G
GemGeek
Guest
This is a multi-post story. Here's the first part:
This weekend I had quartet rehearsal/retreat (a cappella) and the girls wanted to go to the Gem Faire. The Gem Faire is a trade show that also sells to the public and has a wide range of beads and jewelry.
Road Trip Quartet (I'm the short one)
I thought it might be fun to share what I purchased and a little bit about the show. The Gem Faire has a website that lists their shows. They are mostly on the West Coast.
The first thing I usually do is visit the jeweler who does while-you-wait repair/alteration work. That way he'll be done by the time I get through the show.
This ring is a mounting from Stuller and the stone is a Synthetic Rutile - very hard to find now since they had their heyday in the fifties. They were diamond simulants known by the trade name Titania. Strontium Titanate (Fabulite) displaced it, followed by YAG and GGG. When CZ came along, it became the dominant diamond substitute.
I had one other stone like this. I had it set with tsavorite garnet side stones and my best friend insisted on buying it. My job is to sell jewelry, but sometimes I want things for my gem collection, so when I had a chance to get one again, I jumped.
Here is the finished ring.
Normally, I go on Friday morning when the show is only open to wholesale buyers and go straight for the good pearls, but this was Saturday and the people I compete with had already been through, so I followed my girlfriends as we headed for the back of the building to work our way across the show.
We hit the back and immediately ran into one of my favorite vendors, Cinderhill. They sell collector gems and minerals and Cindy has a clean style of wirewrapping I've always admired. I've been after her for years to make a video and she finally did. I actually yelped with glee when she showed it to me! Who knows when I'll find the time, but I have it at the ready. She said she'll be making more, so I'll have other techniques to look forward to later.
My friends spent about twenty minutes going through the rubber and leather neckcords at You And Me. So having to hang around, I decided to purchase some vermeil spacers to experiment with. They make a nice chain all by themselves.
I finally left the girls to shop on their own. I had a lot of things to get so I started my search for the clasp guy.
Some of you may have read my exploits making my first torsade necklace. Dumb me -- I had to buy several cones, but I only bought one matching clasp. They're heavy and expensive and I was feeling cash poor as I was leaving for the pearl tour in a day and a half.
When I got back to work, people had seen the necklace and wanted to order them for holiday presents, but I didn't have any clasps! Fortunately, the same vendor was there and I was able to buy a few more.
And after I got back, I found the complete instructions for tying off the strands in the cone on the Rio Grande web site. Who knew? Those Rio Grande people are great.
Part two coming in a few minutes...
This weekend I had quartet rehearsal/retreat (a cappella) and the girls wanted to go to the Gem Faire. The Gem Faire is a trade show that also sells to the public and has a wide range of beads and jewelry.
Road Trip Quartet (I'm the short one)
I thought it might be fun to share what I purchased and a little bit about the show. The Gem Faire has a website that lists their shows. They are mostly on the West Coast.
The first thing I usually do is visit the jeweler who does while-you-wait repair/alteration work. That way he'll be done by the time I get through the show.
This ring is a mounting from Stuller and the stone is a Synthetic Rutile - very hard to find now since they had their heyday in the fifties. They were diamond simulants known by the trade name Titania. Strontium Titanate (Fabulite) displaced it, followed by YAG and GGG. When CZ came along, it became the dominant diamond substitute.
I had one other stone like this. I had it set with tsavorite garnet side stones and my best friend insisted on buying it. My job is to sell jewelry, but sometimes I want things for my gem collection, so when I had a chance to get one again, I jumped.
Here is the finished ring.
Normally, I go on Friday morning when the show is only open to wholesale buyers and go straight for the good pearls, but this was Saturday and the people I compete with had already been through, so I followed my girlfriends as we headed for the back of the building to work our way across the show.
We hit the back and immediately ran into one of my favorite vendors, Cinderhill. They sell collector gems and minerals and Cindy has a clean style of wirewrapping I've always admired. I've been after her for years to make a video and she finally did. I actually yelped with glee when she showed it to me! Who knows when I'll find the time, but I have it at the ready. She said she'll be making more, so I'll have other techniques to look forward to later.
My friends spent about twenty minutes going through the rubber and leather neckcords at You And Me. So having to hang around, I decided to purchase some vermeil spacers to experiment with. They make a nice chain all by themselves.
I finally left the girls to shop on their own. I had a lot of things to get so I started my search for the clasp guy.
Some of you may have read my exploits making my first torsade necklace. Dumb me -- I had to buy several cones, but I only bought one matching clasp. They're heavy and expensive and I was feeling cash poor as I was leaving for the pearl tour in a day and a half.
When I got back to work, people had seen the necklace and wanted to order them for holiday presents, but I didn't have any clasps! Fortunately, the same vendor was there and I was able to buy a few more.
And after I got back, I found the complete instructions for tying off the strands in the cone on the Rio Grande web site. Who knew? Those Rio Grande people are great.
Part two coming in a few minutes...
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