Back from Tucson

Ok, I want to start out by saying first. NONE OF THIS WORK IS MINE.

No confusion - this is stuff I BOUGHT at Tucson.

Tucson is, every February, host to countless number of bead, gem, jewelry, mineral, and rock shows. Literally countless - they pop up like mushrooms. Or cactii, as they don't have enough water in Tucson to grow mushrooms, but you get the idea. More on the shows themselves in a later post.

I just wanted to show you some of the lampwork that I purchased there because it's really freaking fabulous.

This is the haul.


This Vortex marble - look at the depth in that! 

 and this silver and gold fumed mer-dragon are both from the torches of the Mazet brothers.

These pieces are both Boro. The marble has that incredible sense of depth that a vortex marble should have - you keep turning it over to try and figure out where the rest of it is. They appear to be ... wait for it ... "bigger on the inside." The merdragon (note the webbed feet) has a charming sense of whimsy to it (him) that I liked, above and beyond the gold-sparkliness of him.

(Their website appears to be not-working at the moment, their facebook page is clearly abandoned. However, if you google "eli josh tim mazet" you'll find lots of other people talking about them - all of it good.)


These "fire opal" pieces (the one on the left is a ring, on the right is a bead) are wonderful - the colour is absolutely as fabulous as it looks here. These are by Jenny Friske-Baer, of Divine Spark Designs. Her website does work!

And these breath-taking beauties are by  Joy Munshower - the Tile Goddess. (Her website also works!)  Really - nothing needs to be said about how awesome these are. Except that she has more stuff that is equally awesome and you should go buy your own.