Everyone is affected when prices go up. If you are an artist and the cost of paint and canvas rises, it will affect you. But not that much.

Jewelry from the Zuni Pueblo, south of Gallup, New Mexico, has always made up many of the “tourist” style earrings that were so popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

One of the most exciting things in this business occurs when people inherit stunning art, jewelry, pottery, and even Navajo rugs that have never been worn or displayed.

We received a bracelet this year from a woman whose relative had purchased it in the late '70s. It is by a man and woman silversmithing team from Zuni Pueblo named Wayne and Virginia Quam.

Yes, there is a day to recognize and celebrate Native American Heritage. It is the day after Thanksgiving. The month of November is Native American Heritage Month.

One of Albuquerque’s best-known dealers in Southwest Indian arts and crafts was Manny Goodman, who, along with his wife Ann, ran the Covered Wagon store on the south side of the Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque.

Native American artists made the original Southwestern Native Earrings with turquoise and shell beads that were often two or three inches long or more. The beads were strung on a cotton string put through a hole in the ear lobe. Both men and women wore these earrings, which are very similar to the works of current Santo Domingo artist Ray Lovato, except they hang by silver wires!

In the mid-1800s, Zuni metal smiths began fashioning jewelry out of copper. Much of it was for their own use, but as the tourists started to come to the Southwest in the late 1800s, much of it was sold in Gallup, the hub of the Native tourist trade.

How about that? According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, turquoise is having a jewelry resurgence! I did not realize it had gone out of style, but I guess that’s from living in the Desert Southwest!

Coral became a popular material for Native artists to work with hundreds of years ago when European Traders began to bring it to the Southwest as a trade item. Early on, the small pieces of coral were drilled and strung on necklaces made of drilled shell beads and, usually, pieces of turquoise.

When Jimmy Poyer traveled the country with his country-rock band, he was often on the road. But he got bored between his music gigs.

Both of my grandmothers were pin wearers.  Most of the adult women I grew up around wore these decorative pieces of jewelry on their blouses, on the lapels of their jackets, or, as my dad’s mother and aunt did, on her hats. They were both a little eccentric and a lot of fun!