Today, we’re featuring three pieces in a series by a pair of Pueblo jewelry artisans whose work we’ve carried for many years: the mother/daughter team of Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo). Both are highly skilled in traditional Pueblo beadwork jewelry, from old-fashioned heishi to more contemporary designs. One of their specialties, though, is what’s called “fetish jewelry”: items (usually necklaces, but not always) made in whole or in part of tiny fetish-sized representations of animals or other spirit beings.
The horse fetish necklace has long been one of their most popular designs. We’ve had them in turquoise, amber, antler, and jet (my personal favorite). The one most difficult to keep in stock is their multi-stone version, which consists of tiny horses carved of anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen different materials, including turquoise, coral, spiny oyster shell, elk antler, jet, jasper, serpentine, azurite, malachite, and other precious stones and materials; the larger horse pendant is usually turquoise. [Predictably, we have none of those in our current inventory; they sell first.] We do have three of their more recent single-stone necklaces in stock, these pictured here today.
In light of our #ThrowbackThursday post a couple of days ago, featuring our little yearling visitor, I decided to lead off today with their elk-antler version. Of the three, this is my favorite; I love the rich color and texture of the antler contrasted with the pitch-black color of the inlaid jet eyes on each horse. There’s also a little extra intangible something about the idea of using a natural substance from one animal spirit to summon another into existence. From our own experience here, horses and elk recognize their distant kinship, their interactions marked more by curiosity than fear.
This particular elk-antler strand is exceptionally beautiful. We’ve carried elk-antler versions by the Tenorios in the past, but as with anything hand-made, each has its own unique character: Some turn out to be nearly perfectly matched; others, like this one, show greater variation but, to my own eyes, at least, greater personality in each individual little horse. From this piece’s description in the Other Artists: Miscellaneous Jewelry gallery here on the site:
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
I’ve written before about the role Elk plays in the lifeways of this area’s indigenous peoples. You can read more about it, including the use of elk antler, here and here.
The Tenorios also sometimes use another material that, like antler and coral and jet, was once living, in a sense: Amber. Its translucence gives the horses a wholly different character, warm and fiery, yet with a silken appearance.
It feels a bit different, too — almost as though you could sink your fingernails into each piece. although it’s completely hardened, solid and smooth. It gives the horses an organic quality not found in ordinary gemstones. As I wrote elsewhere about the tangible and symbolic qualities that amber conveys:
Amber is likewise a transformative substance in its own right. It’s not really even a stone, although we regard it as one. But as we learned in grade school science, it’s tree resin, hardened over millennia. Once in a while, we’ll see a piece that flowed over and around something yet alive, a plant or an insect, captured and encapsulated in its present form for eternity. At that moment of encapsulation, the resin is soft and mobile, wholly unsuited to the decorative uses we find for it today. But under the pressures of extreme heat in the crucible of time, the resin hardens, solidifies, clarifies, and becomes something that manifests very differently: small droplets of the sun itself, glowing with its brilliant golden light.
It makes the horses come alive, as though carved from fire and flame and the rays of the very sun itself. From the necklace’s description:
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 Tonrio (Kewa Pueblo).
Amber; jet; turquoise; spiny oyster shell; twine
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
On a cold and snowy winter’s morning, these horses embody warmth and light.
Of course, the standard for Pueblo beadwork jewelry remains, as always, the Skystone. Over the years, we’ve had (and sold) countless iterations of the horse fetish necklace in turquoise. This one has been reduced in price price, thanks to a couple of events, shall we say.
In the gallery, we had signs prominently displayed everywhere telling visitors to ask for assistance, because Native art tends to be fragile. Necklaces like these were deliberately hung up high, to keep them out of reach of little fingers (and larger ones, too) that might drop and damage them.
One day, an older couple came in; the rather short woman was drawn to the horse fetish necklaces. I was tied up with something at the counter, but saw her attempting to reach for them, hung high and mostly out of reach in a place that required stretching over a jewelry showcase, in all defiance of the sign right in front of her. As I rapidly disengaged myself, I asked her if she’d like me to take it down for her, but before I could cross the two feet to where she stood, she told me that she didn’t need help, stretched up on tiptoe to grab for it . . . and promptly dropped it on the glass top of the case below, shattering the pendant.
Did she offer to pay for the damage? Of course not; she gave me a look that suggested that I was somehow at fault for putting her in such an embarrassing position.
I bit my tongue, hard, retrieved the necklace from the case top and the shattered pendant pieces from the floor, and busied myself with examining the necklace. Other than the ruined pendant, there was, fortunately, no additional damage. Wings subsequently removed a water bird pendant, made of sterling silver and Morenci turquoise, from his personal collection and attached it to the necklace. The pendant was, frankly, far more valuable, but he didn’t raise the price of the necklace accordingly.
However, the pendant, an old piece, was made by a Navajo silversmith. And last year, as a result of tribal leaders of the Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo deciding to accept blood money from a racist billionaire who uses a genocidal slur to exploit and steal from our peoples. he pulled all Navajo- and Zuni-made pieces from inventory. [As noted at that time, the artists who made the pieces have all long since been paid for their work, so they are not deprived of compensation; Wings is simply taking the financial hit on his investment to stand on principle.] And so the pendant, quite an expensive one, has been removed. For that reason, the price has been lowered to reflect the fact that the necklace is now simply a matched strand of horse-fetish beads with no pendant accent. 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 Naavjo-made pendant described above has been removed because of the situation detailed here, and the price reduced accordingly.
Even without the pendant, it’s a beautiful strand, perfect for horse lovers: a herd of mustangs made from the sky and the rain themselves, running freely around the neck.
As everyone knows, we’re horse people; we have four (down from a high of six). They’re full-fledged family members, each with their own distinct personalities, and they all add much to our lives here.
The Tenorios’ horse fetish necklaces capture their independent spirits beautifully.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
