The Biggest Bead Show in the World - Tucson Gem Show
Mark your calendar – February 1 through February 14th.
**** Put a star next to it, underline it, high-light it, tell all your friends and family not to bother you at home during this time. Unless they want to come with you. Its time for the Tucson Gem and Mineral shows!! It’s happening all over Tucson in hotels, convention centers, event centers, tents, renovated mansions, parking lots, if there’s space available, there is a show going on involving beads, minerals, fossils, jewelry, gifts and literally anything you can imagine involving the jewelry trade. Companies from around the country and around the world come to Tucson during these two weeks to showcase their inventory to buyers from around the country and around the world. At last count there were 41 separate shows occurring at the same approximate time; some running longer than 2 weeks, some shorter.
You can find us, Wild Things Beads at this location:
Feb. 1 - 14
Open Daily 10am to 6pm
G&LW Wholesale
Tucson Gem Show
Gem Mall Booth #1132
4475 South Country
Club Road
Tucson, AZ
Guy & J-ME will be at the ONE Location Together this year! Stop by and see our new look!
To be able to see a list of all the shows that are running, along with their dates, locations and list of vendors, get your hands on one of the wonderful show guides available:
http://xpopress.com/AZ-GLW-GM-show-schedule.html
or
http://www.jewelryshowguide.com/
These guides to the show cover everything you need to know about the show, from where each show is located, with maps and directions, phone number contacts for the location and the promoter, which shows are retail or wholesale, as well as the free bus shuttle schedule, list of vendors, contact information on the vendors, list of products of the vendors, as well as the overlapping dates of all the shows, so that you can plan your trip to cover as much of the show as effectively as possible. Not only are these guide invaluable as a planning resource, but it is extremely useful as a re-order guide after the show if you need to track down a vendor at a later date.
When it comes to beads, probably the best show to see first is the Gem Mall, put on by G & LW (Gem and Lapidary Wholesalers). GL&W was one of the first shows in Tucson, after the original Tucson Gem and Mineral Society show put on in the Convention Center. In all there are probably about 800 vendors. Parking is Not a problem. There are lots of good, quality vendors at this show selling glass beads, pearls, stone beads, metal beads, findings, clasps, etc… however this is a wholesale only show and you will need to register with your tax I.D. and business information.
G & LW has a show at the Gem Mall in South Tucson, in 2 large tents with 3,000 parking spaces available, and of course the shuttle bus stops there too.
G & LW also puts on the Holidome, which is close to the Gem Mall and consists of hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn and three huge tents. This show opens several days after the Gem mall opens, and the opening day is a mad house. Some people love opening day, others dread it and avoid it like the plague. Opening day at the Holidome empties all the other shows, and might be a good day to shop those shows instead.
Next is GJX (Gem and Jewelry Exchange), a large tent with high end jewelry vendors.
The show that started it all is the Tucson Gem and Mineral show at the Convention Center in downtown Tucson. This is a retail show, but like any show, some vendors offer wholesale to their customers depending on their company policies and requirements. This is where you get see many specimens in showcases.
Driving down the frontage road next to interstate 10 from Grant Inn to Days Inn and Pueblo Inn you will find many shows; some with promoters and some independent. Most are mineral shows, with huge amethyst tunnels and quartz specimens standing outside to attract customers in, but in between all those are many bead dealers such as Tika Imports and Ken Lee Tools.
Traveling south towards the Gem Mall you will come to Kino Convention Center (which used to be called TEP-Tucson Electric Park) which is a large outdoor show, with both big and small tents scattered over many acres, much like the huge Quartzsite shows that run all of January prior to the Tucson shows, out in the Arizona desert north west of Tucson. (a lot of these vendors come straight to Tucson from Quartzsite). Here you will find beads and minerals, rocks and fossils, and large vendors such as Village Originals and Driftstone Pueblo.
Smaller bead shows that open during this time, but no less important than the big ones, for many different reasons, are The Best Bead Show, which specializes in art glass and American lampwork, is one show that serious buyers must attend on opening day or suffer the consequences of not getting the best beads first. They do sell out quickly at this show.
The Whole Bead Show put on by Eva Motherwell is another good, quality show with excellent vendors. This is primarily a retail show, with some vendors selling wholesale.
To Bead True Blue and the Tucson Bead Show also opens during this time.
These shows are put on by Ana Johnson, and are primarily retail shows, although there are also some vendors at these shows who sell wholesale.
Tomas of A Bead Carnival puts on a small vintage bead show outside of his wholesale bead store. Hosting such vendors as Ben of Stone Mountain.
The whole Tucson experience can be and is overwhelming, and helpful tips to remember are things like bring a suitcase with wheels, (as your bags will start to get heavy), water to drink and food to snack on as the buying can get so intense you forget to eat, (or feel like you have no time to stop and eat). Rent your hotel room early, as rooms sell out quickly. An alternative is to rent a house for the week, and share it with other buyers you know. That way you can cook in the kitchen, etc… under better conditions than a hotel.
If you know certain vendors are going to be in Tucson, and you are planning on seeing them, see them first and get your main buying out of the way; then with whatever time you have left, discover new vendors that might one day become main suppliers. It is very easy to start shopping and get distracted by all the exotic things you will find, and never get your main shopping accomplished.
Grab business cards even if you have no time to stop and shop. In Tucson you will find some incredible things that you just stumble across…and your first thought will be to continue on and compare prices with another supplier. Depending on just how exotic it is, if your gut tells you it’s a good price that you can resell in your store or in your piece you are going to make, then maybe consider buying it immediately and have no regrets later. In fact, if you see the same product later, don’t even look at the price. The chances are you won’t remember where you saw the first one, never find a second source, and regret not buying it the first time. Tucson is so big, and there are so many vendors, and the buying is so intense, you probably will never be able to go back to see a vendor a second time. Or if you do go back, chances are it has all been sold, or the price has changed.
Go with a budget, and stick to it. If you do take credit cards, don’t overspend by rationalizing that its on credit, you will sell beads immediately you get back, etc…. you can easily spend millions in Tucson without really trying hard.
Have fun!
You can also have a second chance at shopping the Tucson Gem and Mineral during September, when G &LW puts on the Rodeway show and the Holidome again, but this time without the huge tents. It is only a 4 day show this time, and there are only a handful of competing shows occurring at the same time, but the same excitement is there. The shuttle buses are running, buyers fly in from all over, international vendors as well as national vendors have their goods on display, and it is just a little more laid back than February. Hotter too!
Fall Tucson is worth attending, especially as a lot of the importers who attend this show bring close outs and sale items to unload before the big February show, or showcase new products in advance of the February show. Just a little heads up to those of you in the know.
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Wild Things Beads is a small family run American importer of Czech and German glass beads and buttons, and shows at the Gem Mall booth #1132 during the Tucson gem show.
Stop by and see J-ME & Guy!
If you can't make it to see us, you can contact us at our warehouse, located deep in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, and can be reached by phone at (530)743 1339 or on the web at
www.wildthingsbeads.com. They are also open by appointment at their warehouse.
They also run working bead tours to Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
