While at this booth (I think it was Degumay's) I also began inspecting a hank of strands of small glass beads and brass "tabs". The brass pieces looked like interesting items to combine with trade beads, so I purchased one. The following day I found an even nicer strand at the Grant Inn tent and got another one (1st photo). Joyce told me these are known as "igbo bug" beads and are from Nigeria.

I was about to leave the African Village again when I ran into a Moroccan friend, Karim, who sells at shows in the Bay area, and who I did not know would be selling at Tucson. We had a nice visit while he was frantically unpacking a large number of goatskin lamps and other hand crafts from Morocco. He also sells beads, and I found another item from my shopping list - a strand of small(5-10 mm) old brick red beads. I was thinking I'd look for small "greenheart" type beads, and these looked like similar drawn beads. I need to spend more time examining them - possibly some are bauxite. (2nd photo).

The next day, I stayed back in the room, waiting for the Grant Inn show to open at 10 AM. WHen I arrived, I immediately headed to Bassem Elias's booth, a section of which he was sharing with Thomas Stricker (TASART on the forum). As you may have noticed, Thomas sold many of his Venetian beads in the pre-Tucson blow-out special on the BCN trade page. But, he had a number of extremely fine collectible items left, including a rare yellow chevron slice. I have been wanting a yellow chevron for a while, and although this is not a full oval bead, it is a beautiful presentation of the yellow chevron pattern (1st photo). I'm not sure how I lucked out on this, and I think Thomas had a touch of "seller's remorse" as he handed it over.

The next stop was an adjacent booth run by Adham Refaat, whom I had met the day before at dinner with Joyce. He runs an ethnographic art & jewelry business out of L.A. called Nofert. Adham had a small but lovely selection of trade beads and a short strand of chunky milles went into my shopping bag (2nd photo).

I own this bead and some other 5 layer yellow Chevrons. I am willing to sell a egg shaped one but, it is very expensive!

Next stop was the spectacular bead tables of Bully and Dembo Jawara of New York. They have an incredibly fine selection of Venetian and other trade beads. Two more items on my shopping list were found fairly quickly - a strand of Fulani brass bicones and a mixed strand which contained several specific king beads that I was trying to match. I decided that buying an entire strand and having all the rest of the beads to enjoy really is the best approach when looking for a few specific beads. The mixed strands can contain many lovely surprises (more on that later).

Note that the second strand contains a new Indian feather-trailed oval bead mixed in with the Venetians.

Is there information available about the different tribes in this part of Africa, and specific bead types that they make? It looks like the Fulani and Kirdi share some of the same territory.

Hi Rosanna

This one has different materials and makers.

Carole

This is a great book indeed. And I am quite proud to have contributed a tiny bit: a picture of Ethiopian women I made is in there.

Only halfway through your photo journal and I realize I've been holding my breath. This is so fun for us stay-at-home-bees. (grin)

There are a number of other African trade bead sellers in the main tent at Grant Inn, and the next stop was the booth belonging to Saibo Tunkara. Here I also had the good fortune to find two more items on my list - a strand of smaller (6-9 mm) whitehearts in extremely fine condition, and another mixed strand that I bought for the 4 turquoise French Cross beads. There were other neat beads on this strand, including a funky 7-layer chevron, an interesting elbow, and a small tabular floral.

I spent the entire day at the Grant Inn, with some breaks for lunch and a nap back at the Super 8, which was within easy walking distance. Just an amazing quantity of beads to see and well as friends to visit with. The main tent seemed to have pretty good foot traffic on its opening day. Many vendors were still in the final stages of set-up, so sometimes there were new beads to see every time I circled back. Near closing for the day, I stopped buy to see Adham again and found another bead I've been looking for, the black egg-shaped bead with aventurine trailing. This particular style of bead was popular in Egypt, where Adham is from. The other 4 beads had to go home with me as well.

At the close of the first Grant Inn day, Saturday, Joyce holds the first ad hoc BCN forumite dinner at the Mexican restaurant right next to the show grounds. I think others got better photos of the "proceedings" which I'm sure will be posted soon.

On Sunday I had a stop to make to see some beads that the Picards had kindly brought for me to look at, and I scored another item on my shopping list - a strand of whitehearts, ovals this time. They have a "street name" of Samburu beads.

Back to the Grant Inn venue, since I had not finished deciding about a some items I had seen the day before. Here again I found a strand with some of the beads I needed, plus many other very lovely beads, especially the nice quantity of matching green & brown eye disks.

I took a break from the trade bead tables and explored all around the Grant Inn show again. In the conference center behind the tent I found copper beads of great variety and decided to buy some, as they are inexpensive, and see what kind of designs would work with them.

Then after a quick lunch, a nice organic vegetarian one at that, provided by an entrepreneurial business that consists of a person dragging a small luggage cart full of lunches around the show floor, I finally got back to the African Village.

First score - a strand of the small size ruffle beads, in great shape and for a great price.

Hi Rosanna, Thank you for showing images and sharing details from your Tucson Adventure. In your hands, I have high expectations for the strand with the green and yellow eye discs. Am reminded of the yellow bicone group you fashioned late last year. Would you like to post an image of this necklace on BCN? I feel that everyone should enjoy seeing an example of your successful work as a neckwear designer. And I would enjoy having an image of this piece. Thanks, FRED FONDLY

I had found so many great beads already that I was not really looking for anything specific, but Abdoulie Jawneh had a strand that was just wonderful, and so I ended my trip on a VERY high note. This strand has two round feather-trailed Venetians, two Islamic era beads, and a German marble bead in the center, as well as a number of very fancy Zen pattern beads. All the rest of the beads are wonderful as well.

I think I floated back to the Grant Inn to pick up Joyce, and then we were off to the second installment of the BCN forum dinner meetings. Thanks to Joyce, John & Ruth Picard, Bassem Elias, Adham Refaat, Walter Chavez, Thomas and Vicky Stricker, Russ Nobbs and his wife Dee, Matt from TigerTiger, and Basket Bob for their camaraderie and sharing of their bead knowledge and passion.

It was very tough to leave the next day, but I did, and now I'm back with some really great new additions to my collectible bead hobby/passion.

Happy beading to everyone, and may our snowed-in friends all be able to escape to Tucson next year!

Great beads, the marble bead is very nice. In the marble world it is called a Clambroth. Thanks for all the pictures.
Wayne

I also brought with me to Tucson, the short strand of beads that I had questions about and that did not seem to "feel right". I'm re-posting the photo below.

A good number of people reviewed them, and had to think a long time before deciding they had to be Venetian. The brick red color in the watermelon milles is apparently not being duplicated by the Chinese - that was one tip-off. The best the experts could come up with, is that these were made for the African trade, but never circulated. That explains the matte finish and lack of "normal" wear & tear as well as the total lack of any patina. The few chips present appear to be recent damage.

So thanks to everyone who helped with this particular puzzle. Buying these beads was well worth the education on Venetian-made beads that they provided.

Thank you for sharing your Tucson adventures. I was very curious what you would buy, thanks for sharing. I wish I dared go there... I would have difficulty controlling my spending.

So, were there ANY Chinese millies or chevrons at all to be seen? Or is someone else working on that story?