The 2026 Tucson Gem Show was different for us this year. The guest house we rented for the past 14 gem shows was no longer available. It had been our sweet home away from home for all that time and was the perfect space for us in so many ways. The owners decided to turn it into a long-term rental. The place we rented this year was a lot farther from the show and some of our favorite places. It wasn’t as nice, either. Wah, wah.
Our good friend and jewelry designer, Steve Wolf didn’t hang with us in our place like he normally would because it was too far. At least we got to have some dinners out and watch a few sunsets together. It was nice to see Steve as always. We’ve been hanging out at the show for 30 years. But that also might not happen again, because Steve decided to finally retire after the price of silver went sky high and his last shipment was hit with crazy tariffs. It’s hard to stay away from the Gem Show, though, so we may get to see him there again. It’s so nice to see old friends and familiar faces. And it’s a blessing to be able to break up the winter in the PNW with some SW sunshine.
Some familiar faces were missing. One passed away. One couldn’t come from Germany because of his declining health. Another one – the biggest dealer of Moroccan fossils and minerals – couldn’t get a visa. He’s been coming to the shows for over 40 years! It was so strange and disappointing that he couldn’t get a visa. There were others as well that couldn’t get visas.
Buying jewelry this year at the show was the most difficult experience. Silver was up to $117/oz. when we first arrived, and the tariffs from India were 50%. Much of the silver jewelry we buy is from India, so the prices were sky high. I couldn’t justify buying certain pieces we would normally buy, but I did choose a few select pieces. By the time we went back to the vendors to pick up the items and pay for them, the price of silver had dropped to $87/oz. and the tariffs dropped to 18%, so the vendors came down somewhat on their prices. The higher prices were extremely stressful and the fluctuations were making us all crazy!
We attended one of the gem show parties where we had a lot of fun, saw some amazing museum-level specimens and wound up making a couple of great purchases there. This year, all in all, we made some fantastic purchases and have been having fun rolling them out on Facebook Lives every Wednesday. If you miss them live, they stay posted on our page for one month, so you can go back and watch them. Stay tuned for future emails showing some of the new goodies!
