Spring fashions are out and things are looking very good for Native American jewelry this year. It seems people are catching on to the beauty of Native American handmade jewelry and are eager to support American-made products. Look around and you’ll notice the renaissance of turquoise jewelry in fashion magazines, on TV newscasters and in Hollywood. The March and April issues of Cowboys and Indians feature lots of great jewelry. Models were sporting multiple silver bead necklaces in combinations with strands of turquoise of other multi strand necklaces. Big, beautiful cluster style turquoise and spiny oyster shell necklaces as well as gorgeous concho belts were also featured. March’s issue showcased pieces by Daryl Dean Begay, Leon Martinez, Guy Hoskie, Sunshine Reeves, Aaron Anderson and Alton Bedonie — all artists whose work we carry! It was great to see their work featured in the magazine, although Alton’s spiny oyster shell and silver bracelet was mislabeled as “Anthony Bedonie.” Because of this typo, Cowboys and Indians promised to feature one of his pieces in another issue this year (and correctly identify him).
After a tough winter, we’re happy to herald the arrival of spring with necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more in a celebration of cheerful colors such as orange, red and purple spiny oyster shell, coral, sugilite charoite, lapis, white buffalo, onyx, gaspeite, boulder turquoise and more. Of course we will also have a vast array of all the beautiful shades of turquoise, from pale barely-there blue to bright, intense blue as well as varying shades of green!
In anticipation of warmer weather, there will be a great selection of shorter neckwear as well as an excellent selection of silver bead necklaces and multi strand necklaces. We have asked Alton Bedonie to make some choker length necklaces using lapis, spiny oyster shell and turquoise and are looking forward to seeing what he comes up with. We are hoping to have at least one of each color by the time we leave for this series. Gerald Lomaventema came by and we were thrilled to purchase two bracelets, a necklace, two pair of earrings and a buckle. Gerald won the Best of Jewelry award at the 2014 Santa Fe Indian Market, and his work has been in demand. He uses a very difficult method of jewelry making by combining tufa cast with overlay work. As his work has been in short supply, we were happy to be able to secure some of his pieces this time around. During one of our buying trips to Gallup we met with Steven Arviso and purchased some of his super cool bracelets. He calls his heavy wide bracelet the “optical illusion style.” This bracelet actually looks like it is getting wider as you rotate it. A must see — it’s mesmerizing!
For this series, we also obtained some great Zuni jewelry, including a magnificent pair of earrings by Connie Seowtewa showcasing her exquisite petit-point work. In fact, we added lots of great new styles of Zuni jewelry this time! Navajo artists from Stone Weaver have also been very busy and we have a nice new selection of their jewelry as well as great new works from Bruce Hodgins, Mary Tom, Kee Yazzie, Nelson Begay, and Myron Panteah.
I think this is going to be a banner year for southwest jewelry!
See you at the show!
Eric