African Art Village remains a destination for antique trade beads. The other main venue for this material, Gem and Lapidary Wholesalers show at Grant Inn (formerly Rodeway Inn on Grant) closed in 2011. The vendors / general material you will see in this link from the closing year mostly have relocated into one of the other G&LW venues, the Gem Mall. So this array of ethnic dealers can be found in one of the tents there now, as of Feb. of this year. The concentration of African trade beads at Tucson is located at these two venues - African Village and Grant Inn. There are of course other dealers at other shows who carry them.

The same promoters that run the show at Howard Johnson are now the promoters at the Grant Inn location, which is promising from what I have heard. A few vendors from the G&LW show stayed at this location, and others confirmed for this venue for 2013 are Danny Lopacki and Tiger Tiger. Hoping Danny or Matt can tell us more.

Floor is about to complete a book on the whole Tucson show experience, we all look forward to this!

BeadCollector.net users have met for dinners on the opening days of the Tucson shows since 2006. This year, we had 20 at Mariscos, a fine, beady time was had by all!

Some bead collecting forumites have attended the shows for 30+ years. FinFan is a local Tucsonian and bcn forumite. You'd think there'd be more!

It is a BIG event on the forum every year, much discussed. Go back to last February to find a long discussion, or two, or three, about the Tucson shows.

Many of us have been, and probably all the remainder of us wish we could go too.

Main idea......Tucson is a big deal for bead fiends of all kinds!

And these links aren't even close to all the images and discussions that take place around these events...

You are so lucky to be right there in Tucson! At least, one month out of the year, you are the envy of many!

Thank you everyone! That makes complete sense- the African Art Village is the only location I have not been to- because I am always told there are no crystals there!

Yes, I was sad to hear that Grant Inn stopped hosting the bulk of their vendors (only a handful still show up and sell there).

I would love to join you all for the dinner and to say hello in person if I am not completely exhausted by then (because I actually go around to all of my favorite vendors who are just unpacking BEFORE the show opens...they arrive here days in advance. I hand pick my crystals and want to get the best of the best so I work overtime to get all over the city before any travelers arrive (and I do it by bike- great for the parking issue but I am one tired girl by the end of the show, having put on a couple hundred miles).

I go to the gem show almost every day it is here, 9 to 5. and I spend the evenings making and listing jewelry to sell for more funds to go out and shop again (my die hard customers are waiting for the new finds to show up on my website- I am lucky, they get bought up quickly because I list the most unusual crystals first).

So yes, I am very blessed to live here. Truth is the summers are brutal and I am an ocean girl, so I stay here only because of the gem show- it is such an advantage for my business. My real dream is to live in an RV so with my dog and guinea pigs, so that we can spend Christmas in snow, the rest of the time near the ocean and still be here for the gem show.

I guess I will need to start setting aside some extra funds for the antique beads now :) So excited to know that they do come here! I can't wait!

♥marjorie

AND I LOVE going through all the photos in the past posts! what a lovely eclectic mix of people, all ages and all styles! looks like fun ;)

The "puppy" is adorable!

Thank you. He is the absolute love of my life, and six years of age. I am hoping to have him set a record and live to 15 :) He sleeps with me. He is the "CEO" of my business ;)

Oh wait, I just realized that you were referring to Cecil the Rescue Husky Dog, whose pic is on this post! Sorry, I was confused because I have a Guinea Pig named "puppy" as well. Nevermind. I am a nut when it comes to my animals! Cecil is about 7 as far as I can tell (took him in from the streets) and he plans to live to 20 ;) He sleeps in the bed with me and guinea pig for the first couple of hours.

Hi all- we have been selling at the Tucson shows for over 19 years now. I know that the African Village is a wonderful place to find alot of great trade beads and some not so great trade beads. There are still some hidden stashes- just as for the under the table beads. The guys will love to show you them.
Then there is G&LW at the 2nd tent at the Gem Mall where alot of the old gang moved to. They would all love to see you. Come mingle.
Then there are a few traders at the newst show- 22ND Street show. It is a lovely eclectic variety of vendors. Rocks, dinosaur fossils, beads, native beadwork , beads and more-- oh did I say beads. Yes, a good amount of beads. And remember have fun and only buy the trade bead if you feel good about spending that amount of money. Love them, treasure them and share with others.

Thank you for the clarification on which shows to go to. All of artists who live here in Tucson basically do not eat for the months of January and February because we would rather have every dollar we can scrounge up spent at the gem show. Now, to my list of dozens of varieties of crystals that I must shop for, I will be adding antique beads. I think I need to give up food NOW and start saving...isn't there a term for that? Breatharians or something? I need to learn how to live off of breathing! ;)
marjorie