Time For Another Event

I neglected to mention last week that on Sunday Mother and I attended the annual Native American Art Market at the Scottsdale Civic Center grounds near Old Town, which is only a few minutes away from home. It was difficult to find as there were no signs posted, there is construction going on at the Civic Center and no handicapped parking was available but we managed to find it. There were lots of great Native artists showcasing their jewelry and there were demonstrations as well. We wanted to be sure to see Gary Sanchez's booth which we did but did not purchase this time. I loved the jewelry at another booth but the prices were out of sight. The young man was nice enough until I asked him for a card (not to call them but to find them in the future.) He said they do not give out cards because it is a waste of time and they do not want anyone calling them. They do shows at the Heard Museum, blah blah blah and do not need to give out cards. I was out of there!

What a contrasting experience to the folks I did purchase from, Amos and Rebecca Hasken. I purchased a beautiful heart pendant from them, I should have asked what the stone was because I have never seen anything like it. It is a composite with a combination of turquoise and black with gold veining through it. Amos had a great sense of humor all along - I mentioned that I was looking for a 60" strand of Navajo pearls that I could wrap around my neck three times. He said come to Talking Stick next Saturday (an outdoor market in the parking lot about 15 minutes away from us) and be sure to wear the same clothes so I remember you!

This week I was able to start posting some more of the recent Tucson Gem Show finds. On Tuesday, I featured coin jewelry by Buffalo Dancer. Most of the jewelry uses vintage Mercury dimes and there are other vintage coins represented as well. The bracelet on the right and the barrette sold, but I do have another bracelet with the smaller beads between the coin beads. Unfortunately this year's price increase seems to have an effect on how much of this jewelry was purchased. 

On Wednesday I continued the Federico theme with a grouping of the very popular naja necklaces. This year there were some mini cluster earrings available as well so I selected two of each. I did sell the necklace in the center and the earrings but still have two necklaces and another pair of earrings. Someone claimed the necklace on the left with earrings but they ended up not paying. Thankfully this does not happen too often, just about all of the customers are fantastic but it does happen occasionally and is definitely annoying when it does. I had a second person not pay as well which was disappointing.

On Thursday I posted these two very special pendants by master silversmith Allison Snowhawk Lee, who sadly passed away last year. I felt honored to find and take custody of these pieces. The first piece I bought from one of my Arlington Heights favorites was a pair of Allison Lee squash blossom earrings. I marveled at the quality and right away was a fan but his jewelry is hard to find. At first I was going to keep both the pendants but they were quite an investment so I thought I would offer them for sale and if they did not sell it was meant to be. I do not have a nice Native American necklace with shiny beads to go with these so it would be even more of an investment. I do have some leather cording at home so that would be a budget-friendly option.

Saturday's Native American jewelry lot was a combination of new arrivals and pieces with final sale pricing. The common thread is the jewelry has a variety of different stones. All of the earrings except the pair at the lower left have sold, as well as the owl watch, the purple charoite pendant and the fetish necklace. The remaining pieces are available.

All of a sudden, it is time for another event! Next Saturday it will be the community garage sale. This will be the third year - the first time was before the pandemic (and before I bought the house) and then there was a pandemic break in 2020 and 2021. The sale was held in 2022 but it was the same weekend as the Tucson Gem Show so we were not able to participate or attend. I am not sure if the dates were changed on my account but at the time I did express interest in participating if the dates ever were to change. This year, President's Day weekend was chosen. The official sale is Saturday only from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. I will stay open if folks are still shopping after 12:00.

I would have continued to Sunday but I am taking Kuochun to the 34th Annual Willo Historic Home Tour & Street Fair in Phoenix. Mother, Melinda and I attended pre-pandemic. Mother really loved the street fair and although we were only able to see 3-4 homes, the neighborhood is absolutely adorable and the homes decorated so cute. Many of the homes are from the 1920s-1940s era and are filled with style. One home had a horse theme throughout and once we arrived in the backyard, were shocked to see a mini stable with a real horse inside! I am looking forward to getting on the shuttle bus and touring all of the homes this time as well as the old-time firehouse which is always part of the tour. The weather outlook is perfect for Saturday with all sun and a high of 75 degrees (although it will be in the 40s-50s early in the morning) and Sunday is looking cloudy with a high of 70. This sounds pretty ideal for doing a housewalk, I remember it being quite warm last time we attended. I highly recommend this event to anyone visiting the Phoenix area this time of year.

I am excited to get back to estate sales next week! As a reminder, we have sales in Niles and Park Ridge on the Niles border. It looks like we will pick up a Chicago - Rogers Park the weekend after next as well. All we need is something for the first weekend of March and then we will have sales every weekend through March 26. We are receiving a lot of inquiries so it looks promising!

Once the garage sale is in the books I am going to start shipping jewelry home for the caravan. Time is getting away from me, we are approaching only 2 1/2 months left to go. I told myself I was not leaving Arizona until all of the backlog of silver jewelry is polished and priced. It will be a tall order but I think I can still accomplish that. I also set a shorter-term goal to post a total of 250 items online through Vendoo by March 3, since that is the package I purchased at a 30% discount for the first month. I have only posted 35 so far so I have quite a ways to go. But the good news 6 of them have already sold through either eBay or Etsy! To achieve the goal, I would need to post about 13 items per day. This would be possible if I do not post so many items to Facebook. I am sure I have enough of a backlog of already posted items to work with!