New NA jewelry additions

Nice cufflinks. I have something with the same hallmark. I always thought it looked like an inverted baseball cap. :laughing: Now I know it is a Medicine man’s dipper.

1 Like

Posting a few weeks after the Ruben Saufkie chat, but I just love his work and thought I’d share this ring I picked up earlier this year as it’s become one of my most-worn pieces:

Purchased from Ortega’s in Santa Fe, apparently just a couple of days after they got it in!

I’m in Arizona at the moment, road-tripping with my extremely French husband and mother. We’ve scored some lovely finds along the way. I’ll pop in later to share those, once I snap a few pictures! Garland’s in Sedona today was beautiful; the last time I shopped there (online, months ago), I picked up my now-favorite hat band. It’s by Charlie John and I noticed that it has a near-twin still in stock, if anybody falls in love with mine!

This long thread has helped me make the most of my insomnia tonight, so many wonderful things here! Wow!

14 Likes

Being passionate about all forms of Navajo belts and buckles, I think your hat band is lovely! It presents with wonderful stampwork as well as a nice patina. :+1: Thank you for sharing!

4 Likes

Oh, I love your Ruben ring! The corn (we have a corn jewelry thread on here; your ring would fit there also) and storm clouds are such a great design, and the band looks unique. I’m sure mine will be worn a lot - only 6 more days till I can open it up :laughing:

The hatband is so cool, and I also really enjoy Charlie John’s work. Back around 2000 I was fortunate to buy one of his earlier cuffs as pawn at Shush Yaz in Gallup; I’m wearing it right now (it is one of my most worn cuffs). I noticed they have a number of his pieces at Garland’s. They also had some at Hopi House, but were priced waaaay higher.

I imagine you are having a fabulous trip! I have always wanted to see NM around Christmas, although one year we did spend New Year’s with friends in AZ. On a side note, my hubby’s family emigrated from France several generations ago. So I have a very French last name!

Looking forward to seeing your purchases - it’s a rule here that you must show us :laughing:

2 Likes

Nice hat band. I think that’s the same one I was admiring on their website recently.

HI Patina…Here is my response from Mark Sublette Galleryā€¦ā€I am not sure if the Guild has allowed any contemporary makers to use the sunface hallmark. Here is a wonderful article about the Guild that you might find interesting. The sunface hallmark denotes if the maker was a Guild member, but the hallmark alone can not accurately date the piece. Dating can be done if we know the name of the artist and if we can associate them with dates from Guild records. If we don’t know that, we simply use our years of experience with craftsmanship and construction to date the piece. ā€œ.

The article referenced was from the Arizona Highway magazine. https://www.arizonahighways.com/article/hopi-jewelry

And here is one of my items by Arthur Lomayestewa with the Hopi Guild hallmark. I think it goes well with the Christmas bracelet.

10 Likes

@nanc9354 Hi ~ Your Hopi cuff looks very nice worn with the pretty Christmas bracelet. Thank you for posting the reply you received from Mark Sublette and the article! So, to accurately (as possible) date vintage Hopi jewelry, it’s best to have a Guild sunface hallmark + the individual smith’s hallmark on the reverse. That’s likely why the collectors seek those specific pieces. The article is very interesting. Some info I’m familiar with, some not. I hadn’t really focused much on Hopi jewelry until I joined this
forum. So glad I did :slightly_smiling_face:.

2 Likes

@Ziacat
How did I miss this?
STUNNING!!! Waaahhhh! I want one!

5 Likes

Thank you! I get to open and wear it soon, yay!

@nanc9354, I really like your Hopi cuff. Thanks for sharing the info you received. I’ve loved Hopi jewelry for a long time.

2 Likes

@nanc9354
I love your Hopi cuff! The spiral design is so attractive to me.
Gorgeous!
Also, I’m a fan of Mark Sublette, his Instagram videos are so informative.
It was nice of him to give you such a detailed response.

3 Likes

Those are water waves.

3 Likes

Wife’s been pushing me to move past just rings so she got me this great little cuff by Peter Nelson. I’ve always loved his work but this is the first I’ve owned.




12 Likes

@AZBoots Very nice cuff & a great gift! I like Nelson’s work, too. I have a pair of earrings by him.

2 Likes

Good for your wifešŸ˜† My hubby will still only wear his very thin wedding band.

Beautiful cuff! I just this week saw Mr. Nelson’s work for the first time while scrolling through Garlands’ site.

2 Likes

All the holiday hoopla and the flight back to France slowed me down a bit, but I’m back with some finds from my Arizona road trip with husband and mother! I rarely get to head back to the Southwest to shop in person, so I let myself run wild.

Halfway through the trip, we had a wonderful day at Saguaro National Park in Tucson and paid a visit to Medicine Man before making the drive back to Sedona. I enjoy Sublette’s podcast, so it was quite something to see him in person! I splurged on a concho belt because: 1), the price was excellent; 2), I felt I could trust the gallery; 3), I seem to have good luck here, as the only other thing I’ve ever picked up from MM are my collar tabs that live on the jacket I wear everyday and that have been an unexpected icebreaker for years (people constantly ask about them); and, 4), the belt is a perfect—actually perfect—fit. This last is important, because my argument for not owning a concho belt has always been that they just don’t ā€œfitā€ me, whether by length or by the proportional effect of the conchos on my torso. I generally only buy what I will frequently wear, so this belt changes everything!

Anyway, after that substantial exposition, here it is: described by MM as 1940s Navajo, which I have no reason to doubt, given the gallery’s credentials. The first picture is from MM and the second photo is me layering it alongside my everyday belt, by Jennie Blackgoat, because why not? (Excuse the poor lighting and bizarre angle; it is very difficult to take a picture of your own belt, let alone in a gas station bathroom! IRL, the color of the belt is more similar to MM’s stock photo).

And here are the collar tabs I referred to, for fun:

After splurging on the belt, I said ā€œnoā€ to a lot of things along the way, even as we visited shop after shop. When we got to Garland’s, my husband and I both said ā€œyes!ā€ He picked out a lovely ring by Jennifer Curtis (that’s his hairy finger, not mine!) and I settled on two pairs of earrings, the first some rather heavy conchos that turned out to be the work of Jennifer Curtis’ uncle, Kenneth Redhorse (a fun coincidence), and a pretty pair of jaclas worked in Lone Mountain turquoise, spiny oyster, and pen shell by Tanisha Chatto. Here’s the haul:

As I find myself turning more and more to online shopping—being not just out-of-the-Southwest at this point in my life but now out-of-the-country entirely—it was such a treat to get to examine things in person again and chat with knowledgable staff. It was worth the bit of extra money to learn that I will, in fact, NOT be doing much online shopping in the future, as it’s not nearly as fun as this! I have chosen to interpret this as a general discount, moving forward. Ha!

As a bonus, here is a brooch/pendant my husband offered for an early Christmas present following a stressful day early in the trip. I spent a jet-lag night up with insomnia tracking down the hallmark and found a book that cleared up the matter free-to-read on Internet Archive (ZUNI JEWELRY - Theda and Michael Bassman). It’s by Felix and Yvonne Charlie. My husband purchased it months ago and doesn’t remember where, unfortunately. I’ll include a screenshot from the book under the picture of my brooch:

Thanks for reading this brief novel! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

22 Likes

Wow, that is a serious haul! What great looking pieces.
I’m jealous that you met Mark Sublette!
All your new treasures are fabulousā¤ļø

3 Likes

Thank you! On the drive back to Sedona, I told my husband ā€œyou have to understand that for turquoise people, that was basically like meeting a President or something.ā€ I think his son was the one who got me set up at check-out and took care of the actual sale. It was lovely to see the whole family involved!

4 Likes

Sounds like you had a fabulous trip! The belt of course is amazing, and wearing it paired with your other one is quite cool. All of your purchases are exquisite, but that Lone Mountain turquoise - wow. I imagine your new jewelry will start a lot of conversations in France!

I’m certainly not as far away from Native American jewelry ground zero as you are, but Indiana seems pretty distant sometimes, so getting back out there to purchase in person is always a lovely feeling.

I still need to get to Medicine Man Gallery; seems like whenever we are in Phoenix visiting friends we always head north. I also want to check out his novels. My hubby just asked at our local library about them, and all they had was one e-book. They did mention if I request that they purchase them they may do that.

Thank you so much for sharing; I really enjoyed your post!

4 Likes

I hope I get a bit more time in Tucson next time I’m out West, as I’d really like to check out the museum Sublette has opened next door to the gallery. Definitely make a point to get down there the next time you’re in Arizona! And if you’ve yet to see Saguaro National Park, it really is stunning—even just for a couple hours by car…

Also! The next time you’re in Phoenix, be sure to check out a new restaurant in Scottsdale called The Frybread Lounge; it is apparently the first (and only) Indigenous-owned restaurant in the neighborhood. They source their ingredients and employ their staff along that line as well. It was some of the best food I’ve had in a long time and the cocktails were remarkable. I can’t recommend this place highly enough.

I lived in Chicago for a while during grad school and travel back and forth frequently. My best friend there is from Indiana and I recently had to reproach him for not letting me know about the Eiteljorg, which I learned exists only by reading your posts! So thank you for that! Both he and I work in the art world and it’s so bizarre that it remained a blind spot for me and unmentioned by him. I imagine that place is a beacon when it’s tricky to get out West! I wish I’d been able to take a short trip down while I lived so close.

6 Likes

I have been to Saguaro National Monument a couple times, most recently back in 2015/16 over New Years holiday, and you are correct, it is wonderful. For some reason we didn’t get to MM Gallery; I’m thinking I wasn’t as familiar with it back then, and our friends had scheduled so much to do that we hardly had extra time. We’ll probably get back to AZ this year or next, and hopefully can fit in a visit.

We were in Phoenix back in April, and our friends live not terribly far from Scottsdale, but I don’t think they are familiar with the Frybread Lounge. I’ll have to let them know since they are always looking for good restaurants, thanks!

Too bad you didn’t make it to the Eiteljorg. I’m always surprised that so many of the shop owners out west are familiar with it, and want to visit. I try really hard every year to carve out time to get down to their Native American art market since we are only a couple hours north.

1 Like