Thank you! We all did do excellently well, didn’t we 
You know I think that may be my favorite piece of jewelry at the moment, and it pretty much hasn’t left my wrist since I bought it back at the end of January. And I really appreciate it that you let me bring it back to Indiana 
And I loved the squash blossom that you wore; it is perfection.
Two things we reluctantly left behind were a lidded jar by Doris Johns, and a piece of ledger art by Mike Toya. See, we DO have some limits 
and no wall space!
Congrats on a successful market and excellect choices @tepowell and @Ziacat! Zia so glad you finally got your hummingbird! You have been wishing for one for a while now. And I LOVE the ring—I am really drawn to all silver rings with bold, powerful designs. @tepowell I’m really drawn to Pueblo bead necklaces, and yours are fantastic. I can’t decide which I like best—maybe the multi-color one? And @TAH congrats on your taco! I’m sure it was delicious 
. Sorry I missed out on meeting and hanging out with you all.
@Ziacat Your ring is so different. It looks so good on you. Your other pieces are beautiful too.
So glad you all had good weather and good forumship meet ups. Thank you for sharing your loot.
Thank you @OrbitOrange and @here4turquoise! I’m loving the ring, and I was really happy (obviously 
) to find the hummingbird since I missed out on buying one in the past. Maybe you’ll both make it sometime; that would be awesome.
OO, I hope the soccer game was great!
I absolutely ADORE your new ring. It looks fabulous on you! (Edit to add: specifically, I just love the entire arrangement with the other rings on those specific fingers. Gorgeous, gorgeous!)
Why thank you, @riobravo!! I almost walked away from their booth without seeing that ring. Glad I looked a little longer!
I wear those other three all the time. I don’t wear gold, so when we got married I just wanted just a thin gold wedding band and a very tiny diamond on the engagement ring. But they were so thin that they broke through. Over the years I wore a couple other silver bands instead, and then realized that those two together worked pretty perfectly in the place of my original wedding rings. And then the thumb ring just kind of ended up there and hasn’t left
A deficit of heishi is a terrible thing! Congrats on your heishi recovery,. I love the one turquoise bead in the Spondylus necklace!
Zia, you did do well; a great variety of pieces! I love your chamfered beads by Lita, great choice! Most of my turquoise, coral and Spondylus necklaces are chamfered beads. Personally, I find them more attractive than squared off beads. And, Mary’s hummingbird…just perfect! Gotta say, I love love love those fabulous earrings. Fun stuff…now you can think about your Southwest trip!
Thanks! Lita does beautiful work, and yet somehow manages to keep her prices very reasonable. She usually puts at least one spiney bead in her necklaces; the one I just bought has 2, and there are 4 in the necklace I bought from her last year. She told me putting them in will bring people back, so I guess then I’m a customer for life
Just looking at the hummingbird makes me smile. Her work is so recognizable, and I saw numerous people at the market walking around wearing them (I had one of my older ones on).
I haven’t worn the earrings yet, but I plan to today!
At Santa Fe last year, Mary had only one hummingbird when we stopped at her booth. I was going to pick up, but a good friend I was with, who had never seen Mary’s birds, loved it and bought it. She was so excited about it, I’m glad I didn’t grab it! If it’s meant to be I’ll get one of her birds at some point.
Interesting that you mentioned Litas beads are reasonable prices. The beads appear chamfered. Chamfered bead edges are ground down individually, turning a sharp edge bead into a softer, more rondelle shape. True hand chamfered beads are time consuming to make, thus very expensive (as with Piki Wadsworth, Cheyenne Grabiec, Cheryl Marie Yestewa and others). There may be a way to create similar beads in a less labor intensive way. I’ll have to discuss it with Lita if I see her at market. Regardless wonderful beads!
I have one of her other birds, but the hummingbird is my favorite. She had some 2 years ago, but I bought a different piece, and then last year she didn’t have any. This year she only had two, one of which was a pin without a pendant bail, and this one is only a pendant so it was meant for me
I don’t know. But I don’t question her about her work being handmade. She described how she makes her heishi to me last year, and said she individually grinds each bead on a wheel. She did not describe these as chamfered, and I did not specifically ask how she made these.
And I have seen the prices of some of the artists you have mentioned, and they are out of my price range; maybe in addition to hers not being as finely done, possibly they are also better known and therefore command a higher price (and I am not saying her work is by any stretch equal to theirs, but I am grateful that I can afford it). But she has been at the Eiteljorg market for at least 20 years, and I know they would not have someone there that many years who isn’t honest about what they make.
So true Zia! I hope you don’t think I was implying that she was dishonest…I was just expressing how time consuming the process is. To my knowledge Lita doesn’t use the term chamfered to describe her beads, they just appeared slightly chamfered on the edges, which is lovely but a time consuming process. There likely is a difference between the beads produced by Lila and the artists I mentioned, but the necklace you purchased is gorgeous, I’d buy it in a second.! I know that typically beads produced by Piki, etc, do not have heishi spacers; the adjacent beads must be almost exactly the same to give it that smooth character. And these artists don’t have high production, so product is limited and coveted.
All I know is that you got a wonderful necklace! Congrats!
Thanks for the clarification. TBH I really didn’t know what you were trying to say.
It’s a gorgeous strand @Ziacat !
I love the black and blue together. I will definitely be looking for Lita at SF Indian Market!
Thinking back through this last weekend, I wanted to add that while it was so enjoyable seeing my dear sister @Patches and friend Patty, @TAH’s wife and daughter, as well as @Ziacat, @chicfarmer, and @tepowell, it was made all the better by seeing how these lovely ladies so tastefully rocked their stunning silver and turquoise. They were all wearing knockout jewelry, exceptionally well, I might add. 
Together they could serve as the official advertisement Zia’s How do we combine and wear our Native American bling . The gents weren’t slacking either; @TAH and the husbands of @chicfarmer and @tepowell were handsomely complimenting their wives adornment. It was a feast for the eyes! 
@Ziacat, I’m really looking forward to your report back from Arizona and New Mexico, and I’m excited for you that you’re meeting up with @Stracci!
Says the man adorned with his vintage concho belt and double naja necklace, who looked like he just stepped off the train after a long journey from his historic trading post located in the far reaches of the Navajo Reservation.
Exactly! What is @Ravenscry holding out on us And where is his trading post located - I wanna visit But, @TAH, you were no slouch either with your awesome buckle and hat. I would have liked to have gotten a picture of the 2 of you, but didn’t think of it till too late.
One of the things I love about going to the market and visiting out west is I can wear a bunch of jewelry, and it gets truly appreciated. Although I’m starting to have people here show some love for it. Just recently I had 2 different young gals comment on my bling.
Sir, you are too kind, but we were all decked out Although I never got see @Patches’s stuff, but last year she had on some gorgeous jewelry. @Ravenscry, I didn’t get to see which awesome concho belt you had on, was it the one most recently discussed regarding the buckle attachment?
And I’m thinking you went to Arizona recently? We never got a report on that 