The artists were such interesting people, and readily engaged shoppers in conversation, explaining their work and how they did it. I have been interested in Indian art for a long time. My mother was given about 5 superb Southwest Indian baskets by her uncle and aunt (my great). They toured the southwest in the early 1900's, and collected both baskets and pottery. I was given these treasures which are in our living room now. (I have a few pieces of pottery as well. They, unfortunately, were damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake when we lived in Los Altos in 1989. Gary pieced them back together after they crashed from our mantel to the hearth, so they are still somewhat together, but not like before.)
At this fair we didn't see very many baskets. I don't know quite what to think about that (maybe we just missed them), but there was lots of pottery, sculpture, painting, photos, jewelry, textiles including some fabulous rugs, leather goods and other miscellaneous art.
I was particularly intrigued with a jacket made by a woman from upstate New York. It was a Treaty Jacket. The story of the cloth is fascinating. I think the story is as follows: There was a treaty following the Revolutionary War, signed by the Grand Council of the Six (Indian) Nations and President George Washington, signed in Canandaigua, New York in 1794 - The Treaty of Canandaigua, aka The Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty. This treaty is still actively recognized by the U.S. and by the current Indian confederacy. The Six Nations in New York still receive calico cloth as payment under the treaty. Every tribal member who annually signs up to receive cloth gets 3 yards. Every year like clockwork, a representative of the US government arrives to deliver the cloth. It is just plain off-white fabric. The woman joked about this "fabulous payment" for the land that was ceded to the U.S. under the treaty. Nonetheless, she uses hers to create a jacket each year, trimmed in a wonderful blue border pattern and imprinted on the back with words from the treaty. It was already sold when we saw it. I am kicking myself that I didn't take a photo of it as it was still on display.
I bought a beautiful Navajo pendant of inlaid stones and a pair of sterling earrings - an anniversary present!! We saw many other items that we loved but sadly passed up (pricey!).
Regarding photos, Gary and I learned many years ago that we non Indians have to be very careful about taking photos of Indians, especially the Navajo, but maybe others as well. They believe that the photo steals some of their soul. So I respected that, except for this one, of these two women working on something behind one of the tents, which I took surreptitiously. The others are poached from the Art Fair Web site, so those are OK.
