real treat along the way. The hotel’s design and architectural details are reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright, making a pleasant walk through the space.

Hallway Door
The hallway outside the hotel’s conference rooms and the detail from a door between the hallway and casino. Nicely done!

Breakfast was okay. The only place open was the buffet, which was nearly deserted on that Tuesday morning. I had a fresh-made omelet, too much breakfast meat, and some yogurt with granola. I hate eating at buffets because I always eat too much — although I usually love the variety.

The Metal Bar

I had gotten the idea — okay, I got the idea from YouTube — that I could use a piece of railroad steel as an anvil. The trick, of course, was finding a piece of railroad steel that was only 1 to 2 feet long.

So after breakfast, I worked my phone. I called a handful of metal fabrication places in Tucson and hit what I thought was pay dirt at one of them: the guy I spoke to was pretty sure they had a piece of railroad steel somewhere “out in the yard.”

Of course, when I got there, no one knew who I’d spoken to or what I wanted. No one seemed interested in looking around the yard, either. One guy, trying to be helpful, showed me to an area where they stored rolled steel. They had these two inch square solid bars with rounded edges. I asked if they could be cut. “Sure,” he said. I saw that the price was 83¢/pound and wondered what a one-foot long bar would cost. More than $100? He laughed. Probably about $15.

Ugh! I missed my turn for I-10 heading westbound out of Tucson and Google Maps guided me in a convoluted U-turn. Operator error!

So I told him I’d take a foot. I went to the checkout area and chatted with them men there. One of them had a hobby of making guns and he showed me a few photos on his phone. A few minutes later, a man came in with a one-foot long piece of the solid steel bar. They weighted it: 14 pounds. With tax, it was about $13. I carried it out to my truck and stowed it behind the back passenger seat.

One Last Stop

I did have one last stop to make on my way out of town: an outlet mall just off the freeway. I needed a new pair of jeans and I like to wear Levis. So I hit the Levis store and walked out with two new pairs of jeans.

My next stop was a lunch date in Mesa, AZ. I hopped onto I-10 westbound and headed north.

Snowbirding 2019 Postcards: Buying Gemstones

Posted on January 15, 2019 by Maria Langer

One of the reasons I’m in Quartzsite, AZ again this year is to buy raw materials for the gemstone jewelry I make. I’ve been shopping for stones at the rock vendor booths at Tyson Wells and Desert Gardens. Here’s a small sample of the 70 or stones I bought the other day.

Some of the gemstone cabochons I purchased on Sunday. I’ve bought over 100 stones so far in this trip and expect to buy at least another 20 more before I leave.

I choose cabochons — polished but unfaceted gemstones — that meet certain criteria:

Sized just right. Neither too small to work with nor too large to make into jewelry.
Popular stone. I get requests for malachite, lapis, amethyst, Larimar, turquoise, quartz, moonstone, labradorite, etc. I try to stock up on popular stones so I can make the jewelry people want to buy.
Beautiful stone. Sometimes I just buy a stone because I think it’s beautiful. Those are the ones I like to see lingering in my collection. Sometimes I just like to look at them. And I admit I’m thrilled when a customer picks out one of these stones for jewelry even though they’ve never heard of the stone. K2 Granite, Crazy Lace Agate, ruby in zoisite, azurite in chrysocolla, Montana moss agate, bumble bee jasper — these are all examples.

I get a lot of joy out of collecting and working with the stones. I’m looking forward to making new jewelry this coming week. Follow me on Twitter to see photos of each piece as it’s finished.

And if you’d like a pendant made out of one of these stones, get in touch. I can ship to addresses in the US.

An Eclectic Mind

Web site and blog for Maria Langer, writer, boat captain, jewelry artist, commercial helicopter pilot, and video producer. Blogging here since 2003.

Category Archives: Jewelry Making