Just for giggles and grins… here are the ubiquitous fetish necklaces that I bought sometime during the 1980s to early '90s. I now know that these necklaces, sporting a singular animal at the bottom, are usually 100% imports. For the necklace on the left - the sunface & barrel bead are each stamped “CC, Sterling”. The hallmark is unidentified but, I’m thinking maybe it’s artisan/Anglo made. Moving right along, who spots the whale?
I spy the whale
The lil black bears are cute
Found the whale. I do like the necklaces, even if they are not N/A made.
Me too. I recently came across one buried in the safe and don’t even remember where it came from. I was thinking import but it had a good bit of detail. Asked a friend who is well versed in them and she said Navajo. I’m ok with that.
When the Navajpo Grandmas were showing me how to make traditional jewelry in the 1980’s, I made some necklaces similar to the above ones.
At the time, some of the Grandmas were using materials such as fetishes and shell heishe from the Phillipeans to make necklaces. They were also using barrel style clasps. These were often sold from vehicles at the Canyon de Chelly overlooks.
I still have several hanks of shell and turquoise heishe and imported fetishes.
I found the whale, lovely items. Thank you for sharing.