Not Old, but Still Cool

Deborah and Steve just returned from our old stomping grounds in Scottsdale, where we had a great week with Bill Bishop at his incredible gallery on Main Street. (If you have never been, put it on your bucket list. His business card says "The planet Earth is well represented in these shops," and it is a totally apt thing to say. Ask him where that saying came from--it is a very cool story.) We also went down to the Heard Market to visit friends (hello to Perry Shorty, Kee Yazzie, Cody Sanderson, Ken Williams, Wes Willie, Jeremy Frey and many others) and to see what was going on in the contemporary market. Some nice things, of course, but did anything stand out? Actually...

The one thing we saw that stood out the most was a bracelet by Earl Plummer, one of the really fine Navajo smiths. It was done in matrixed turquoise, maybe Kingman, and inlaid on a silver cuff was a spiderweb pattern with a domed coral cab in the center. Very reminiscent of Preston Monongye's spider bracelets, but with an inlaid design rather than a cast one. It won an honorable mention for jewelry, which baffled us because we saw no other jewelry that we thought was more deserving--maybe the category winners had already sold, and we never saw them. Whatever the case, it was the best thing we saw at the market, and he sold it later in the day, so congrats to Earl.

Anyone who is interested in seeing really fine and creative silverwork should check out Earl Plummer at the next Indian Market. Turkey Mountain Traders does not represent him, nor do we have any of his pieces for sale; we just like to recognize excellence when we see it, even if there is nothing in it for us.