If you have seen my Facebook page, you know that I went to my FAVORITE trade show and gemstone immersion experience – The 56th Annual Tucson Gem Fair. It is absolutely a trade show, but so much more. If you had been with me, we would have seen the town of Tucson taken over by jewelers, miners, rock hounds, fossil hunters, crystal collectors, buyers, sellers, tons of kettle korn and dust. Every hotel room was booked, the motel rooms were converted into showrooms and parking lots became sales floors. It is intense.
For example, a miner from Brazil may work all year to bring his entire yield of Citrine to this show, and then do it all over again next year if he is lucky. They make one trip a year and this is it – that is how magnetic this event is. Of course you don’t have to go to the Tucson Gem Show, because we are bringing it to you. The Tucson Gem Finds event starts on HSN with Victoria Wieck and Sima K, as well as Jay King, who will be showing off his new Mine Finds during President’s Day weekend.
My Show with Jay is on February 19th at 10 a.m. and 20th at 1 p.m. We ran into each other in Tucson, and Jay invited me to go see a wooly mammoth’s fossil. As you can see from this video we got distracted by some Variscite.
There were several themes that I tracked at the shows. (I don’t usually use the word trend, as it implies here today and is gone tomorrow. I prefer theme!)
- Color – We see it in ready to wear. In fashion and jewelry, color is key. Subtle, milky, pastel Aqua is always so gorgeous, and yet precious Ruby Red, Emerald Green and Sapphire Blue are still going strong. Now that enamel and ceramics and woods are remaining in the mix, the color palette is expanded. Combining unexpected hues seems to be the new black.
- Nature – It’s still strong! Don’t like spiders and snakes? No problem. Hummingbirds, butterflies and flower power will give you a garden of jewelry to mix and match as you wear it.
- Openwork – The garden trellis takes on a new shape with the metals turning into fabric like webs to be on their own or to hold gems. Happily, open hoops in earrings of all shapes and sizes are here to stay.
- Alternative Metals – Noble metals Gold and Platinum are still king and queen, but non-traditional steel, brass, copper and more are in the palace and rushing the throne.
- Rough Cut – Slabs o’ stone, natural beauty and bench jewelry looks, like a rock on a rope are hip, cool, artistic and happening.
- Personalized Jewelry – It makes sense, right? In a world where we can have so much “on demand”, if you can dream it, someone will be happy to personalize it for you.
Although I love the jewels and gems, the real treasures to me are the customers I saw at the show. I’ll never forget my impromptu Tucson Airport Lounge “interview” with a lovely woman who knew her stuff! At Electric Park, there were wall to wall HSN customers. I loved it! One woman had even seen me speak at the Gemological Institute of America last year and quoted a line from my talk back to me. Wow! Now that was a nice surprise!
I hope you will be happily surprised with what you find at our Tucson Gem Finds on HSN on February 15th through the 20th.
Follow the shiny things and rock on,
Shivan
Facebook: Shivan Sarna on HSN
Twitter: @Shivansarna