Hi, Everyone
    Last weekend I took Patty to Shiprock, New Mexico, for the annual
Northern Navajo fair. There were hundreds of booths set up by Navajo
craftsmen selling their wares. Mostly it's craft projects they've worked
on during the rest of the year when they're housebound by the winter
snows. Typical items are silver and turquoise jewelry.
    Patty and I had put aside a nest egg for buying some of their jewelry,
and we prefer to deal directly with the artisans rather than pay the
markup at the trading posts. Specifically, I wanted to get Patty a
squash blossom necklace, one of the traditional types made of large
amounts of silver and turquoise that Navajo women wear when they go into
town. We had planned on spending $300 - 400.
    We got to talking with one of the artisans who had several squash
blossom necklaces for sale, but Patty was drawn to an unusual one. It
was made of massive chunks of silver decorated with turquoise and coral,
strung with silver beads. And each large chunk of silver (there were 12)
had a bear claw sticking out of it. The lady wanted $720 for it, a bit
beyond our budget. We stood around and visited with the lady for a
while, just chatting about life on the reservation. Suddenly she said,
"Tell you what, you're wife seems to really like the bear claws and I
really need to sell something today. You can have the necklace for $350."
    A bit later we were at one of the regular trading posts where they buy
Navajo jewelry from the Indians and sell it to the tourists. The owner
of the place got excited when he saw Patty's necklace. He offered her
$1200 for it. Since he intended to resell it, that would be the
wholesale value of it. But it was no sale.
Cheers,
Dave