I recently spent four days in Tucson shopping for the gems that will inspire my work this year. I picked up stones for custom projects, ate incredible meals, and reconnected with my jewelry peers who feel like family.

My shopping focus this year was pairs. I've been wanting to create new one-of-a-kind earrings, so my mission was finding gemstone pairs in shapes and colors that spoke to me. This was more challenging than expected because distractions were abundant! Single gems kept catching my eye, like a gorgeous reclaimed emerald-cut tourmaline too beautiful to pass up. I also fell for an oval Australian sapphire. Keep an eye out for that to become a ring soon.

I travel to Tucson with a group of colleagues, and our nightly show-and-tell ritual is one of my favorite parts of the trip. We pass around a plate loaded with the day's purchases and share what made that particular gem irresistible, or what piece it will complete. 

Beyond the shopping, it was reassuring to talk with other jewelers about navigating our industry's challenges: rising metal prices, tariffs, shifting style trends, and changing consumer expectations. While we love what we do, we all agree the past year was a wild ride.

Already counting down to next time,
Corey