Turquoise Tortoise Gallery Showcases Native American Jewelry

Turquoise Tortoise Gallery Showcases Native American Jewelry In Sedona Arizona

Inlaid Necklace And Earrings Featured At Turquoise Tortoise Gallery In Sedona Arizona

Sedona, AZ: The Turquoise Tortoise Gallery in Sedona celebrates the 4th of July by showcasing the most all-American of jewelry-makers: the Native Americans. For its “1st Friday” reception on the July 4th, 5-8 p.m., and extending month-long, the gallery offers a one-time-only opportunity to purchase select pieces at special pricing. The 37-year-old gallery, one of the oldest in Sedona, has had relationships with many generations of jewelry-making families, primarily Diné (Navajo) but other area tribes as well.

A Diné writer, Luci Tapahonso, has noted, ''We wear the shiny silver of clear water; we wear turquoise made of bright skies.'' It is a beautiful sentiment expressing how closely a life-way ties in with extraordinary jewelry-making skills. In the southwestern region today as it has for more than a thousand years, Native American jewelry-making remains an important “currency”. Early desert tribes traded with coastal tribes for shells like spiny oyster, mother of pearl or abalone to use in their jewelry; Diné traded their cattle for jewelry from Mexican silversmiths in the mid-1800s; Native Americans used jewelry to exchange for such necessities as gasoline for cars in the early 1900s; and today’s jeweler may support a family with the earnings of their trade.

Patricia Knight, Director of Turquoise Tortoise Gallery, explains

Knight goes on to describe the nature of different tribes’ work. that, “a lot of the Navajo jewelers who regularly sell pieces to us have known us for years. We know they do remarkable work whose quality we can count on – and have counted on. Being a marketplace for such skilled artists is what the gallery is all about.”

Historically, Native American jewelry has not had as many marked differences as native crafts because the materials - beads, shells, silver and such – were frequent trade items. Today, techniques cross tribal lines but there are still traits for which many are known.