I'm Home (Gem Show, Part 1)

I'm back from a quick trip down to the bay area. I was only gone for one night (Friday), but it was the first time I'd been away from Carlos overnight, which was a little rough. On the upside, I got to relax in a lovely, comfortable hotel room with a big old bed all to myself. I ate dinner in bed and watched TV all evening, which is something I never do at home. It was nice and relaxing.

The main purpose of my little outing was to go to a gem show and do some shopping. I met up with my Etsy friend, Roni (DaisyWares) and we shopped 'til we dropped. I learned an important gem show lesson though - four hours is not enough time to shop the whole show. Duh. I don't know why I thought it would be. I think we probably only ended up being able to shop about one third of the booths that we would have liked to see. Next time I'll plan on being there a lot longer.

Despite my limited time frame, I was able to pick up some really gorgeous things. I'll be splitting the trip up into a few separate blog posts, and will start with cabochons. The following cabs are available for custom order rings, pendants, etc. Let me know if you're interested in any of them. :-)

5mm x 7mm (1.5 carat) rectangular sapphire cab

13mm x 18mm (8.5 carat) bi-color tourmaline cab
(mostly green with a little purplish-pink)

Pink tourmaline cabs
(just a bit darker than the bubblegum pink ones I usually have)
top left: 8mm square (3.5 carat)
top right: 7mm x 9mm (2.5 carat)
bottom: 10mm triangle (4.0 carat)

6mm x 8mm (2.5 carat) sapphire cab

BIG rainbow moonstone cab - 18mm x 41mm; 9.5mm tall (56.5 carat)

11mm x 12.5mm (12 carat) ruby cab

10.5-11mm (6 carat on average) rutilated quartz cabs
(I bought enough of these to list some in my bead shop as well.)

8mm x 11.5mm (5.5 carat) faceted kyanite

23.5mm x 36.5mm (53.0 carat) carved labradorite cab

28mm x 39mm (73.5 carat) carved labradorite cab
(Aren't these amazing?)

Assorted pietersite cabs

Assorted blue-green and pink tourmaline cabs

14mm x 17mm (20.0 carat) faceted amethyst (ooh, ahh...)

8.5mm x 11mm (4.5 carat) Swiss blue topaz cab

Mexican fire opal cabs
bottom left: 9.5mm x 11.5mm (3.0 carat)
top right: 8mm x 10mm (2.5 carat)

Faceted grey moonstone cabs
bottom left: 15mm (11.5 carat)
top right: 14mm (9.5 carat)

8.5mm x 12.5mm (5.0 carat) faceted kyanite

Coming soon... new beads and new furry family members!!! Stay tuned.