SoniaM Designs: Gem and Jewellery Festival

I forgot to tell everyone about the Gem and Jewellery Festival at Hendra this weekend. It's on the first weekend of March every year and it's usually very very hot in the hall they have it in at the school. This year was much cooler thanks to the rain. I've been going to this festival for a long time, from when I could park my car and walk straight in to having to park on the street and now they have people directing the parking! At least the entry fee has only increased 50cents.

It has become very busy and very popular in the last couple of years. It doesn't look busy but I think people stayed out of the way for me to take the photo.

There are lots of things for everyone. There are the raw gemstones mounted on quartz or loose.

Lots of jewellery to appeal to a broad range of tastes. I particularly loved Preyas Jewellery.

I took an instant liking to these bracelets.

And the earrings in the bottom right corner. And the rings below.

In particular this one.

And then I found this amazing necklace. The stone is Gaspeite from a new mine in the United States called Mohave Mines.

And my favourite stall holder was there, Chris from Windows of Creation. I always buy something from him as he has a great range of semi-precious stones at reasonable prices.

I started to take a liking to the raw gemstones on quartz bases a few years ago. It is easy to get Amethyst, Rose Quartz and Clear Quartz but hard to get anything else and if you do it is always very expensive. I found these great Citrene and Amethyst candle holders from an old friend Sharon who I haven't seen in ages. They are actually nicer than the photos show and much larger. She used to work for a supplier in Brisbane who is no more, Mr Tumbles. Doug and Lesley owned Mr Tumbles at Bowen Hills and they used to supply fantastic semi-precious beads. When they sold I was devastated as Doug had an amazing eye for gemstones and was very fair with pricing. I hardly needed to buy overseas that's how great the range and prices were. And everytime I went there I would walk out with something and because he lived close by they would drop things into me on the way home. Sadly I found out through Sharon today that Doug died in January from bowel cancer. I knew he was sick a couple of years ago but had heard they got it early and was doing well. So needless to say I was very upset at the news.