On Thursday, Alain, a seller of beads who had held a sale in Vicki's garage on a rainy day in December, came back and displayed a huge assortment of 'new to me' beads at the Gualala Arts Center. A beautiful sunny day made the beads really sparkle and I have heard from a couple of beaders who bought more than they had planned to spend that they really had a great time.

That makes me wonder what was wrong with me. I bought nothing and felt his beads were overpriced. I was interested in a strand of turquoise nuggets that he wanted $480. for. On the web I found one can buy directly from the sleeping beauty mine in Globe, AZ. They had a similar strand of nuggets for $160. I am willing to pay a bit more to have someone bring the beads to me so I can finger them, but that seemed out of line to me. Also he had two great crystals from Brazil but again he was asking $780 and $480 when I felt the prices should have been $350 and $150.

The one big bargain Alain did have is in this photo. See the bright yellow-orange strand among the turquoise? Later Barbara, just walking out of the shot at the right, got it for $48 which I judged to be an excellent price. Maybe it was just my day to shop!

PS The deer-in-the-headlights-looking guy in the sunglasses is Walt Rush, who makes fine gold and silver jewelry. I wonder if I will recognize any of these stones in his work at Art in the Redwoods.