On the road
I was fortunate enough to be able to shop at several wholesale dealers during the Tucson Gem & Mineral show 2026 season. Besides my finds in Quartzite, I was able to get some great stones in Tucson at good prices. If I have to pay retail prices for my stones, I can’t keep my prices reasonable for my customers.
It was fun to buy turquoise in US turquoise country. I purchased from several mines in Arizona and Nevada.
This photo also shows some pieces of boulder opal purchased from Queensland, Australia, the only place where it is mined. It is new to me, and I only got a few pieces that were close enough in my price range that I think I can sell them. If they seem to be popular, I will take a deeper plunge.
On the road in the Southwest means there is plenty of downtime to play with my new stones and even some that I brought along or the journey. The lcenter photo is a Mexican Fire Opal stone wrapped in copper. It will be oxidized when I get home. They all will. The piece on the right is turquoise wrapped in sterling silver and the left is an amethyst agate, again in copper.