I bought this pendant several years ago and it was sold to me as number 8 turquoise. Honestly I didn’t know much about turquoise at the time and hadn’t heard of the number 8 mine. Since then I’ve been learning and am now curious as to whether it really is number 8. It doesn’t have the classic look, but of course there is variation in the mine and I have seen a few pieces since advertised as number 8 that have a similar look. I think it’s pretty turquoise either way so I’m not too bothered if it’s not number 8, but I am curious. It was also sold to me as a Calvin Begay and is stamped “Calvin” but now I’ve read that there are Calvin Begay fakes out there so I’m wondering about that too.
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This is a neat bear. Really like the stones!
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I think this is what you have, Turquoise Mountain.
You are right about Number Eight having different looks. I think of it having a tighter web than what you see here, and this stone has a water web which is very common in Turquoise Mountain/Kingman. Calvin Begay sold the use of his name to several manufactures in town, and you also have several who don’t have a deal and still use his name. He also works for a shop and makes the original design and then the line is manufactured. Your piece is clean and the stone is nice, maybe this is an early Calvin Begay is involved manufacturing piece. Some of the fakes I have seen you really get a bad hallmark.
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Thanks Jason for your input! I have to ask for clarification though–are you saying that you think this pendant is manufactured as opposed to hand made?
I should have been more clear. Manufactured in this business can have different meanings. We have the bad overseas manufacturing of Native American jewelry by non-Native Americans where whole pieces are casted, including hallmarks. Then we have the shops in Gallup like Stoneweaver who use an assembly line where a Native American artist will do the silver work, another will do the stone work and then if needed someone to assemble. In these processes you have the artist involved and the work actually stamped by the artist, I think your piece is this type of manufactured, the good one. Calvin was involved in the process.
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So then would the silver and stone work be done by hand by each artist in the assembly line process? Or aided by machines?
I knew that Calvin oversaw other artists who are involved in his work, but I didn’t realize it was a machine aided manufacturing process. If that’s so it really explains why there are so so many Calvin Begay pieces out there.
The piece is made by casting the silver, most likely a casting machine that can do several at once. That is operated by an individual then handed off to an artist that will inlay, then another who will polish.
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