Over the past few months we were busy purchasing from a wide array of artists as summer competitions unfolded. We restocked our supply of jewelry from Myron Panteah during the Museum of Northern Arizona Show held here in Flagstaff. Some of the outstanding pieces we acquired include his second place necklace in sterling silver, 14kt gold and agate. Kee Yazzie and Alton Bedonie have both been by several times and brought us some very nice pieces. We picked up a great wide bracelet by Kee and a beautiful Larimar bracelet and ring by Alton. We have also purchased three necklaces by Mary Tom — one of which has a very nice piece of #8 turquoise. For Hopi work, we picked up two beautiful sterling silver Tufa cast and overlay bracelets and a belt buckle by Gerald Lomaventema. One bracelet was crafted using 14kt gold and coral, the theme of which is the mask of the sun Kachina (Tewa). Gerald informed us the tufa cast belt buckle with turquoise was featured in American Indian Art magazine.
Off the subject and something recently found out — Gerald enjoys showing people around the Hopi Mesas. He took my wife Tamara, her brother and I on a special tour to some petroglyphs. Gerald is an active member and advocate of the Hopi culture. We got some great insight as to what they believe the symbols to mean. He told us about his trip to Peru and Central America when he was invited to study and exchange the teachings of their cultures. He saw symbols from the Maya culture depicting their migration story that were identical to the petroglyph symbols we were looking at on Hopi. He believes the Hopi migrated up from Central America and that they are related to the Maya.
On another trip the three of us met up with Carl and Irene Clark in Phoenix where we purchased a gorgeous pair of dangle post earrings and a stunning bracelet, which is about 1/2 inch wide and has approximately 1200 stones.
We still have the Museum of Northern Arizona Navajo Show, the Gallup Ceremonial and the Santa Fe Indian Market to come so we will continue to stock up for our next series of shows. The selection of new pieces and great new designs will be fantastic — a must see! As we go to press Alton Bedonie is making us two shorter style necklaces using high-grade Kingman turquoise and, as always, we expect they will be spectacular.
We hope you can all make it to the show — see you there!
Eric