A PASSAGE TO INDIA: September 2008

It truly is a WorldWideWeb

Today, we shipped a major piece of Australian Aboriginal wood carving to Germany. This follows a shipment of dot paintings and Aboriginal baskery and other native artwork to this same customer

Monday we will ship several Zuni fetish carvings to a loyal customer in Australia.

We have shipped to Canada, Japan and the Netherlands.

And today a woman from out of town, staying on Sanibel Island, came by our house and acquired several Zuni carvings. She found us on the web through a keyword search.

What is going on here?

When we closed our physical gallery after 16 years of daily treks to it and entertaining visitors without end - which we loved - we were a little concerned.

We had been online for many years - 10 or more. Yet, one never knows what will happen when you no longer have a place 'on the ground.'

What actually has happened is that we have a world wide circle of friends and customers. They come to us via the web. They trust us and they buy from us. There is no way to tell you how special that makes us feel.

Then, occasionally, someone who has seen us on the web shows up in Southwest Florida - Sanibel is a tourism magnet for good reason. They call. They come by. We share experiences and our home. And we have gratification of yet another kind.

Life is good. Friends and customers are good. Beauty is good.

We are blessed to be in this business.

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Gallup Inter-Tribal Announces 2008 Prize Winners

William Ernest Waites, reporting from New Mexico

I'm a little late getting this out. Actually it took a couple of weeks to even receive the results. Then, publication got caught up a gazillion other things connected with returning home and logging in new pieces we acquired.

But it's never too late. At least, not until the next Inter-Tribal, which is scheduled for August 12-16, 2009 in Gallup, New Mexico.

So here are the results for 2008 -

Best Lapidary – Benson Manygoats, Navajo (Reversible “Shush” Necklace - $45,000)

Best Pottery – Delores Curran, Santa Clara (Traditional clay pot sgraffito - $4,500)

Metal Smithing – Earl Plummer, Navajo (Squash Blossom with Turquoise - $11,000)

Baskets – Sally J Black, Navajo, (Coiled basket – yucca materials -$5,500)

Tribal Arts – J.T. Willie, Navajo, (Southern Dance Outfit -7 pieces- $5,000)

Katchina & Wood Carved Figures – Jon Cordero, Hopi/Cochiti, (Snow Maiden Spirit - $25,000)

Paintings – Sammy Myerson, Navajo, (Sandpainting “Emergence of 5 Worlds”-$390)

Sculpture – Charles Pratt, Cheyenne/Apache, (Laura Cannon - cast bronze-metal fabricate flowers) $6,500)

Textiles – Grace Nez, Navajo, Lena Nez, daughter, Old-style Ganado rug, custom spun, hand-dyed, churro wool, 8’ x 10’ - $24,000

Youth Painting – Fred Peters Jr., Navajo – 18 years old Yei Ba Chi Dancer (acrylic paint with needle, $480)

Poster 2009 - Tom Clark, Navajo – Sand painting – blue ribbon

We always enjoy the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial. The setting in Red Rocks State park, the night and daytime parades down Gallup's Route 66, all add up to a great experience.

If you are in the area next August, I'd put this event on my calendar.

You're invited to visit our web sites at ZuniLink, Native-JewelryLink, Native-PotteryLink and TribalWorks over the coming weeks. We are adding new items as fast as we can photograph and upload them. It's not too early to start holiday/Christmas shopping. By the way, while we are adding new carvings, we are offering 20%-off our fetish carvings to loyal readers of this blog who ask for it. We anticipate the offer will end sometime in October. We recommend you not hesitate if you see something you like.

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SWAIA Indian Market Correction

A reader of this blog as commented that the winning jewelry entry in the 2008 SWAIA Indian Market competition was not a pin, as previously reported, but was a sterling silver tufa cast seed jar. That information has been corrected.

It may be of interest that the confusion arose from:

a) an unnecessarily crowded announcement area - as previously mentioned,

b) a failure of SWAIA to announce the winning item by description beyond the Category name,

c) the natural tendency of this reporter to assume that a jewelry winner would, in fact, be an item of jewelry.

Unless someone wears a seed jar, I don't know how it could be considered jewelry.

It is just another example of category changes that need to be made at SWAIA.

This, of course, is the personal opinion of Wiliam Ernest Waites, whose interest in Native America art goes back 20 years. He also is co-owner of Native American art web sites at ZuniLink, Native-JewelryLink, Native-PotteryLink and TribalWorks

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Mary Small fans will love these three new pottery pieces

Whilst at Santa Fe Indian Market, we encountered one of our fav potters, Mary Small of Jemez Pueblo. She is a perpetual smiler and hugger.

Her pottery style is very distinctive, leading a to number of enthusiastic collectors.

For those fans, and others who would like to discover the wonderful work of Mary, we have acquired three new pieces. They are shown and described in more detail on the website, Native-PotteryLink.com.

Here are preview pictures: