Heard Museum Indian Market 2024

Well it was a challenge but Kuochun made it to China. He was supposed to fly out Friday evening - I dropped him off at the airport but about five minutes after I arrived back home he called to say his first flight to San Francisco was delayed, meaning with only an hour layover there it would be impossible to catch the connecting flight to Hong Kong. I promptly got back in the car and picked him up. I realized that we needed to get gas so I headed for Costco. We got to the gas pump and Kuochun realized that he misplaced his Costco card. It was about 15 minutes before the store was to close so we ran over there so he could get a replacement card at customer service. Unfortunately the photo machine was down so he could not get a new card. He was so disappointed because he wanted to visit Costco in China. In the meantime, I was working on getting my virtual card set up and it was successful so at least we were able to get gas. Understandably Kuochun was hungry after all that so we headed over to Raising Cane's which is on the opposite corner. Every time I pass by, I am amazed at their drive thru line. It is always spilling over into the street, which is a major thoroughfare. Luckily he found his Costco card at home.

Kuochun was told the next opportunity to take a flight was at 6:38 Saturday morning. He was concerned about arriving to Hong Kong in the evening because the next step was to take a ferry to the mainland. He was not sure if the ferries would be running at that time or if it would even be safe if they were. But it was not meant to be as when I got up at 4:15 AM to take him to the airport, he let me know that the same thing happened - the San Francisco flight was delayed. The next opportunity was Saturday evening and this trip was successful, however not without some harrowing moments. Kuochun said the plane could not land in San Francisco right away and kept circling around. Good thing he only had a backpack with him to deal with because he was the last person to get on the flight to Hong Kong. He arrived on Sunday evening our time which is Monday morning there, they are 15 hours ahead of Arizona.

Before Kuochun left, we set up an app so that we could communicate while he is away. We did make a trip to Cox Mobile to see about setting up an international plan but the only choice was $10 per day which was too much to spend for an extended trip. The app is not bad, we were able to send messages back and forth as well as a quick video call which did end up getting cut off. But it is free so we cannot complain! I am sure it will take some time to adjust. He gave me a quick spin around his room. It is great that he has his own room because then his snoring will not bother anyone.

Mother and I had plans to attend the annual Indian Market at the Heard Museum Saturday, I had purchased tickets in advance. Even though I was wrecked from lack of sleep we still headed over there. I was hoping to arrive at 8:00 to get a spot in one of the ADA parking lots but we did not get there until 8:30 and both lots were filled. I had to drop Mother and the wheelchair off and go park in the same paid lot I used last year. However this time we were able to get in early because our prepaid tickets said 8:30 AM admission, with the general public admission at 9:30 AM. This definitely helped us get through most of the areas where the artists shared large tents. We made a beeline for Kyle Lee-Anderson's booth and he did have a much better selection than last year, however there was nothing that I could not live without. I was hoping to get a bracelet with Navajo pearls (I did not buy the one last year because it was a little large) but he did not have any. I should have bought it and had a bead taken off.

After that, we started to walk the show. We did view the booths of other artists we purchased from last year but did not find anything to buy. However everything changed when we came upon Clarissa and Vernon Hale's booth. Clarissa is the daughter of David and Alice Lister, who are iconic Navajo artists. Two other sisters, Dee Nez and Davida Lister are also very talented silversmiths. For a very long time I have been wanting a single stone necklace set in the east-west direction with a chain. Mother bought one a few years ago (Kathy Sands, who is non-Native) and it looks so cute on her.

Blackjack turquoise is my favorite right now and I did purchase this necklace at the Tucson Gem Show. The stone is stunning and it is a very nice necklace but the styling is a little traditional for me. I put this one up for sale before I discovered the one I purchased from Clarissa and family. It is also Blackjack turquoise but not quite as formal.

This is the set I purchased - they are definitely investment pieces but I do not have anything like them in my collection. I also have more than enough jewelry that I either no longer wear or never wore that I will be offering for sale to offset this expense. I was happy to find that even though Saturday was the cutoff day for my credit card statement, these transactions were pending and did not hit my statement until Sunday. Therefore, I have an extra month to pay! I am going to try wearing both necklaces at once and see how it goes. A lot of times the layered look can be matronly on me.

There were several of these beautiful necklaces in the booth and this was the first one I saw. I immediately thought it would be great for Mother. She also loved these earrings and although they are not a perfect match, they look amazing with the double loop chain she also purchased from Clarissa. I offered to put these pieces on my credit card and I will sell others to cover it. It is a big splurge for her but she made it to 80 and deserves it!

We could have bought so much more but we are both watching our pennies this year. The only other artist we purchased from was Robert Johnson. He and his wife Lenore are such lovely people, I see Lenore posting her husband's work on Facebook quite often. We loved the earrings they had to offer. Mother purchased a pair like the one on the left and I encouraged her to get the Navajo pearl earrings because I knew they would be a perfect match for another necklace she has. Sure enough, they were! I snapped up the all sterling silver hair clip for Mother's birthday gift. I have never seen a piece like it before and wanted to get her something unique for her birthday. Good thing I did because a lady came by and had her eye on it. The hair clip and Navajo pearl earrings are not for sale but I purchased a second pair of the earrings on the left so they plus the statement dangles in the center and the heart dangles on the right are available for sale.

We paid a visit to the gift shop and did not attempt to view the permanent cases because it was very crowded. However they did have a "command center" setup with five cases filled with vintage pieces. The jewelry was amazing but very pricey. We inquired about a Fred Harvey era thunderbird necklace and it was $2,200. It was fun to look though. In addition, there were many vintage pieces in the permanent showcases. I am sorry that my jewelry was not priced in time to make the show but hopefully it will be there next year!

At this point we were both very tired and headed for home. The Heard Museum is like a little oasis in the middle of downtown Phoenix. There are such cute homes in the neighborhood. One of the streets, Palm Lane, is lined with majestic palm trees. I highly recommend attending the Indian Market. It is mostly jewelry but many other forms of Indigenous art was represented as well. It is a great place to spend the day or even the weekend trying Native food such as frybread and watching the performances which culminate with hoop dancing. Hopefully next year we will be able to stay longer. We will have the scooter which will help immensely.

Now to back up to the start of the week - on Monday afternoon Kuochun felt like grabbing a bite to eat so I suggested Illegal Pete's which is a Colorado-based chain with 13 locations there, one in Tucson and one in downtown Tempe which is where we went. Several people in the Facebook groups said the food is way better than Chipotle. Since I like Chipotle a lot I thought we should put it to the test. But what do I do? Not order a bowl so I could compare it to Chipotle but a chicken quesadilla instead. The food was very good and I will definitely go again in the future and try a bowl. The rice looked great. Kuochun has been into nachos lately and he loved what he ordered.

On Thursday I had a couple of folks visit to take a look at the jewelry. I did not fuss too much but did need to do some general tidying up in the garage for them. I am not sure what they were looking for exactly but they did find a squash blossom pendant. The plan for next week will be to take the jewelry tables down and make room for the car. I did move the walking pad over to the center of the garage so we no longer need to use an extension cord and the position is close to the ceiling fan to help us keep cool while walking. I was able to use the walking pad a couple of times during the week, alternating with going to the senior center. I am 40 pounds under the walking pad's weight limit but could feel like it was struggling a bit to handle my weight. I did an hour each time at the rate of 2.5 miles per hour. I will keep at it and see if it helps. Kuochun continues to love it!

For months, as soon as Kuochun made the decision to go to China this year, Mother has told him that he needs to bring gifts for his granddaughter. However, he kept saying that her parents have very specific taste and would not like anything we brought her. I let it go but at the last minute Kuochun's son "suggested" that he bring some gifts. Thus began the mad scramble to find something to bring. I thought The Mercantile in Old Town was a good place to start. They had a booth with items made in Mexico. Kuochun had the idea to get mother/daughter bracelets and we picked out a couple of beaded flower bracelets, one in child's size. I was concerned about the larger one because it basically fit me and I have a pretty big wrist. Kuochun was set on it. Then his son messaged again and said his granddaughter was really into cats and kitchen items right now. At first I thought of Hello Kitty but there is no Sanrio store in the Phoenix area. Then I thought they can probably get all the Hello Kitty stuff there is in China, being so close to Japan.

Kuochun asked me to go to World Market while I was waiting for Mother to do her therapy. I did not have luck there but it just so happened Painted Tree Boutiques was right next door. They had a larger Mexican booth where I found this adorable cat. As soon as I found the cat, Mother called and was ready to be picked up so I brought her back to the store. We chose an embroidered dress and a little Frida bauble in addition to the cat. A book would have been great but the books at Painted Tree were too babyish for her. It was not a bad haul for the very last minute, luckily Kuochun liked what we got and in the end was happy not to go empty-handed.

Because of all the weekend activity including getting my hair done on Sunday, I was not able to post a weekly purge. I will definitely plan to get back to it next week. I have some amazing pieces which I have not shown yet, going back to November of last year. I did get a few more pieces online and have now posted all of the new Native American Tucson Gem Show finds from one vendor this year. I have a lot left to go! It is a time-consuming process posting to five different venues but I sell items on all of them so it is worth it.

I did post the remaining two Bali pieces I have here in Scottsdale, this hummingbird pendant with Hubei turquoise and the owl earrings. The rest of the Bali jewelry collection is at home so I plan to work on it this summer. I was happy to see that the folks who make this jewelry seem to be recognized online and that many of the pieces other sellers put up have sold.

I also posted five new Native American pieces - two adorable stacker cuff bracelets by Sunshine Reeves and three of my personal pendants which I ended up never wearing. I love them all but they are a little on the small side for me. One thing they have in common is that they are all exceedingly great quality. The Bali pieces are in the Bali Jewelry collection and the cuffs and pendants are in the New Native American Silver Jewelry collection at CestLaBries.com.

This pendant by Delbert Doss features Carico Lake turquoise and orange spiny oyster shell.

This pendant by Cooper Willie features a stunning piece of webbed Kingman turquoise.

This cluster pendant by Elgin Tom features Golden Hills turquoise which usually has a lot of matrix but these stones were chosen which have little to no matrix. The hand stamping on the bail is gorgeous, I love the combination of the simple stones with the textured bail.

Finally, here is one of the Sunshine Reeves stackers. This one is covered with stamped stars, even on the inside!

That is all the news for this week. Plans for next week as time permits include continuing to post new items online and starting to tackle the shoeboxes filled with random jewelry. One box per day, five days per week is a goal to strive for!