Everyone has heard the saying, "The good they die young." I never really believed that, but it was true in the care of Iowa Indian artist Jean Bales.

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!

Those who have known the Gallery or me for many years know that we were lucky enough to be the first people to market the weavings by the Begay and Barber families that have come to be recognized as the Burnham style. I want to emphasize that all we did was appreciate their different work and do our best to share it with the Indian art world. These ladies did it all.

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.

Jeff King (Haska-zilth-e-yah, 1865-1964) lived in the Pinedale Chapter Area of the Navajo Reservation.

Back at the turn of the 1900s, Navajo weavers were moving away from making the wearing blankets known throughout the Southwest. The Navajo had worn these blankets for over 100 years and traded them to other Native tribes.

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.

A couple of weeks ago, Howard Rowe and I had an opportunity to head out on the Northern Navajo Reservation to deliver some furniture to Marie Begay and her family.

This collection was brought to us by a couple that lived all over the Western United States. He was an employee of the Federal Government, and she worked in many organizations with Native people. Everywhere they lived, they collected Indian art from the area. Today we are featuring some of the Acoma Pueblo pottery that they purchased.

I decided several years ago that it wasn't accurate to refer to every weaving made on a Navajo loom as a "rug." Of course, many weavings are made to be rugs, and most pieces made in the early and middle 20th century were intended for that use. But clearly, many modern Navajo weavings will never be on the floor. At some point, I decided it was rude to refer to these beautiful textiles as "rugs."

Over the years, we have sold many beautiful pieces that, years later, find their way back to the Gallery. Whenever that happens, it is always accompanied by memories of the artist.

We recently received a beautiful and unique pot by Joseph Lonewolf. This man created the beautiful miniature Santa Clara pottery decorated by etching bold patterns in the pottery surface and then lightly carving designs (sgraffito) to accent them.