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Last weekend we got about a foot of snow in Richmond. On Monday morning, I slipped and skidded out my front door to catch a taxi to the airport for my flights to the Tucson Gem Show. We were an hour taking off because of de-icing the plane. Luckily, my connecting flight was delayed, so I ended up getting to Tucson just about on time. I posted a couple of pictures from Tucson below. Those are gigantic amethyst geodes in the picture with Nancy.


Tucson is the largest gem show in the world and very important for new gem discoveries as well as finding enough quantities of hard to find stones to bring to QVC. This year we were able to accomplish all. Allison, the gemstone buyer; Nancy, our wonderful QVC host; and our amazing film crew: Mike, Kyle, and Andrea covered almost the entire Tucson Gem Show. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be bringing you the sights and scenes of the show. We were able to go into the private suites, by invitation only, to see two just discovered stones, which will be premiering during our Tucson Gem Show on QVC.


The finest gemstone carver in the world invited us to their warehouse to see their exquisite carvings and fine stones. They open several weeks before the Tucson Gem Show and many dealers actually come to them to buy what they will be exhibiting at the show. We were able to go right to the real source and obtain the fabulous stones that will be featured in the Today's Special Value on 2/17.


We also found enough cut stones of a rare bright pink stone that will be featured during the show. It was a real surprise to see this lot (what you call a parcel of loose stones) in the quality and quantity for QVC.


Other great finds were two new colors of opal and a unique transparent stone with a surprise inside.


I will go into better detail and tell you the stories of each stone when we get a little closer to our show.


Thank you for your wonderful comments about the Artisan Crafted shows. QVC stopped selling Chinese Jade when the mines in China ran out and the only supply was from Burma. We do not sell gemstones mined in Burma.


I left Tucson on Saturday morning and spent the night in the Atlanta airport due to the Richmond airport being closed because of the snow storm. I finally arrived back around 4PM, without luggage, just in time to watch the fantastic Super Bowl Game-go Saints. All of the train service on the east coast has been cancelled because of the snow and I have still not been able to get back to Pennsylvania. Another storm is coming, so I may be in Richmond until next week. Travel is so much fun!


Please stay safe and warm and I will be writing more in response to your wonderful comments once I am back in the office.


Take care, Peyton