We have spent this week exploring the lessons of the trees, and the links they form between earth and sky.
Occasionally, that link becomes more tangible.
Today, we feature three necklaces from a mother/daughter team of beadwork artisans from Kewa Pueblo (what was, for too many years, “renamed” by outsiders Santo Domingo Pueblo; the Pueblo’s tribal council voted a few years ago to restore the people’s actual name). The Tenorios specialize in fetish jewelry, particularly necklaces, although they are also known for heishi and more standard beadwork, as well. Among their most popular are their horse fetish necklaces: long single strands of chunky fetish beads carved in the form and shape of small horses, coaxed into being from a wide variety of gemstones and other materials and then stacked on top of each other along a sturdy fiber rope strand.
Over the years, we’ve carried a fairly wide variety of their horse fetish necklaces. Among the most popular are the multi-stone versions, consisting of horses carved from a dozen or so different gemstones and other materials, including turquoise, lapis, sugilite, jet, elk antler, spiny oyster shell, amber, coral, and other minerals. We sold the last of those several years ago, along with turquoise and jet. Three remain: another made of turquoise; one made of elk antler; and the one shown above, of amber. This particular trio suits our week’s themes especially well, connecting, as they seem to do, sun and clouds and sky, all linked by one earthy commonality.
We begin with the amber, which is itself, in a sense, a tree material: It is, after all, the resin of a coniferous tree, hardened over time on a geologic scale. It thus is not, strictly speaking, a stone at all, but it functions as one for purposes of jewelry, susceptible as it is to carving, cutting, and cabbing, and to polishing and buffing, too. In this instance, it’s a herd of tiny horses in the color of the the micaceous earth of this place, and of the sun itself, brilliantly fiery small sorrels whose bodies, like the light, turn toward the Four Directions. From the necklace’s description in the Other Artists: Miscellaneous Jewelry gallery here on the site:
Dozens of tiny amber horse fetishes dance up and down the length of this necklace. Each has a matched pair of jet inlay eyes; each is strung on heavy-duty twine, which is then tightly wrapped in sturdy rope-like natural-fiber strands at the neck. A rough-cut gemstone accents either side. By Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo).
Amber; jet; turquoise; spiny oyster shell; twine
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The second piece is much cooler in appearance, less resiny to the touch. It’s made of elk antler, hard and cool and polished to a glossy finish, a product of the four-legged spirits indigenous to the earth of this place. These horses are the color of the clouds before the thunder comes, when they are still nearly the color of snow. From the piece’s description:
This fetish necklace by Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo) features dozens of tiny horses. Each is rendered in a classic and very versatile medium long used by Pueblo peoples: elk antler. Each has jet inlay eyes. The top of the necklace is wrapped tightly in a heavy-duty natural-fiber twine, and accented with a single free-form piece of rough-cabbed green turquoise. About 32″ long.
Elk antler; jet; green turquoise; natural-fiber twine
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
But sun and clouds alike need a sky in which to dwell, and there are spirit horses for that, too. These Skystones live up to their name, manifest in the bright sky blue of midday, their bodies marbled with bits of slightly metallic gold-colored matrix, as though touched by tiny rays of the sun. This one lacks a larger horse pendant, a casualty of a tourist; Wings once added a valuable old Water Bird pendant to it, but wound up removing it (as the text at the link makes clear), and so it is offered at a reduced price. From its description:
Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo) have created this single-strand fetish necklace out of dozens of tiny horses. Each horse is carved out of blue turquoise with a pale, almost golden-colored matrix, and is accented with jet inlay eyes. About 32″ long, the top of the strand is snugly wrapped with heavy-duty natural-fiber twine and accented with a single free-form turquoise stone. The added pendant is a wholly separate piece: a sterling silver water bird with a body of brilliant Morenci turquoise.
Turquoise; jet; sterling silver; natural-fiber twine
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Price reduced: $300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Note: The Navajo-made pendant described above has been removed because of the situation detailed here, and the price reduced accordingly.
All three works comprise spirit horses in the colors of the sky, but their identities are more elemental. Each invokes three of the elements directly: sun as fire; clouds as air; Skystone as water. But what of the trees themselves? What of earth?
Earth is present in all three indirectly: Amber is a product of the trees themselves, tall spirits that emerge from the soil; elk antler similarly derives from an earth-bound source, the animal whose name it bears; and turquoise is, in the old way, a bit the sky in the form of rain, fallen to earth and there hardened into a jewel of great value.
But each tiny horse contains its own bit of earth, as well. Each possesses a pair of eyes of inlaid jet. Jet is in fact both tree and earth: wood that, again, over time on a geologic scale, becomes fossilized (not petrified, but fossilized), becoming one with the earth that holds its body and bones. In a very real way, the trees that eventually become jet link the earth with the rest of the cosmos. Thanks to these small horse spirits, they link the wearer to it, as well.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
