5 REASONS TO GO TO TUCSON
Can you afford not to?
By Derek Levin

Tucson, Arizona

I’ve always wanted to go” is the statement you’ll frequently hear regarding Tucson. Followed often by “But I can’t afford it.”

The real question is: can you afford not to?

It’s amazing to me just how many people in the gem, jewelry, bead, fossil, mineral and related businesses have never traveled to the Tucson shows — 2008’s will run from around February 2 to17. I say around because with so many venues and so much surrounding the actual shows, there are at least three weeks of opportunities and so much to see.

For 2008, according to the Tucson trade bureau, there will be as many as 50 “shows” – a term used when describing sites set up specifically for multiple vendors. There are also numerous other “shows” that are actually places around the desert city where people sell and exchange. I’ve bought excellent rough for cutting literally on street corners —well, on blankets on street corners. Many people also do their own trade in their private hotel rooms or from the trunk of the car. You can while away several afternoons wandering from open motel room to open motel room and purchase anything from polished cabs to top-quality mineral specimens displayed on every available flat surface – bedspreads included.

It’s the place to see the cutting edge, gauge the competition, find the rare, buy at true wholesale, be entertained with tales both true and false and learn and learn and learn. For those either in the jewelry business or otherwise fascinated about rocks, things related, or people who live with those things, this mélange of happenings is widely considered the center of the universe.

1. LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
Tucson is more than just a business opportunity — it is as much a meeting of the world. As to the money? The most interesting secret is that it doesn’t have to be as expensive as you’d think. Yes, 10 to 15 years ago, “Tucson” was such a destination, in a relatively small town, that many local businesses jacked up prices to try and soak the tourists.

There are probably many reasons why, but today, the costs of going there have changed. Whether it’s the business cycle, the Internet, altered markets, the products people buy, or homeland security issues, and while there are lots of people, attendance seems to have been relatively flat in the last couple of years — while the number of shows continues to go up. Also, the city has grown a great deal. So, if you plan ahead, you can find lodging and meals that are reasonably priced, unless you’ve got expensive tastes. Lodging, meals, a rental car if you choose, takes care of most of the cost of being there unless you’re looking for outside entertainment, too. And by the way, don’t get me wrong — there are still plenty of people attending. The city’s tourist bureau expects around 55,000 “gem” show visitors this upcoming year and 3,000 or more official vendors. That’s a lot of buying and selling.

The AGTA Show

2. BUYING AND SELLING
The other cost, of course, is what you might buy.
You can get seriously carried away with spending — very easily —but lots of us in the trade have learned to tighten our belts in recent years, so call on that habit of frugality to help avoid excesses. With the increasing use of the Internet, pressure has somewhat lessened to purchase everything then and there. Or not. So, now my obligation to argue for not going is done.

On to the arguments for going.

In the past, Tucson was almost all about buying and selling, a place to make the deals on the spot. Often people bought for a whole year. Now, many buyers not only buy in Tucson, but attend the show to find dealers they can rely on. And dealers as well are looking for trustworthy customers to establish long term relationships with — long after the show is over. Many will buy items they see with specific customers in mind.

“It’s a tactile world, the world of jewelry,” says Tony Lent. He teaches jewelry design in New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “I want to get my hands on things and see how they feel, get a sense of it close-up.” That is one of the most important parts of Tucson, you get to touch and feel. There would be no other way to buy a parcel of rough opal direct from an Australian miner — as I did last year — and look at every piece before you buy the lot.

And speaking of hands on, “I had a friend who had an older spectrometer that had broken and he couldn’t get anyone to repair it,” say Roger Dery of Spectral Gems in Royal Oak, Michigan. “In Tucson, he found the technician who knew as much as anyone about that tool. He was able to sit down with the technician face to face and they talked through a way to fix it. It saved him a lot of money.”

For purchasing supplies or tools for beading, or casting, or gemology, you can find not only the latest gadgets, but often the people who make them and maybe even at the best prices. Many dealers discount for show buyers, and often, towards the end of the show prices get even better. This is true for many items because dealers would prefer to carry as few things back home as possible. Tucson is also the place to buy for resale. You can usually eliminate many middlemen and buy direct. In fact, many acres are devoted strictly to wholesale buyers — to attend them you must be a registered business.

Beyond being a customer, for many of us, Tucson may well be one of the best places to sell, or at least make connections to sell. And if you’ve ever considered vending there, the best way find an appropriate venue is to just wander around. Hundreds of people walk around the shows with bulging pockets and bulging bags — selling not only to vendors but to other folks also walking around. And it’s not just selling. It can also be about finding people you can work with, getting sales representation, or finding a partner to collaborate with. Many partnerships have been  initiated and formed there. That may be one of the greatest wonders of Tucson, it’s so very ad hoc — chance plays a tremendous part in so much that happens there.

One of the more unusual offerings at the Tucson shows.

3. CONNECTING
Tucson is a worldwide network of people and cultures probably like no other gathering of folks with similar interests anywhere. Large numbers of people from every continent except Antarctica and nearly every country converge on this city to talk, gawk, share information, make contact, establish networks and see what everyone else in the world of rocks, stones, jewelry, and things related are doing.

Everyone has a story. Multiple stories of what they’re selling, what they’ve bought, how big it is, how cheap it was, what a great deal or rarity it was. Whether its jewelry, gems, minerals, fossils or beads, they and only they have a handle on the best. By the way, did you need a silver mine?

One of the nicest parts of the Tucson experience is to be able to rub elbows with the movers and shakers of the various industries associated with the world of expensive rocks, precious metals, and the earth sciences. After all they also know that this is the place to learn and find new things. So many people with names you know well are wandering around unannounced and unaccompanied – and they’re looking at as many things as they can in their area of interest. 

The reason they do this is because as much as anything, Tucson is the place to debut new finds, new designs, and new techniques. And the only way to find many of them is word of mouth or by just plain wandering around. You’ll never know where something amazing will turn up. It’s a moveable feast.

You’ll find all sorts of folks in the oddest places. There are miners and museum curators, street tradesmen and Tiffany’s buyers. There are friends and traditional enemies trading together and exchanging thoughts. Indians and Pakistanis, Serbs and Croats, Arabs and Jews, rivals from everywhere or anywhere are sitting down to talk and do business with each other and often to share a meal or a drink.

Cacti at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Even for a lifetime New Yorker — one of the most culturally diverse places on earth – there’s not another place with such diversity. I asked Naomi Sarna, a psychoanalyst, classically trained sculptor and more recently a gem carver/ jewelry designer from Manhattan, if she knows of anywhere as multicultural as the Tucson shows. “Queens,” she said, laughing. “Tucson is very intense and in a 10-day period you can meet people and find things from anywhere in the world.” Besides her people contacts, Sarna shops. And her shopping is eclectic. She’s buying what she calls, “very unusual” gem rough, mineral specimens, and fossils. Her buying pattern is instructive. She goes to the big shows like GJX and AGTA, where a lot of upscale finished jewelry and cut stones can be found, to see what people showing there are designing — but she really concentrates on rough and minerals. She’ll start at the Pueblo for rough. Best Western and InnSuites for fossils. She also likes to go to the smaller shows.

“I have dealers that I go to first on Friday and Saturday when the show starts for specialty items, before other people get there, and I buy 75 percent of my purchases there. Then, for the rest of my time, I’m going to smaller shows,” where she tends to find the unusual as well as the better deals. And speaking of deals, she says, “It’s when the shows are closing down that you can get your best prices” — unless, of course, the best pieces are already gone by then.

“It’s the people I meet there,” says Tony Lent, a longtime jewelry designer. “Tucson is almost like a social event for me. It’s the chance to meet friends of mine, who are from all around the country, and we share ideas. But it’s also about making connections with people who have the kinds of unusual things I need. Actually, I rely on some of my friends to know where those dealers are. After a lot of years, though, I’ve realized one thing — I need to buy stones I can sell. I tell my students that the worst addiction you can have in this business is to buy cool stones. It’s a good way to go broke. You need to concentrate your buying on what you can sell.

“The other important part for me is I don’t have to go with $30,000 or $40,000 dollars. I can meet people face to face to establish a relationship with a person so they’ll send me things on memo.” You’ll hear this time and time again.

4. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Strangely enough, possibly no one is any better a representative of the importance of Tucson than someone who has not been there for years. Jewelry designer and gallery owner Jennifer Kalled of the Kalled Gallery in Wolfboro, New Hampshire, says she hasn’t been there since around the mid ‘90s. “I haven’t needed to go, because it was in Tucson where I met all these people and have been able to continue my relationships.” Ever since first meeting them, those same stone dealers have come to her shop. Or she knows where they’ll show closer to her and she’ll meet them there. As important to her now, they know what she needs and they specifically bring those stones to her. Or, she says, now that they’ve established a good business relationship, they are willing to send her stones on memo from which she selects those that are best for her. However, Kalled says, now that she hasn’t been to Tucson in several years, she’s feeling a desire to go back. “I need to meet new people and see new things. My designs are changing and I have to see what’s new in stones, new cuts, new materials — it will make me fresher.” So she’s seriously contemplating going to the show this year. She’ll spend about 10 days down there, meet some friends, and maybe do a little hiking too.

THE TUCSON SHOW GUIDE The Tucson Show Guide, the definitive guidebook for the Tucson shows, can be purchased in advance or picked up free at the shows. Visit tucsonshowguide.com to order the guide, see an up-to-date show and vendor list, and find maps, schedules, related links and helpful information for both vendors and attendees. TUCSON TIPS If you are going to buy wholesale, it’s best to preregister through the Web so you don’t have to wait in lines and spend precious time filling out paperwork — although there are a lot of people on line who might share valuable information with you. Still, to make sure it’s worth the wait, be prepared with solid business credentials and extra photocopies of licenses, etc. Here’s a tip on buying rough from Roger Dery, who now concentrates his time on precision faceting. He’s been visiting Tucson since 1982, two years after starting in the gem business. He goes to do three things: see friends, see what other people are cutting and mostly buy rough. In order to buy the best, he brings along a kit. First, he’ll save excellent material of the exact color he wants that he’s collected to use as a basis of  comparison for future purchases. Then, he brings along a white cardstock paper and a small but powerful Maglite with a loupe — so he’ll always be able to compare colors of rough no matter what the ambient lighting might be. It’s a good way to see  inclusions, too. The other thing he’s done over the years is establish a relationship with dealers so he can go to his selected people at the very beginning of the show each year. they know he’s coming and — unless his rivals for that high quality rough beat him to the punch — he often gets what he wants. Tucson is his best rough buying opportunity of the year — although he’ll also buy on memo from people he’s met there.

5. LEARNING
Beyond the actual products and supplies of the jewelry trade Tucson is the place to experience the new in terms of tools, equipment and techniques. Many tool suppliers set up at the Electric Park complex of tents which, like many shows around the city, are probably several acres. You can find nearly every type of diamond grinder or cutter with some surprisingly good prices. But there are suppliers of tools and supplies in many other sites as well. Some shows are very specialized; others are very diverse.

Every year AGTA conducts lectures and events — last year on appraising and contemporary design. The association presents the Spectrum award winners, and new treatments for stones, or new finds. GIA offers presentations and sales, even some giveaways and extension classes. There are also presentations in many other places around town — and lots of them are free.

Personally, I’ve been to talks on jade and rubies from Burma, been shown the methods of intarsia, taught a workshop on opal carving, watched demonstrations of new equipment, and seen replicas and a presentation about the contents of the Amber Room from the Czarina Catherine’s Palace near St. Petersburg, Russia. There are annual displays of some of the rarest finds, from dinosaurs to meteorites, and from diamonds to weirdite. You’ll see masses of minerals on display and mountains of beads — with the best ways to string them and demonstrations of the newest tools. Beyond the scheduled presentations, there are many, many dealers teaching in their booths. In fact, there are so many educational experiences you can’t possibly see them all, but you’ll find an abundance of resources to learn where to learn.

Tony Lent goes because he is also interested in the latest technology for execution of his designs. He’s thrilled by the newest computer-generated digital setting capabilities so that he can work more effectively and precisely with unusual stones. Having had his jewelry education in Germany, he’s aware of the differences between American and European styles for both jewelry and stones. He believes European training in cutting and European styles are cut more for setting. “American shapes are more geometric in stones and jewelry.” With the newer digitized setting equipment, he sees American stones and design as catching up. Lent thinks the American style of jewelry in a sense actually develops in Tucson because so many people get ideas there.

KEEP IN MIND
So, after these glowing reports of goings on in Tucson, it’s also important to keep in mind some of the potential pitfalls. Most people in our  business have fallen into buying traps – certainly an important thing to remember. When speaking with Michael Coan, chairman of the Jewelry Design Department at FIT in New York, also a graduate gemologist, he wanted to be sure that I mention what he considers to be one of the most important pieces of advice when purchasing stones, or anything else in Tucson. We’ve all heard it before, but it certainly does bear frequent repeating.

Caveat Emptor — let the buyer beware. It’s always a good rule to follow. “If you’re looking for emeralds,” says Coan, “you’d better know what you’re looking for,” the treatments, the enhancements, the simulants, the fakes. Yet here again, Coan believes, it’s about the people. You can certainly get a sense of the vendor and also, it’s sometimes possible to find others around who know more about the material than you do. There are so many experts in Tucson that if you’re looking for emeralds and you don’t know much about them, a little searching will find you someone who does know — and knows lots. Often they’d be willing to give you a crash course in what to look for. Or you can pick up a book somewhere. That’s the beauty of Tucson — it’s all there for you to find.

DEREK LEVIN has had more careers than most people have jobs. Currently he’s dividing his time between lapidary art, unusual designer cabs, carved and faceted stones and combinations of the three, political activity, and writing a book on human overpopulation. Visit www.gemmaker.com to see his work.