Always wonderful stuff to see, great people to visit. Here, items from Adham, of Nofert. A super rare, in my opinion, blue cornaline d'aleppo, or white heart. You can see these in Picard vol. 4. Next is a very substantial new black coral inlay prayer strand. It almost fills up a standard 8" x 12" padded display board.

There were a number fewer when I went to say goodbye 5 days later!

Our old friend Abdul Touray made it once again, but this time his brother Ebrahim could not make it. With Abdul, a number of strands of beads in excellent condition! First "French Ambassador", next image - Rosanna, help me out with the market name for the ones on the left, a sort of Venetian improv on a Bodom type...and little round fancies referred to as "Arabesque".

Luscious CHUNKY 4 layer rosetta beads with green stripe, and the two-row raised eye beads in very nice condition with relatively little loss of eyes...

Another old friend at Gem Mall, Omar always has wonderful small jewelry items, old and new, in addition to great beads. Here, very nice strands of old Bohemian clear glass imitation amulet cases. I couldn't edit these truly clear without losing detail, so they look golden...but they are clear. They remind me of submarines. And, a basket of nice metal accessories from the African continent.

There were again some nice Hebron to be found this year. These were once plentiful, but now, not so much. Although I have never used them successfully, I always admire them.

Some of my designs with Hebrons

enjoy!
my favorite color!

That one on the left is especially gorgeous. Nice work!

Here are two that Saibo had that I didn't notice anywhere else. Wild round green fancies with aventurine decor, and orange/yellow feathers.

I don't recall seeing anything like this one focal bead! I've shown a few other beads on the long strand. This orange cross bead was the focal.

Not commonplace, and not always out there for easy picking ! I love them.

This is just a sample of Gem Mall images. Many other great dealers of fine beads are there each year!

Just a few quick snaps of the Tasart booth. Something is always going on here! It was great to see Bassem, Phil, Indra and Hassan in the ballroom as well. Seems the Ethnographic Group is solid!

Here, we see Basket Bob inspecting some important Tasart product.
And, closeup of the beads on the table...fine "tire" beads, fake chevrons, a speos, and more collectible beads.

Folks come to the Tucson shows from far and wide with various hopes and desires. Here is Hawk, who used to participate at rendezvous, discussing a few strands with Thomas. Hawk has some killer beads, and was just getting a bit of the current scoop on the market today.

Here, a dazzling display of O'Grady chevrons, made using his own process. The cane pieces here will be reheated and pulled to create beads at some later date.

Next is one of the California Mission canes. Apologies, I did not note which ones these are. Kevin's intent is to immortalize every one of the California Missions. Each cane is built from a composite of multiple individually created glass canes. These "loaves" will be heated,drawn and sliced, to become small and very, very intricate. Awesome.

The bell, the potted plant....I can only imagine how these will be when finished product.

The skull and roses image, originally done by artist Edmund Sullivan in 1913, was colored and used as a Grateful Dead poster by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley in 1966. And here, created as millefiori cane by Kevin O'Grady in.....hmmm...the 2010s. It is some of the most loved iconic Grateful Dead related art of all.

I can even take a break from beads from time to time and STILL be dazzled at Tucson! This is work from Lee Downey, an old friend of Danny's, whose business is called Artifactual. He has much intricate carving produced in Indonesia. Sorry I didn't stop for more details on this wild inlaid skull and the fun-loving pair seated in the chair!

Lovely beads to be found from Wind River! The so-called "Russian" cut beads (aka Russian Blues) are some of the finest you'd ever find. Same for the matte millefiori.

Luscious pink tabular cakes and whitish-themed fancies with nice blown focals and a marble.

A few of us got together on 2/3 for a quiet dinner...poor Alan hurt his ankle and could not come to the BCN shindig the night before. I hope he's feeling much better. He wore this wonderful strand of collectible beads, some vintage Venetian, some original Art Seymour. A lovely wearable strand which he uses as sort of a mobile catalog of cane he can cut into larger beads.

The notes accompanying this bead say "Achaemenid, c. 600 BC" - it's from a private collection, and a very, very special find for me. I have not been able to research this yet, but it was love at first site. Approx. 32mm x 22mm.

Thank you everyone, seeing you all, even for a brief time, was great
medicine.

I hope you enjoyed the images!

There will be a few more during the week.

That's beautiful!!! I love the combination of color

Yankee's comments:

Regarding your bead, I am pretty sure it's from Persia from the Seleucid period,300-200 BC. Seleucid was one of the generals of Alexander the Great and when Alexander died, the vast territory that he conquered was divided in between all of his army commanders. Seleucid got the chunk of Persian region. You can see a very strong Greek influence on the shape of the bead. They used to have lots of buds, acorns, etc…
The bead in the photo is upside down. The bottom part , which is the widest side of the perforation, probably had a gold cap on it. It was one of many identical graduated ones. Judging by the size of your bead, it was probably the center piece or close to the center.
I have seen a half necklace with the gold caps in Jerusalem but it was not for sale.

it is an extremely beautiful bead Joyce, but I would like to see how this looks like the other way around with the gold. Thank you for this interesting information Yankee. Would love to see more of it. Any books you could recommend showing similar beads?

Idly did a Google images search for Hellenistic agate, and dredged up these two interesting examples.

It nags a bit less that I can't get there ;-)

I couldn't wait to get to the site today to see what was posted. I agree with Martine, it makes it a little less frustrating that one couldn't be there. Thanks! lynne

I am still here in Tucson, leaving in two days. Had a great time with the beads and the people.
I'll post some pictures when I get back, but I did not take that many. I do have some treasures to share, though. I think my favorite things I am taking home are a Venetian millefiori face bead and the Prosser lion's teeth that I showed earlier.
And ofcourse, in a league of the own, is the whole collection of bead cards. With padding and some other stuff we bought (how did I suddenly end up with a full 1924 flatware set?), we will be shipping seven 16" by 16" boxes tomorrow.

Yesterday and this morning, I have been showing Meg (Mparis) around. It was her first time in Tucson, and it was great to be able to share in the excitement of seeing these amazing beads in one place for the first time. She made a lot of great pictures, so I am hoping she has the time to post them online. We had another small dinner at Marisco's last night, with 12 people. More bead talk and laughter.

For those who are interested in glasswork, I would recommend going to the Flame Off next year. It was our first time this year, and it is great to be able to see all these glass artists working against the clock to create their pieces.

Was nice to see you and Peter once again, I'm glad you got the sample card collection, and that there was a BCN Marisco's Shindig, session 2! I love that restaurant for the food, atmosphere, and friendliness. I've even gotten around the dim lighting by bringing at least one flashlight! Travel safely home, and when you get settled back home, we'd love to see your face cane millefiori.

Thank you so much for sharing your trip and amazing photos! Such a treat!

Joyce, or any other of you lucky people who were in Tucson..Do you know who was the person who had all the wonderful Ethiopian silver? I'd love to find out if he's heading anywhere in the NY area, but don't know what his name is. Would you possible know? Thanks! Lynne

I exchanged greetings with Alex this year by did not photograph his spread this time at Gem Mall. Is is him, perhaps? Have not located a website for him, though.

Thanks Joyce! I think this guy was at the African Village, which is different, right? I'll try to find out. Thanks for your help, though. I appreciate! Lynne

there is a Tuareg dealer. He was there this year too. But I don't remember his name. I don't know if there is an Ethiopian dealer at African Village, sorry.