‘Everything in the universe has energy’: Gem Faire comes to Sonoma County Fairgrounds

Shopping in-person for gems instead of online matters to beading buddies Donna Higgins and Nikki Miller, who have attended the Gem Faire in Santa Rosa together for more than five years.

“You can really tell the difference when you can touch it,” said Miller, a retired interior designer from Sebastopol.

Jewelry and gem enthusiasts flock to the traveling three-day Gem Faire at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, where over 70 vendors have everything from clusters of purple amethysts to jewelry making tools to rows upon rows of colorful bead strands. For many shoppers, the gems aren’t just decor, but a spiritual healing tool, as well.

Higgins and Miller know a few vendors from over the years, and each time they come they generally drop a few hundred dollars on gems, clasps, pearls and other jewelry-making items.

“You never see anyone leaving unhappy,” said Miller, who has a craft room at home for her jewelry design business.

Best friends since second grade, Becky Spitzer and BethAnne Allen have shared a love of rocks over the course of their 20-year friendship. They’ve gone to the Gem Faire for nearly nine years.

“It’s bonding time for us each year,” said Spitzer, who recently graduated from the Santa Rosa Junior College.

Allen bought a blue calcite bowl to use as a soap dish and admired a sun stone ring, a rare find at the Gem Faire, she said. But as a student, it was a bit over her budget.

“We’ve always collected rocks,” Allen said.

Spitzer recalled finding clear quartz while camping as a child, and Allen remembered receiving a slab of agate from her grandfather’s collection.

They said they come to the fair to search for stones with good energy.

The blue calcite bowl is calming, Allen said.

“Each stone is different,” said vendor Fahim Baigzad of Freedom Valley Gems & Minerals.

Baigzad carries a guide on the transformational properties of gems and minerals.

His current favorite is moldavite, a deep green silica-based meteorite that fell to earth about 15 million years ago. According to the guide he carried, it helps in “alignment with higher self,” heals the body and mind and “aids in channeling extraterrestrial and interdimensional sources.”

On display at Luis Delgado’s table were Himalayan salt lamps, stone carvings of elephants and laughing Buddhas, and a variety of precious and semi-precious stones, including jade, amethyst, opal, fluorite, citrine, amber and quartz.

“Everything in the universe has energy,” said Delgado, who has traveled to the Gem Faire for about 20 years with his Encino-?based business, Krystal Light Imports.

Delgado points to quartz used in watches and computers as a tangible example. “There’s energy there,” he said.

The Gem Faire has been coming to Santa Rosa for about 30 years, and stops in town three times a year - January, April and October. It will continue Saturday and Sunday.

“There’s something for everybody,” said Ramon Cesena, Gem Faire supervisor.

You can reach Staff Writer Susan Minichiello at 707-521-5216 or susan.minichiello@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @susanmini.