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Success With Jewelry
113 - Liz Interviews Alisa Thorp of Mercurius About the Tucson Gem Show
00:44:50
Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive. Welcome to episode #113! Liz chats with Alisa Thorp, one half of the duo behind Mercurius...
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Success with Jewelry podcast where we invite you inside our conversations about business success and marketing for jewelry designers and entrepreneurs. Welcome to episode 113. This week we'll be chatting with Alyssa Thorpe, one half of the duo behind Mercurious, an ethical fine jewelry brand that borrows its name from centuries old philosophy of alchemy. Both Alyssa and her husband David are captivated by gemstones. In today's episode, we'll discuss the Tucson Gem Show, a key event for gemstone enthusiasts and jewelry designers. Alyssa will share her experience and tips to help us navigate this expansive marketplace. In our bonus segment, Alyssa will share some of her biggest tips for designers shopping the show. Hey Alyssa, let's get into it. Hi Liz, thanks for being here. Unfortunately, Larissa cannot be here because of the fires in la and we hope that everyone out there is safe. Larissa is safe, but she's not near her. She had to evacuate and is not in her normal recording zone and is obviously dealing with a lot. So we're sad she's not here, but we are very glad she's safe and we hope you are safe too. But let's get into this because we are recording this the first full week in January and Tucson's coming. It's coming up quick, isn't it?
- [01:21]
B
Yeah, it's coming up very quick and I think I've told you this before, we kind of are. It's almost our New year when we go to Tucson is sort of the start of the year for us in all of our planning and in all of our thinking. So it feels like part of the holiday season almost.
- [01:44]
A
Yeah, it comes so quick after like New Year's and like the holiday season that it does feel like, you know, the early February shows and the Tucson Gem show just feel like they're a like a part of this like New year celebration, I guess.
- [01:57]
B
I don't know.
- [01:58]
A
But you're totally right about that. Can you tell everyone a little bit more about Mercurious and how you and Dave. I put David because that's how he's. His name is written on your website.
- [02:08]
B
But that's what his mom calls him.
- [02:11]
A
More normal to say knowing him. But how you both started the brand.
- [02:17]
B
Yeah. So Dave has been a jeweler goldsmith since for I think it's about 27 years now. And he was working as a goldsmith when we met and got married about 17 years ago almost. And I didn't jump into working with him right away but after we had our first child, sold the yoga studio that I was running and took a break from teaching quite as much yoga. Teaching yoga. And I had worked a number of other jobs and I realized, oh, I have our family as a business that I can jump in and help with. And at the time, it was mostly custom or almost entirely custom fine jewelry that we were doing. But when we got to 2020 and with the rest of the world, took a break and a kind of hard left turn, we decided it was time to finally launch our own collections and took some of that time of being at home together and away from the world to envision what would our voice, what would our jewelry brand look like? So I would say at that point, we really found the vision for. For Mercurious and what the unique Mercurius voice is to lend to the world. And we've had our pieces out there for the last few years. We're growing, we're continuing to develop our voice in the world.
- [04:02]
A
Yeah, I love that journey. And did you, along the way, did you develop a love for gemstones?
- [04:10]
B
Yes, absolutely. And it is very connected with. With visiting Tucson together. So when I started helping Dave with administrative aspects and also in dealing with the custom clients, and, you know, we'd say, okay, we need a 1 1/2 carat sapphire for this person. And I started to be the one calling the vendors, looking around for things. I quickly realized that there is a certain amount of knowledge that you need in order to just order stones, help clients, source stones, all of that stuff. It's not like maybe other types of business where you would call up and say, okay, I need a pound of fertilizer. I don't know why that comes to mind, but, you know, something basic like that. When a gemstone dealer says, okay, what, you know, level of clarity do you want? If you don't know anything about gemstones, it's hard to. Hard to even discuss what you want. So I started to learn a little bit more, asking a lot of questions along the way. And we went to Tucson together for the first time. And at that time, I. I would say it was kind of like a gem fever. I became deeply, deeply interested.
- [05:43]
A
What's your favorite gemstone?
- [05:46]
B
Well, I always tell my children that I don't have favorites. I love each of them for who they are. And I would say it's very similar with gemstones. It's really hard to choose a favorite, but I am very impartial. And I'm a little bit obsessed with natural unheated zircon, which is not as well known of a stone as some others. And it is not. It has the unfortunate fate of sounding like cubic zirconia, which people have a bad opinion of and is not a natural stone, but this is a totally natural stone. Absolutely beautiful. High refractive index. So lots of fire, even more than a diamond. And then also in terms of like the rocks that are not crystals. Transparent, infested. I love jade. That's. Jade has really captured my heart. Lapis. Lapis is another favorite.
- [06:52]
A
Yeah, I feel like within your brand, you work with a lot of hard stones and more, you know, with natural, like inclusions and matrices. And then you also pair them with like, you know, more vibrant cut stones. And also Dave does the own. His own cutting, right?
- [07:13]
B
Yeah. We do lapidary work in house and I love pairing jade and zircon, those, those two favorites. So you'll see that come up in our work quite a bit. He does the cutting. I have taken over to a large degree the sourcing and, you know, I'll pair his designs with the stones that I want to use and, and match them up. And that is a lot of fun, the creative aspect of designing in that respect. Because he does his own lapidary work, we can really design in stone. And so our Tucson experience is a lot is very focused around finding the lapid, the rough lapidary material. Especially after several years of going, we'll talk about it a little more, I'm sure. But at this point, after going for so many years, we have made really great connections with gemstone dealers. And a lot of those faceted gemstones I am able to source year round, not just in Tucson because of those connections that I've made in Tucson. However, the rough lapidary material, there's nothing quite like seeing the stone in person in order to select, you know, which piece you're gonna cut into. And so that is a big focus of our visits at this point is looking for that material.
- [08:53]
A
It must be hard to choose that type of material because you don't know 100. What it's going to look like inside.
- [09:00]
B
It is a gamble. And you know, and like, sometimes you win big and sometimes you, you lose. Luckily, the, the price points of that material tends to be a bit lower than like say, sapphires or cons. The, the, those gemstones, there are techniques, they're, you know, you learn as you go and as you do lapidary, I, and I only mess around with it. I'm like a lapidary hobbyist and in like, the very lightest sense, but I've learned enough to, you know, work To I've learned enough to understand a little bit about what's happening when you cut the stone and also what to look for. Some of the things to look for when selecting. But yeah, you're looking at a rock that is like all black on the outside and then it might be, you might see like a little tiny bit of a hot pink and then you're just hoping that that is what the whole thing is like inside.
- [10:06]
A
I feel like customers over the years have gotten much more aware of different types of gemstones because I entered the industry in like a diamond world. Like we were doing rough and raw and natural colored diamonds and not many gemstones. And then one of my first clients after left that position was a designer who was using super unique gemstones, like really obscure stuff that was very cool and very rare and I learned a lot there. But then what really like kind of got me learning more about gemstones was working for an emerald company managing the social media. But like I learned I like did a deep dive on emeralds and like when you're learning about one gemstone, I feel like you learn about other gemstones alongside of it because you start to understand the differences and like you know, the different qualities to look for and things like that. Where was I going with this? What I was going to say is that I feel like over the years I've been in the industry, the end consumer has gotten much more educated and confident and interested in things outside of the traditional like diamond sapphire, ruby, emerald.
- [11:12]
B
They have, they have and they have access to a lot of photos online these days. But photos can be very misleading. We have a lot of clients that come to us with a very like well developed idea of what they want and then what they want doesn't necessarily exist because not all the information news flash. But not all the information you find online is true and accurate. So shock. But you know, you might have somebody who's like I love this teal color of sapphire. And you know teal sapphires are everywhere these days in the, at least on the gem Internet. So this, okay, I love this teal color sapphire. I want a four karat stone. I want like a big stone, three to four carat stone, Montana sapphire. Because I'm in love with the idea of a US based stone. And the problem is is that that stone may or may not even exist. The like maybe a teal sapphire, you know, they're looking at pictures of gems from Madagascar. The ones from Montana aren't quite that same color that they're thinking of. Or if that Rough has come out of the ground. It's not coming out of the ground in Montana in the sizes that they're looking for. And maybe there's one or two examples online that they have seen where it has. But that stone is, like, astronomically expensive or in a private collection because it's so rare. And so it's like, sometimes the public has, like, just enough information to make it very difficult to give them what they want. But in general, people do maybe have more of an appreciation for colored stones now. It's really interesting, though. Gemstone trends are really strange. Like, you know, there's a stone, the Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye, which is an incredible, phenomenal stone, which is super popular in Asia, Southeast Asia, not very popular in the US And I don't really understand why there isn't a demand for that stone here. So, like, certain stones trend or become known.
- [13:51]
A
Interesting. I feel like the. Recently I've just been been seeing a ton of paraeba tourmaline and stones that are like a pale green color. I don't know. Are there any other trends you're noticing? This is off topic, but I'm fascinated by this type of thing.
- [14:11]
B
Trends is one of the things that I do go to Tucson to find out about, like what sometimes it's related to a big deposit. And I think with the private tourmaline there and the. This is a. This is one of those, like, hot take topics, controversial in the gem world. Can you call. Which stones can you give the Para Pariba name to? Because a lot of people say, oh, that's not real. You know, that's not the real color. That's close, but it's not actually it. And originally all of those stones were coming out of Brazil, and now there's a deposit in Africa, and I don't know if they have, like, a marketing campaign, a team behind them to really boost these stones out of Africa. I'm not really sure what is happening, but because a new deposit, a newer deposit of that color has been found, they are, you know, trending again. So sometimes it's related to that. Sometimes it's related to a celebrity gets an engagement ring of a certain stone or a certain color. So I'll see. I'll find out this year. What is big. What's big news? Cobalt spinel was kind of big news the last year or two. Jedi spinel, that's another one.
- [15:42]
A
Yeah. It's interesting that Golden Globes red carpet just happened this past weekend, and there was a Bulgarian necklace that I believe I'M not a celebrity trend watcher by any means, but like had a huge tourmaline that was kind of in the pariba tone, but I don't know exactly like what type of stone it was. That was interesting. And then also there was this Tiffany necklace that a celeb wore that had I think Ethiopian opal white opals.
- [16:10]
B
Yeah. Anya Joy Taylor. Is that her name? Green.
- [16:15]
A
Yeah. And I feel like opals have been trending for a long time, but I don't think I've ever really seen them on the red carpet like that.
- [16:22]
B
Yeah, I, I don't, I don't know if I have either. But yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting, you know, and then how much of this. There's definitely what the press and the jewelry press kind of puts forward as this is trending. And then, you know, does that trickle? Does that trickle down to the public? Will we see a lot of chocolate diamonds purchased this year because of the pantone color? I don't know. We'll find out.
- [16:51]
A
Who's to say? Anyway, that was off topic, but let's actually get down to it. For anybody who doesn't know, for the designers who are listening, who are maybe new to the industry, what is the Tucson Gem show and why is it important?
- [17:06]
B
Yeah, so the name. So we all call it the Tucson Gem show or sometimes people just say Tucson and I'll be in Tucson and you just know what that means. It's kind of a misleading name because you might think of a convention or a show that's happening and imagine that it's at a single venue. But this is really like a full city takeover almost. There are about 50 different locations all over the the city and outer surrounding areas that take place from about the end of January until the middle of February. And if you're going definitely be sure to check the dates of the show you want to go to because every show has different dates. The first time I ever went to Tucson, actually we arrived after the show that we went down with some. A jeweler that Dave was working for at the time, a designer took him down and I went along with our one year old baby just to like check it out and have a vacation. And we arrived after the agta show had ended, which was the primary show she wanted to go to. But that. So definitely check your date. So it's like three to four weeks. There are a total of about 50 shows all over town. And it is like everything in the rock, gem, mineral, fossil world that you can imagine as well. As jewelry at this point. There are some jewelry trade shows, Finnish jewelry trade shows and also like you can find your beads, your findings chain, all of that kind of stuff wholesale with vendors from all over the world. There are other very large gem shows, important events that happen around the world, but this one is the biggest. Why Tucson? Who knows? It just is kind of the perfect location for it. In, in a weird, mean Tucson. The world of gems and minerals is like a quirky, weird world. And Tucson is a quirky, weird and wonderful city. Arizona has a great history of mining and a lot of wonderful natural phenomenon. So maybe it's a great fit. But it started with a single show. Like every city has a gem and mineral society. It started with a gem and mineral society show in an elementary school in 1955, which just grew and grew in popularity and somehow the, you know, additional shows started to be added and it grew from there. Major source of revenue for the city of Tucson at this point.
- [20:07]
A
That's wild. It's one of my dreams to attend and I love the stories of designers like shopping and then seeing other designers shopping. And like some of those designers admire buying their stones for the year. For so many brands this is when they get all of their gems, gemstones that they use for the entire year.
- [20:26]
B
Yeah, I mean I've, I've been, I've seen some like really top designers. Designers. I admire designers. I'm like why are you so successful? You know, you're just shopping shoulder to shoulder them. I, a very famous European designer did like one of those. Do you know who I am? To a diamond dealer who wasn't offering him a big enough price cut on this like seventy thousand dollar diamond. So that's all kind of fun stuff. One of my favorite things is when you see the buying teams from big brands because that's kind of my fantasy dream job. If I didn't do what I'm doing now would be to be a buyer for like a big design house. And sometimes you'll see like the team come around to the tables to, to work on. You know, they've got their iPads out with like vision boards and lists and all kinds of stuff and they're buying big quantities. It's really fun. It's so cool.
- [21:30]
A
One year Greenwich street jewelers did a reel that was like behind the scenes of them going to the gem show and buying gemstones. And I think I still think about that a lot because I, you know, even though I'm tied into the jewelry world, I'm still so fascinated by the Process and seeing kind of the behind the scenes. And I love just the content on social media when everyone goes to Tucson because it's just so exciting to see what everybody's looking for. Like the trays, like the huge like the tables and tables and tables of gemstones, the huge geodes, like it's just awesome.
- [22:01]
B
Oh totally. It's like the best content week of the year, that's for sure. At least for me. And it's my biggest engagement week just in you know, people obviously love it. They love it. So I actually like in thinking about my tips I thought about because that's a handling how you handle making all that engagement while you're also down there. Shopping is something that I've had to work out a technique for stay sane.
- [22:32]
A
Could you mention some of the like must see sections or vendors at the show?
- [22:37]
B
Yeah. So that is a really hard question to answer. And again I do lapidary shopping. So. Okay, it depends what you're looking for but these are my must sees. So if you do more like bead work, silver findings, things like that. There are definitely other shows that I'm not going to include on this list. But the, the biggest one that I recommend everyone go to just to even if you don't buy like big fine, high quality colored gemstones, still visit AGTA and gjx. These, they're both those two shows. So that's the American Gem Traders association. And I actually have no idea what GJX stands for, but it's right across the street from the Tucson Convention center in a giant tent. And if you're registered for AGTA you can use your tag and get a special sticker for gjx. So at those two shows you'll see just an overwhelming and astounding amount of color gemstones and natural diamonds. And you can also look at tools and supplies there as well. My favorite tweezers are from a Japanese company that's at other great tools and so even if you don't work with those kinds of stones, it's an amazing experience and just like opportunity to see what's on offer and you'll see things that like wow, I can't even believe what I'm seeing right now. And it's also a chance. So we have, we have a decent amount of colored gemstone in our own stock and inventory. And one thing that I do even when I'm not buying it that shows is check pricing because pricing changes from year to year and anyone that buys color gemstones knows that there's not like A central place to check what is the price of this stone? You know, what is the market value of say, a watermelon tourmaline at this exact, at this exact moment? You can check the prices at different places, but they might vary widely. And so each year when you go to Tucson, you can, you know, check what is the current market on these, on these stones anyway? Those, those shows are like the, they're trade only. They're like the highest value items that you're going to see in town, and they're definitely worth going to. And then a newer show that I love is the Ethical Gem Suppliers show at the Scottish Rite Temple that takes place the weekend before HTA starts. And it's exactly what the name implies. It's Ethical Champ suppliers and the vendors that are there are the industry leaders in like working at the highest level of transparency and values based sourcing. There's a beautiful selection of materials and it's like a more intimate and relaxed setting than most of the other shows. And you can learn so much from those suppliers. And they're all like very willing to have discussions and they're all very supportive of emerging designers and they're committed to education. So I highly recommend a visit to that show if you have any inkling of an interest in the ethical side of the industry. And even if you just want to look at some beautiful stones, there's a fantastic Ethiopian emerald dealer there, actually, speaking of Ethiopian emeralds. And let's see. So my favorite, my, my favorite show that is a little bit further afield is the Miners Co Op show. And this one is like the person that just dug this out of, you know, out of the ground somewhere in North America, who then gets in their RV and like drives to Tucson, puts up a table in a field next to the RV that they're also staying in. And it's just like dusty rocks on tables and that. And there's other stuff there as well. There's like cabochons and all kinds of stuff. But if you do lapidary work or you love talking to minors, which Dave and I definitely do, you can visit that show. It's about a 25 minute drive north of downtown, if you like the kind of dusty rock experience. But a little closer to town, the Kino show is another one of my favorites. And it's on the shuttle route. There is a shuttle that you can take that goes from show to show. So Keno is on the shuttle route. It's a little further out of town, but you can find a lot of great Cabochons there as well as rough material and then also all of your like salt lamps and Tibetan city bowls and there's a lot of that kind of stuff in Tucson. So like on the outskirts of a lot of the shows there will be a lot of non rock related stuff for sale. Felt cat beds, you know, things like that. Really random. I, this is like segueing into tips. But I have to put on blinders and not look at any of that stuff because it's so overwhelmed. There's so much to shop that if I look at anything that is not part of my like in the zone of rocks, I'll get overwhelmed. Yeah, I feel like.
- [28:52]
A
Yeah, I can't imagine how much stuff there is to look at.
- [28:56]
B
Yeah, so much stuff. So much.
- [28:59]
A
And how distracting it all is. But yeah, let's get into tips.
- [29:02]
B
Yeah, sure. I feel bad leaving out some other like must see destinations. We always go to the Pueblo show, that's another one that has a lot of great vendors and it's not as high end as agta, but a lot of your agta vendors like are represented at Pueblo as well. And there's some just really significant vendors there that are great to visit. And then the, but do not eat at the Pueblo show. The coffee there is the worst coffee I've ever had in my life. So that's, that's a hot tip. 22nd Street show is a newer show and that one has also a lot of really fantastic vendors. Some really great Montana Sapphire is there and do eat at the barbecue food truck that is there. That is really, that is really good. Okay. And so one of my tips in terms of shows is like have a schedule but give yourself a little time to wander. Open up to the serendipity of the Tucson experience. Because you might talk to someone and they're like oh, go talk to Mike over at 22nd street or go talk to Mike at the tent that's in between, you know, Holiday Inn and days in or whatever. And you'll be, you'll be like what? And you start walking along the street and there's like tents to the side and you go in and you find that and, and that person might have exactly what you want. So just be open to like following tips or wandering around a little bit if you have the time and you might find something you never expected. And then we also always try to visit one brand new place each year. Like one show we've never been to just, just to expand what we've seen. And so that is another tip. Okay. So top tips. Every year before I go in January, I pull out all of the rot gems that we have at home. And this is a really important part of the whole thing for me because it's like, it's like anything else. If you looked at all your shoes and then went shoe shopping, you'd be like, oh wait, I already have that. But maybe even a little more so because it's easy to forget. Oh, I have a parcel of, you know, geometric, odd, random geometric cut tanzanites or something like that. And you just every, every designer slash jeweler who has gemstones knows that like you impulse purchase something thinking you would make a project with it. And when you look at a big, you know, assortment of all that stuff, all those projects that you haven't yet finished, it's going to help you be more moderate in your spending when you get to Tucson. And then you'll also see like, okay, this is what I'm out of. Etc. And so that is my number one. Before I go then before I go, I also make lists. I have a little moleskin notebook, like just one of those like pocket sized ones that is just for Tucson. And I write down and I am a Gen Xer. So some of you might be thinking, I'll do all of this on my phone. But remember, you might be out all day and you haven't found an outlet and your phone dies. And then you're going to be like, what millimeter was that stone that was supposed to be for that client? So I recommend the notebook and I make lists. So several lists. One is like, what do I need to buy either for client projects or for our own jewelry? And I put in as many details as possible. Dimensions, color, you know, color range, etc. And then the next list is what do I want to do pricing research on. So you know, dates of. For example, we buy old stock collections, you know, from Rock Collect, the children of rock collectors who are like, please come and take this out of my garage that used to belong to my dad. And that is where a lot of our materials come from. So we have a lot of old stock lapis. And I don't know what the current market value of lapis is. And let's say we put that lapis in a piece of jewelry. I need to know what it would cost me to replace it when I sell more, right? So when I go, I have like, all right, I need to know the price of lapis. I'm going to go from show to show. Anywhere I see lapis. I'm Going to inquire about the price. And then I make, you know, a grade, B grade, C grade. Here's the range of what I'm seeing in the program price for lapis so that when I go home, I can have a more accurate idea of what, you know, my replacement cost would be to. To restock. So that is, that's really only the last couple years I've started to, you know, really use this as like a research trip for, for pricing. And then I also make a list of what I want to see just like, as a gem and rock nerd. Like, I might find out about a type of garnet I've never heard of or a new region where like, let's say the tourmaline is coming out of. And so I'll make a list of, you know, things I want to look for, almost like a treasure hunt just to see, take a photograph of. I'm not necessarily going to buy it. And then I make another list of like, my fantasy splurge items. Like, okay, if I see green turquoise, I can buy it. Or, you know, just the things that I'm always looking for or that I like, really love. I don't 100% stick to this list. Like, I do buy random things sometimes. But it's really helpful to think all of that out before you go and.
- [35:53]
A
Write it down and get it out of your head so it's not just like living in your head. And then I'm sure your next thing alongside this is to like, have a budget, right?
- [36:02]
B
Yes, it's very important to have a budget. And it's, it's good to know what your budget is for, like what you need for your business and then give yourself like a splurge or just for fun budget, even if it's like $200. I also do usually when I'm in Tucson, buy a lot of like, I have a little budget for like client gift crystals. Right. So it's not always crystals. Sometimes it's like fossilized ammonite or just like fun little things that I can send as gifts to people in packages or when we do an event, have like a bowl sitting on the table to like, let any kid who comes by. Oh, there's my cat. To let any kid come pick up off the table or, you know, that kind of thing. So that's another nice thing to pick up. And I also was doing this Tucson treasure box giveaway, which I can't remember if I did it last year, but it's very. It's been a popular thing where people interact with our social media. I do a drawing and then I send them like a grab bag of interesting things. I also. So another recommendation is I recommend deciding which shows you want to go to ahead of time, like the ones you definitely want to attend. And you can look up a gem show guide online and see like all the details. There's also printed copies all over town and that way you can check the dates and times and you can also register ahead of time which will save you a lot of time and hassle. And you need to bring, be prepared. Bring your business license like photocopies of it or a picture on your phone. You're gonna need to show that some places to get in or sometimes you go to a show that's open, excuse me, open to the public. And you know they have like public pricing. But if you say hey I'm in the trade, do you have trade pricing? Do you have hope? You know, is this the wholesale price that you will get a wholesale price, but only if you can show your business license. It used to be photocopies but now a lot of vendors are okay if it's like on the phone like a picture. So I, I still bring a couple photocopies in case you meet like a more old fashioned type of person. Have your business cards not just for networking, but again some shows will make you give them a business card with your name and your business name on it. But look into each one to find out what the requirements are ahead of time for the ones you definitely want to go to.
- [38:55]
A
What other I know you probably bring a bunch of tools. You're probably getting to this. But like are there any other tools like must haves that you should bring to the shows?
- [39:05]
B
Yes, definitely. I was gonna say definitely bring snacks, like your favorite snacks or make sure that you're planning like a grocery run the first day that you get there because there's food all over town. But this is a physically exhausting experience and you will want to have something quick to get you by if you start to get like literally like dizzy or exhausted. As well as water your water bottle. I always have those like electrolyte, you know, three times hydration powders that I make sure I drink one of those each day. And comfortable shoes. So you really like don't go for cute. Cute and comfortable, but definitely go for comfortable. Okay, so what do I always bring? Yes, I always have my business cards. A loop. I always have a loop. My little notebook and pens, phone charger. Sometimes I like I'll have my own tweezers but vendors usually have that cash. Bring cash and a checkbook. Again, I am a Gen Xer. I'm comfortable with the checkbook. But if there are vendors, overseas vendors that are not going to take a credit card and some of them will take a check. They'll all take cash. They all take cash. And also if you don't have Zelle set up, I recommend setting up Zelle because there are a lot of international vendors who don't take Venmo, but they do take Zelle. And so that is don't, don't count on Venmo and credit card have some other backup methods. You'll be surprised. I have a light that is kind of essential for me for lapidary shopping. This gem light, which is excellent. It is both. It has the different wavelengths for looking at the stones in as well as the ultraviolet. And I have like a mini bag that I bought just for. I may use it other times, but I especially bought it for Tucson because they don't want to be loaded down. I didn't want to be like one shoulder bag, but I wanted to be able to be organized and zip things away. Yeah, those are some of the essentials.
- [41:49]
A
I'm just thinking with like the cash and the gemstones, like is there anything you'd say in terms of security and making sure you're safe?
- [42:02]
B
So I, you know, being. Be with a friend if you can or a buddy, like have somebody else with you. Don't keep things like again, keep things like zipped up or tucked away. I take. We always take ride shares. We use lift the whole time we're there almost. And if I'm alone, I don't usually mention that I'm like there for gem shows or anything like that. You know, most of the time for that high value stuff, it is easy to like deeply conceal it because it's very small. But yeah, I think just being smart about who you're talking to, being aware of your surroundings, not carrying your gem stuff at night, you know, getting it safely back in your. In your place. Some people ship stuff out like as they go. There's shipping around town.
- [43:09]
A
That was so many good tips and so much good information. We have to move on to the insider episode, but is there anything else or. I know we didn't answer all of the questions, but um, there's just so much here. It's so good.
- [43:25]
B
So much. Yeah, I guess one other thing I would say is write everything down like as you're going. I'm not sure what else to say for the insider part, because I have a lot more to say. But write everything down. You're. You're going to talk to somebody. You're going to take their business card at their booth. You're gonna think you'll remember where they were and what they told you, and then you're gonna try to go back to them and not find them. Or you're gonna buy that stone and you're not gonna remember where they said it was from and what they told you about it. So just be like writing notes as you go get the business card and write down the quotes, the pricing, the number of their booth, etc, like, as you go. And you, you might use it while you're in town. Or like three months later, a client will say, hey, I want an Ethiopian opal. And you'll be able to, like, flip through the cards you picked up and remember who had the, you know, awesome opals you looked at.
- [44:33]
A
So much good info. Thank you for sharing with us.
- [44:35]
B
Yeah, you're very welcome.
- [44:37]
A
All right, have you attended the Tucson Gem show or are you planning to let us know? Visit successwithjewelry.com and if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message or leave us a review. Thanks for being a part of the success with jewelry community.