Our 2014 holiday season show series begins with a new and fantastic selection of fall-inspired designs as well as a great selection of gift ideas. As we go to press, our buying continues with a focus on purchasing longer neckwear as well as a nice complement of long sterling silver chains and handmade silver beads.
In our quest for purple color, we have enlisted the skills of Alton Bedonie to create a charoite necklace and possibly a few pendants. He just completed a gorgeous pietersite necklace and a spectacular heavy silver bracelet and is currently working on a multi-stone necklace with lapis, larimar, pietersite and red, orange, and purple spiny oyster shell. Kee Yazzie is making us one of his beautiful 14kt gold and sterling silver bracelets like the one (his work) that is featured in the book Changing Hands — Contemporary Native American Art by Ellen Taubman and the Indian Market issue of Southwest Art magazine. Jack Tom stopped by and we purchased two of his great necklaces and one of his hard to get bolo ties. He doesn’t make bolo ties often, so we jumped at the chance for this rare piece. We also have a great selection of pendants, link bracelets and chains by Bruce Hodgins to include one pendant with a Turkish druzy stone.
We have some great new pieces from Mary Tom as well as her brother Nelson Begay (who we met at the Navajo show here in Flagstaff this past summer) that include a beautiful coral necklace, a bolo tie and several rings. Sunshine Reeves introduced us to his friend and fellow artist Steven Arviso, whose work is stunning. Sunshine sold us two of his heavy stamped bracelets and we are expecting to purchase more of his jewelry before we begin this show series. From Steven we acquired several buckles and bolos as well as seven or so bracelets, including one fascinating work that Steven calls his “optical illusion” bracelet. It defies description — you have to see this piece in person to understand it!
If you are looking for that special collector piece from Carl Clark, we just obtained one of his rare “ID” style bracelets. As would be expected, this is a stunning piece, and incorporates 1500–1800 stones in its Yei figure mosaic.
We acquired more pieces from a collection that is turning out to be very extensive. This time we were able to get some great amber pieces, including several necklaces and link bracelets from Poland (which are difficult to find these days). We also purchased some great Native American made amber rings and earrings.
We’ll have a nice selection of rhodochrosite jewelry by those wonderful and skilled Navajo artists at First American in Gallup. They have been very prolific with their rhodochrosite works, and we are amazed at the variety of unique designs they continue to come up with. We have also gathered a very nice array of Zuni made earrings, pendants and rings. These make great gifts and are sure to enhance any collection.
See you at the show!