The tents are up, there’s a certain energy in the air and more people are milling about Downtown and our favorite restaurants. It must be the season for the Winter Tucson Gem Show.
It gets crowded because, sure, there’s a lot that should not be missed on both sides of the freeway. However, that’s not the only location to visit.
Take a trip down Valencia Road and beginning Saturday, Jan. 27, Casino del Sol will open its doors to about 300 vendors for the 2024 Tucson Colors of the Stone show. Show manager Casey Kennerson, who works for the host company Garan-Beadagio LLC, is looking forward to an exciting event.
“The most anticipated show of the year, 2024 Tucson Colors of the Stone is going to be great,” she said. “With more exhibits and workshops than 2023.”
This is actually the 20th year Colors of the Stone has been to the Tucson Gem Show.
Sara Lukkomen, an enamel artist who is headed here from Minnesota, is one of the 300, with her will-be boxes of beads, buttons and pendants; she calls them components. To say these are just components, however, is to grossly underdescribe her wares. The beads come in an endless variety of shapes and sizes and are “painted” in many designs, including calaveras, flowers, pumpkins, turtles and square heads. There are flat rectangles with red hearts in the center and mounded beads. There are also the usual enameled tubes and circles, but even those are remarkable.
Lukkomen said many customers are jewelry makers and one of the most popular uses is for earrings, so she sells some designs in pairs.
“Anything that’s under two inches will be in a pair,” she said.
In addition, look for 3-dimensional flowers, Lukkomen’s favorite shape to create.
“I like flowers in general, so I like making the flowers in different colors and riveting them together or just painting flowers, using details,” she said.
She makes hat pins or lapel pins with them.
There are even beads that will fit thick leather for bracelets and such.
It turns out that enameling is a process of working with finely ground glass or tiny glass particulates. Lukkomen heats the material with a torch and during that heating process, she can manipulate the colors to create a design she likes. The part that’s so satisfying to her, she said, is that the work has immediate gratification.
“You put a piece in the (holder), you put the metals on there with the colors, do what you want with it, it’s done,” she said.
Find Lukkonen’s business, C-Koop Beads (short for chicken coop), at booth No. 132. Get a preview of her work on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CKoopBeads.
Besides the vendors, there will be more than 200 workshops and demonstrations throughout the event. Look for workshops in metalwork, beading, jewelry design, metal clay, wirework and mixed media. There is a charge and materials fee for each class and registration is required.
Colors of the Stone
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily Jan. 27 through Feb. 2, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 3
WHERE: Casino Del Sol, 5655 W.
Valencia Road, Tucson
COST: Free admission, but there is a charge to take a workshop
INFO: www.colorsofthestone.com
