As a warmup to the 2025 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, the Fall 2024 Colors of the Stone will open at the end of this month. To Bead True Blue is also hosting.
The show will take over Casino Del Sol’s convention center from Thursday, Aug. 29, to Sunday, Sept. 1. Admission is free for the juried show, which will feature 300 artisans.
Wholesalers along with artisans with handmade beads, ceramics and jewelry will be in attendance. At least three are Colors of the Stone show veterans, with one from Tucson.
Glass
Jeff Rogers of Rogers Art Glass and his wife, Kim, moved to Tucson five years ago from Palo Alto, California.
Now firmly ensconced on one acre in the foothills of the Catalinas, Rogers spends at least five hours a day in his crowded two-car garage, melting and firing borosilicate glass to make sets of dichroic buttons ($25), stoppers for wine bottles ($25 and up), small vases and cruet stoppers ($10). He often incorporates actual silver and gold in his glass. The elements create a halo in the glass.
“I have been fabricating designs in lampworking, stained glass, glassblowing and lapidary for over 40 years,” he said.
Of note, Rogers makes marbles of various sizes ($20 to $150). To call these glass orbs marbles understates their artistic quality. Designs such as flowers and leaves that are on the inside are also glass. It’s a hot, complex process that happens over a live flame.
“I take one of these (slender glass rods) and I press it down and flatten it to make a disc,” Rogers said. “Then I use these little tiny (glass) threads just to draw a pattern on the disc and after about 40 minutes of working on it I get the glass to fold over that design. It pushes glass like a flower into the glass.”
According to Rogers, Baccarat glass makers used this complicated process in France.
Although Rogers’ studio takes up half the garage, he mainly works in a back corner where his torch, kiln, tools and, most importantly, his glass, live.
A water saw for cutting small slabs of stone sits in another of his garage’s corners. After the stones are cut and polished, they will be mounted on drawer pulls. He likes to use stones with fossils embedded in them, such as a small nautilus shell. He unexpectedly learned the process.
“I learned to cut stones from an old guy on the side of the road in Monterrey, California,” he recalled.
When Rogers needs an opinion, he turns to Kim, who offers an honest assessment.
“I’m probably his biggest critic,” Kim said.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, maybe next time try it this way,’” she said. “I let him do what he wants and, when we go to a show, we see how it goes.”
In the meantime, Rogers is happy in his studio.
“I can’t stop doing something,” 77-year-old Rogers said. “I like to be busy.”
Fiber
The future is bright for Summers in Italy, a company that specializes in women’s clothing made from the country’s cotton and linen. Deeann Summers, who is Sicilian, has been creating clothing for about 10 years. Not surprisingly, Summers loves fashion.
“It’s my passion,” she said simply.
From the time she was young, her heroes were fashion icons.
“My mother got me into modeling for Sears and Roebuck when I was in the fourth grade,” Summers said. “Fashion has always been in my blood. I looked up to Jackie Kennedy. I know everything about Jackie Kennedy. I know everything about Chanel. I love women and fashion, and I like to know everything about them and how they got started and what it all means to them.”
This explains why she truly values her customers and wants to help them look their best — even better if she can help accessorize.
“It’s not even work to me. I love dressing women,” she said.
As her business grew, she noticed many women — especially desert dwellers — were unsure of what to wear, what looked best and how to assemble and outfit. Hence, the cotton and linen.
She also uses viscose, a semi-synthetic type of rayon fabric made from wood pulp that is used as a silk substitute. It has a similar drape and smooth feel to the luxury material.
During her visits to Tucson, Summers noticed women “love the greens and yellows, the deep turquoise blues and stuff like that. I always make sure when I go to Tucson, I bring out the color.”
Summers thinks deeply about what she carries and when she buys it’s with an eye toward making her customers feel good about themselves.
With pieces starting at $45, her clothing line features tops, dresses and trousers.
“I like to keep everything affordable, because I want everybody to be able to come in and buy at least one piece or two,” Summers said.
Summers is very aware that women come in all sizes, so she accommodates small petite to 20.
“I’m curvy now but I’ve been all sizes,” she said.
The Summers in Italy team designs the clothing.
“I have a lot of color; I love color,” she said. “My prints never stay in stock, so I have a little of everything.”
“(I have) beautiful clothing at affordable prices that all women can be proud of,” she said.
She values her customers so much that when someone makes a purchase it is carefully packaged in a “distinguished bag,” she said. “My philosophy is if you’re going to spend money in here, I’m not going to put your clothes in a cheap plastic bag.”
Follow Summers on her Instagram, @summer_in_italy.
Class
The 2024 Fall Colors of the Stone is not just about sales. There are also artisan workshops for skills like pearling and knotting, rings made easy and wire wrapping.
Vilina Hutter of Nevada City, California teaches silver skills, dubbing it introductory silver metal smithing.
“I teach basic soldering skills, wire forming skills, those kinds of things,” she said.
This is her fourth visit to the Old Pueblo.
“I just love coming to Tucson,” she said. “Tucson when the gem show is happening is like nothing else in the world. Even though the fall show is small, it’s still such a wonderful taste of it.”
Hutter comes with many skills, like handling tools meant for working metal. She is also a former teacher and when she combines the two, she teaches a fairly mean silver class.
“It’s just really fun for me because I do love making jewelry, but making jewelry is a very solitary pursuit and I love the connection with people that I get from coming to the shows and doing the teaching.”
She likens it to a fun get-together.
“It’s like we ladies sit around in a circle and make jewelry together,” she said. “So top that.”
Just to be clear, however, the classes are not just for women. Men are welcome as well.
Hutter is scheduled to teach two separate classes every day the show is open. Choose from Stacking Rings, Keum Boo (a Korean method of making earrings), Soldering Fine Chain Hammered Links and Simple Prong Setting. Two classes will be taught twice: Hoops Your Way and Tube Setting Pendant. No experience is necessary. Everything needed will be provided in a purchased kit. Classes run about $100 each and kits go between about $75 and $95.
For vendors, Hutter said the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show can be intimidating and overwhelming. Colors of the Stone is one way to get over that.
“I think my main point is, first of all, Colors of the Stone is a very approachable way to do Tucson,” she said. “A lot of people are quite nervous about doing the Tucson gem show. They feel like they don’t know how to do it because it looks complicated for first-timers. Colors of the Stone is a great way to dip your toe in.”
Students should expect to have a good time in Hutter’s classes. She is an experienced teacher and artisan and loves to share it.
“I feel like I bring a career of being a high school teacher but also complex jewelry experience to the classroom at the gem show,” Hutter said. “It makes it fun, because it’s very much within my skill set and my passion set. It makes the whole thing really fun.”
The 2024 Fall Colors of the Stone Show with To Bead True Blue and Artisan Workshops
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29, to Saturday, Aug. 31; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1
WHERE: Casino Del Sol Resort Convention Center, 5655 W. Valencia Road
INFO: colorsofthestone.com
