On Monday I met with the Whatnot jewelry seller at my home again and she returned a few pieces and took many more with her. This past weekend was Santa Fe Indian Market and she changed her regular Saturday daytime show to Tuesday evening since she was going to be in New Mexico at the market and sourcing new pieces. The Whatnot show on Tuesday went great with the combination of her items and mine. I thought it was a super result considering the Tuesday show was not nearly as long as her typical Saturday show. Before the show she decided to purchase a very special Kingman turquoise necklace from me, long and covered with fantastic sterling silver flowers. Unfortunately I do not have a photo since it was in my "to do" pile. And coincidentally, I purchased two of her Navajo pieces from the Tuesday show - this bucking bronco cluster pendant with Kingman turquoise by Ty Etsitty and 20" handmade link chain by Stanford Yazzie. One thing we have in common is we both love the brilliant blue color of Kingman turquoise, which is from Arizona. The pieces I purchased do go well together but can also be worn in other ways. I purchased a handmade Navajo bead and Kingman turquoise necklace from her previously and I think the two look spot on. She was wearing this pendant with a 10mm fluted strand of handmade beads but I already have a 12mm by another member of the family. The beads fit on the pendant and look good as well. Paperclip chains are really popular right now but I need something more substantial. The link necklace is perfect, a great alternative to the beads for an edgier look. I told her I was looking for something Western but not too much. She said well you live in Arizona now, cowgirl it up! I am not finished looking though, I will be eyeing future Western drops for something that is right for me. The pieces are so interesting, one artist takes vintage Western-style ceramic plates from the 1950s and turns them into stone shapes that the Navajo artist uses as the focal point for jewelry.
I decided to let go of a really cute necklace that I was never able to wear because it is too short. I bought it from North Shore Exchange's website years ago. It is a graduated strand of handmade Navajo beads strung and knotted with black suede cording. I showed it to the Whatnot jewelry seller and she was not sure about it but her mom had put in a request for Navajo beads (and told her daughter not to come back without any!) so she took it with her, along with a few other choices. Her mom loved it and snapped it up, along with another very beautiful vintage stamped beaded necklace with center beads that curve around the front. As much as I liked that necklace, it just was not realistic for me and I am glad it is out of the drawer and with someone who will enjoy it.
I have put together a selection of handmade Navajo beads in a variety of shapes and sizes which are for sale and shown in the main photo. Most are made by the Haley family, they are my top choice for "everyday" beads. I did also purchase some handmade beaded bracelets to share with everyone. For those who would like a more budget-friendly option, I had also selected machine and bench made beads a couple of years ago. My standards are high so they are really great quality. I have necklaces and bracelets which are the machine made, and I have stamped graduated necklaces which are the bench made.
I have been working hard to keep up with estate sale work as well. For the first time in about 5-6 weeks we did not book a last-minute sale so that helped. We have a sale in Geneva next week which has the most jewelry to offer that we have seen in many years. There is gold, sterling and costume including many Navajo, Zuni and Southwest Style pieces. I asked ShadowSells if she could fit the Geneva sale into her schedule and she is able to do so next Monday afternoon. She will start with the house and move on to jewelry once the house is complete. I think the jewelry alone could be three shows so I am sure most all of it will be available for the public sale. Mike has been working hard to price the jewelry for two solid weeks! He was not quite able to get to all of the Native jewelry but there will be plenty to see.
On Thursday we decided to take a trip to Prescott for the day. I had ordered another week's worth of meal delivery before we realized the plumbing problem was way worse than expected, and I had Mike send me a package of Michael Aram items I had purchased from one of our sales to Prescott since I will be displaying the items there. Also, since I forgot my thumb drive it caused me not to be able to file away my estate sale paperwork as I complete the packages. I have many files on the thumb drive and was accumulating files on the Scottsdale computer. Since we have had a couple of computers go kaput on us and it was difficult to recover the data, it was suggested that I keep the files on a thumb drive instead. Luckily except for one client's reports, I had all of the information I needed to get clients their packages in a timely manner. I was able to send the check on time which is the most important thing. We were only there for about five hours (and even at that I drove home in the dark) but it was a productive time. We were both able to grab personal items and food that we needed, take in the packages, get my thumb drive and go to the bank. We are still on the lookout for decent food though! Olive Garden was right near the bank so we decided to go there. I had not been to Olive Garden in many years and used to like it. The restaurant itself was nice and our server was fantastic but the food was hit and miss. For me, chain restaurant food is just so salty and the salad was frozen and tasted like someone dumped a whole shaker of salt on it. My chicken entree was salty and had a strong seed oil taste. I was really glad I could substitute angel hair pasta for the spaghetti but the sauce was very watery. The fluffy shaved Parmesan cheese helped in that department though. The breadsticks were pretty good, better than I remembered, probably because they had just come out of the oven. Kuochun had better luck with his salmon and broccoli meal. The Italian Lemon Cream Cake was not on the menu, I was looking forward to it. Oh well, the search continues!
I reposted three of the items the Whatnot jewelry seller brought back to me, including the Keybahi Lewis pendant and two Rosella Paxton butterfly pendants. I took the opportunity to correct all of my Rosella Paxton listings. I had her listed as Navajo but she is actually Apache but Navajo-trained in jewelry making so her designs have a Navajo influence. They are all good to go now!
It has been a slow go getting Federico 2026 posted. I was able to post these three pieces which I had previously taken photos for, but still need to post two rings to complete the lot. I was able to bring my ring display and necklace bust back from Prescott so I feel confident that the job will be completed come this time next week. I believe as far as the algorithms go for the online marketplaces, the delisted and relisted Rosella Paxton items will count as "new" items, giving me a total of nine.
I did sell two of last week's Federico earring postings - the floral pair on Mercari and the turquoise inlay pair to a previous customer on Etsy. Both earrings had the same starting price and both parties made the same offer, which I accepted. I will probably turn to posting different items for a bit but still have wonderful Federico pieces to post from 2024 and 2025.
Next week, I am back to physical therapy the next two Tuesdays. We will see what the future plan will be after that. I was feeling surprisingly good over most of the break, even after falling the day after my last physical therapy day but my knee has been acting up these past several days. Nothing like what I was experiencing before so for that I am very grateful. We are looking forward to seeing what the plumbing crew can accomplish next week as well. They are still on to relocate the cleanout from the roof to the ground on Monday and since I have appointments Tuesday and Wednesday, they are going to come back Thursday to make sure the rest of the tree roots and etc are rodded out and we can have working facilities again. We will need to come up Thursday for the indoor work and the hope is to be able to stay until Monday so I am back for physical therapy on Tuesday. From there, I am not sure what we will do because Friday is dog grooming day and the following Monday we both have dental appointments. I am trying to remain optimistic and hope that the plumbing will be fixed and things will settle down soon.
In the meantime, I have been working on cleaning, repairing and pricing items which have been sitting around for a long time. My new rule is, if I pick it up I have to deal with it! No more boxes sitting around with random items. Some items are best left for craft project goody bags, I have four bags going at the moment with different themes. I am sure there is more where that came from and I will need to upgrade to larger bags. I will not go larger than a sandwich bag though because I want to keep the cost reasonable. I have not made it to the costume jewelry repair place yet, I will go once I fill a shoebox with items that are worth repairing but I cannot repair because they need soldering or stones which I do not have on hand. I just found a very pretty Navajo-made sterling silver and turquoise barrette which is missing the curved clip on the inside of the barrette. Rather than having to buy a bag of 50 barrettes on Amazon, I am hoping the costume jewelry repair place has the part I need. It has been rewarding taking what at first looked like bags and boxes of junk and turning everything possible into wearable pieces of jewelry.
That is all the news for now, while in Scottsdale I will continue to work on the jewelry backlog. I have a non-jewelry backlog on my secondary desk as well, and I would like to post one of these items to Facebook Marketplace each day until they are all gone! I think I will start with the panda bear Rachel bought Mother to replace her favorite panda toy she grew up with. The only thing these two items have in common is that they are both pandas. Rachel did not want to take it back to New York with her when she was selecting what to keep from Mother's estate so it needs to find a new home with someone who will enjoy it.
