NM in the fall, beautiful! Enjoy and safe travels!
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Finally, @Bmpdvm here’s my Stewart Quandelacy bear. This big fella is in a fascinating piece of dolomite. He says hi to his cousin!
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Yep, that cousin George😆. Dolomite can be such a pretty stone and this one is especially nice. Such wonderful layering! This heart line bear family is so huge, but they are all so distinctively Stewart Quandalacy. I got mine a long time ago…do you know if he is still producing these?
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Lol Cousin George. 
I don’t know if he’s still carving bears. Mine is from 2009. At the time I was buying a lot from Sunshine Studio, so I’d look there to see if they’re still carrying his fetishes.
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I bought from Sunshine studios years ago, but haven thought of them for quite a while. I can’t remember when I purchased George’s cousin, but it was likely in the early 2000s. Somehow I didn’t keep records on my fetish purchases like I did with jewelry.
Am I correct that you mentioned Sarah Leekya fetishes in a prior post? I’ve always wanted one of her birds… if you have anything by her, I’d love to see them😊
(Now I’m going to have to checkout Sunshine Studio again🥴)
I do have a couple Sarah fetishes.Will get a photo shoot in order pronto.
As you may know, Arch T of Sunshine Studio was president of ATADA in the 2000s.
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Good info…I didn’t know that, but it makes sense.
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He’s good people, as was/is his assistant. I also traded with him years ago for a piece of jewelry and pined for what I had let go of (a vintage Zuni petitpoint pin). He graciously helped it come back into my collection.
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Ok the two little Sarah Leekya critters. One is a bear in serpentine, the other a turquoise bird. They come from late in her life, so pretty simplified and not as classically Leekya Deyuse-looking as her peak years, it’s fair to say. Still, they have a natural animation and sweetness to them, I think. Both are from 2011.
Thought I’d show both sides of the birdie so you can see its little head tilt.
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@chicfarmer Oh, these are delightful. Your little turquoise birdie is soooo cute. The bear I really like. He’s so natural looking in a wonderfully minimalist way.
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So wonderful @chicfarmer! They’re both so delightful & special but the bird - OMG…especially Turquoise 
. I’ve looked at, and loved a lot of Sarah’s carvings over the years but the birds, with that classic head tilt looking at you, were always my favorite. Were these from Sunshine Studio?
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Thank you, @Patina and @Bmpdvm. Yes, these were from Sunshine Studio, and I happened to look to see if there are still some there by Sarah. He has a bear a lot like mine on the site.
Pretty much done with fetish collecting at this point. I’ll try to show some others I love. There are quite a few special or interesting ones in the mix. And I’m a frog person! The whole interest started with a mini Ricky Laahty.
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My very first fetish! A butterfly by Tammy Deysee! I’m not sure what the base material is but it’s slightly translucent! The dots seem to be Jet, Malachite, Opal, Lapis and Mother of Pearl!
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Thanks for the tip about Sunshine Studio. I checked out the website and found the little serpentine bear like yours. Of course, I had to also look at every badger & mountain lion carved fetish, lol. The glass fetishes are novel to me. I, too, no longer collect fetishes though they’re always a joy to see.
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Very pretty!! Looks like you might also have 2 dots of turquoise, on the front wings, at the top. I thought the butterfly material could be tortoiseshell but, that’s likely not correct.
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So mentioning tortoise shell reminded me that I have questions about it. I know the sale of tortoise shell products has been banned worldwide since 1977, but on the Facebook sites that I can view (I don’t comment on it since I am just looking with my hubby’s account) it is mentioned fairly often regarding pieces of jewelry that members own (mostly they wonder if the item is tortoise shell). I can’t remember if people were selling it, but some apparently bought items since '77. It seems like since it is a critically endangered species (Hawksbill Turtle) that these sites should be actively discouraging the purchasing of it.
@AC, that butterfly is beautiful, and @chicfarmer, your little bluebird reminds of the bluebirds on my birdbath yesterday! They were tilting their heads just like yours 
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Regarding the use of tortoise shells by Native Americans. I’ve seen shell fetishes, but not Tortoise shell. My husband has a couple vintage Tortoise Shell bolos and a buckle that appear to be Tortoise shell:
These are both by Elliott Qualo (Zuni): he was born in 1930 and produced from 1960 until his death in the late 1970s. I’ve read that Tortoise shell was used in Native American jewelry until 1973 [when it was outlawed per the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) act], and that it is illegal to sell any items made with tortoise shell. But I’ve also heard that sale of antique tortoise shell items is allowed. I’ve seen Qualo’s Tortoise shell pieces sold at auction and at respected galleries (Shiprock, Brown’s Trading, etc); so it seems that items produced prior to the early/mid 1970s can be sold. It’s confusing, but seems logical that confirmed pieces produced prior to it became illegal, should be legal to sell.
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@AC, your butterfly is the only butterfly fetish I’ve seen! Of course, there are likely more, but most of my fetishes were purchases around 15-20ish years ago. It’s very nice…thanks for sharing😊.
I finally had time to dig a little deeper. Apparently you can sell antique pieces, but even what I found there was a bit muddy. An article on Native American Jewelry tips said it’s illegal to sell any, and one lawyer said you can sell it within a state, and in some states you have to get a permit. Sadly there is still a huge problem with demand for black market tortoiseshell products in Asia. Tortoise shell is such a weird name anyway, it isn’t a tortoise, it’s a sea turtle 
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Yep…agreed! About as clear as mud. And how do you know, with any certainty, the age of items that could have been made throughout a makers production. And some Tortoise shell pieces are not even hallmarked, so it’s a guessing game in many cases. My husband’s pieces are not considered antiques (100 yrs old), but equivalent pieces by Qualo, advertised as Tortoise shell, are commonly sold. Guess it’s good thing we’re not trying to sell currently:woozy_face:. Well, by 2030, we’ll be legally able to sell; Qualo was an extremely talented newborn:laughing:
I had heard that “Tortoise shell” is actually sea turtle, but had forgotten; thanks for the reminder.
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