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The Destiny City Gem Faire met quarterly at the Lieberly Expo Center, renting out the whole of the 50 acre campus - five expansive exhibit halls totaling over 300,000 square feet and six meeting rooms for presentations or panels on the various aspects of gem science and appraisal. It was conveniently located off a major interstate between downtown city center and the university district. Additionally, the international airport was only minutes away on a dedicated freeway. With nearly 100 area hotels, the downtown shopping in close proximity, faire goers of almost any walk o flove had an easy time accessing the event or any other event that the Lieberly booked. The last Gem Faire had been in November, timing meant to be profitable in catching the holiday shopping crowd and taking advantage of the city's seasonal spirit and decorations. The Spring Meet had opened its doors with set ups of hyacinth and crocuses, ribbons and bright banners declaring the approach of spring and its many holidays throughout the halls. The Faire was a gem, jewelry & bead show for Jewelery whole sellers, Jewelers, Jewelery retailers, Department store buyers, Jewelery manufacturers, designers, Gemologists, Watch retailers, students & others related to jewelery.

Quenton had gotten a modest table in the amateur exhibitors and sales hall, surrounded by many talented and enthusiastic teen beaders, stay at home moms who liked wire wrapping, hobbyists and apprentices from the local metalsmiths. His display had a selection of handmade cameos on wire-wrapped clasps, velvet ribbon chokers, free-hanging pendants designed for 'invisible' floating necklaces, repoussé statement necklaces and cloisonne sweeps based on plant forms that hearkened deliberately to the 1890s. He didn't actually expect to see any such flowing gowns and round, breath-taking women proud of their freed breasts and spiraling manes....but it was always a hope. The order of the day seemed a lot more of those 80s throwback black leggings on fat thighs that shouldn't be sporting them stuffed into 'Ug', or however one spelled it, boots with faux-furred, puffy jackets. Fashion had forgotten what the lines of the female form were, or it chose to fly in the face of flattering them. So far he'd counted at least 26 women in exactly the same sort of that get up.

Did no one even own jeans anymore? No, probably jeggings

Oh thank Buddha and Jesus both, a skirt instead of leggings. Quenton hadn't noticed the woman's immediate approach, having given up momentarily on any interesting persons and having turned to crimping a t-bar fastener to the weave of clear line on a lace of beads and leaves of mother of pearl and 'marcasite' (which was really pyrite since the word had meant both in the old days).

Her exclamation startled him to jumping a little in his chair. He fixed his glasses, looking her over and following her eyes, "You can touch them. Feel free to handle them, they only look delicate. I use a high tensile line so that they won't break even if a child was giving a good pull on a mother's necklace. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Do you make any of your own? You know..."

He trailed off as thoughts interrupted him. Dark hair against light skin was always such fantastic and eye-catching contrast. And her hair was lovely and long. Striking eyes. He was sad he only had contemporary pieces and none of his cousin's antiques, even just for the girl to try on and enjoy looking at, "Have you ever worn Victorian mourning pieces? Carved Jet on your collar bones would be something to see. "

"I've a cousin antiquary, but sadly not here in person or in product. Not that it's a guarantee that she's have any jet in her chest just now. Still...if you get the chance, see what you think? It's petrified wood, essentially. It can be cut and polished...I'm sure a cameo could be made of it if you combined with some alabaster or reclaimed and recycled ivory. I don't go in for the illegal new trade and all...but plenty piano keys from broken Baby Grands to be had. Well...you see, its black in colour. 'Jet black' as the saying goes. But ...you're skin is so fair..I just think it would draw eyes nicely."

He offered his hand over the table, hurriedly standing and abandoning the fastener to a gentle clatter on the table behind some display stands, "Quenton. I...guess you probably knew that from the nametags, huh. But good form and all. "

Hopefully she was as progressive as most modern women and wouldn't be offended by a handshake instead of a courtesy to her knuckles. "Oh, well exact colors aren't always the way. You could do a homogenous palette and wear many different browns and it would 'match'....but really, I think your outfit is lovely, ma'am. I can't tell you ....not a minute ago I was thinking how tired I was of eeveryone looking the same."

"Fashion design, " the words came as a smile, "Well, I can't sew a button. You have my admiration. "

"I've got a pretty good idea that at least half of them are stay at homes. Everyone needs a hobby." He shrugged, " Supporting arts isn't the worst of them. I've found that expertise in critique does not require a skill in the field itself, sometimes. A lot of the best eyes for quality aren't jewelers or lapidarists themselves. But it's always the way, isn't it? Singers need listeners, painters need patrons, chef need customers. If there weren't consumers with differing and expanding tastes, a lot of development would never be pushed. Like floating necklaces."

"Blues...." His mind returned to her earlier comment. "Ultramarinus, literally 'beyond the sea'.....I used to love the pigment on illuminations. Cobalt glass really comes the closest to that colour in three dimensional materials, and it's cheaper than Lapis lazuli, saphire, sodalite, hemimorphite or kyanite. Actually...I rather like pigment glass. I've been collecting a variety of types in beads for floating necklaces, and some fragments from dismantled stained glass windows to be the pendant pieces. Wrapped of course. Good gracious, glass edges don't make friends with some poor person's skin. "

"Do you provide for any of the local boutiques? Oh..maybe you have your own boutique. I never know with fashion. What styles do you focus on? I've only ever been fringe to it. My cousin catwalks sometimes, she's tall and lanky and a lot of designers really adore that. "

"But I love seeing work from other artists who seem to have an eye for design; you are very right how inspiring an open mind can be," and since she was at his table, that certainly meant that Delilah did in his opinion.

"Ha, well, I followed McQueen more than Vera Wang. But that's subverting the argument with incidental preferences that aren't the point, isn't it. Its like arguing the copy cat effect versus a phenomenon in the arts like musique concrète was for music. Or Collage, really. Fair use, a copy, a tracery? An inspiration? trickle-down? Simultaneous invention. I love all that sort of well...I guess especially that phenomenon study would be sociological study. Maybe modern anthropology? "

He perked as soon as she was pooling out her sketchbook. It din't take a genius to note the wear marks of frequent use on the corners. He listened carefully, looking for the indications of weave and material on the sketches and nodded thoughtfully as he leaned over the table to have a better view. "I like the ply with asymmetry in the lengths and depths. You know, in the Victorian there was a lot of mourning jewelry of laced human hair. Relationally, there's still a museum...somewhere....down South, I think. Charleston? Family trees and wreaths of flowers made all out of human hair. really stunning. Not that I'm saying you should design with hair. But just a consideration of materials for added interest. Like wire wrapping....for me...I love it. But why not make lace out of thin wire as well? Why limit lace to regular thread, or wire to concentric and tight whorls around objects. Why not interplay and patterns? "

"I love the old jackets. Gosh." His mind plainly jumping back to the first glances at her design. "Will you be using long-line corsetry underneath? The 1800s through to the early 1900s used a lot of the Hourglass Shaping that's got a bad rap today. Like the bodices were the only contributor to the bad health. Nevermind the lead white makeup everyone was wearing, the mercury eyedrops and the laudnum."

"You really should put together a show. The earlier you start, the easier it gets. And Galleries can be reasonable if you do it as a group with other artists as a group thing if you're nervous about body of work or costs. Getting OUT there, hearing feedback, feeling the energy of people and the excitement of their inspiration from your designs."

"Do you do just women's fashions? Mens? Children? Just formal? Oh....gosh...what is that word that means everything is hand done on a woman's gown? It's something special, right? I've only seen it in passing when I steal glances into the fashion design studio classrooms one in a while to hear what all the yelling is about. None of them seem to get along well. "

"Who chains herself is already in fetters, regardless of what others think." Quenton chimed in, hearing her point to jewelry as more free. "The avant garde are those who accept no boundaries as finite. Hey, the internet even offers a few extra ways to get the means now with crowd-source like Kickster. Old Patronage has become almost commune-like. "

"If you ever do get around to a show, " While she glazed over it, he didn't feel bad about at least extending the offer, "I'd be happy to work with you to lighten your load by making your accessories- your designs, just my hands, so you could get the stitchwork done. Deadlines do that, and many hands makes for a lighter load. The fashionwork? That would be all you."

"Oh...no, gracious. I wouldn't call it so much. But I'm at the art major in DCU- the fashion workshops are down the hall from Studio Arts flats, so I pass by and try to chat up some of the students sometimes. "

"My cousin likes any sort of art, and has walked for a few local designers, too- she's tall as I am and thin like the current trend. She lives on coffee and not much else, " he shook his head. Stroud worried him sometimes, but there wasn't really any telling her differently.

"Hey...for inspiration, " He picked up one of the more elegant invisible pieces- a cascading, asymmetrical stair of drops of deep blue swarovski, "This one looks like it wants to go home with you. No charge. One artist to another. The stairs you think are obstacles are just as invisible, once you see the right way for you."

He offered it over to her, and gave a friendly nod, "But I should take up less of your time and let you get to seeing everyone else's work too. There's still plenty more tables, and I'm sure someone else will have something that inspires you too. I'll look forward to seeing you at another show, maybe? Take care."