The Santa Fe Indian Market has been on my bucket list for several years, so this year I finally decided it was time to go.
Technically, this was a business trip. Creative inspiration and education were the official objectives. Looking at an unreasonable amount of jewelry and hunting for rocks were also involved.
I met up with a friend who was, thankfully, willing to follow my detailed two-page agenda and only slightly concerned by it. She’s also a jeweler, which meant I had exactly the right travel companion. She was more than happy to nerd out with me over all the tiny details that would make most normal people slowly wander away.
The Two-Page Game Plan
Indian Market was the centerpiece of the trip, but naturally I had grandiose plans. (Nothing new, see any of my previous blogs.)
There were galleries I wanted to visit, including several where I had met the owners at past jewelry trade shows in New York. Seeing a gallery in person is completely different from following it online. Instagram can show you beautiful individual pieces, but it rarely captures the personality of a space, how the work is displayed, or the interesting things tucked into a case that never make it onto a website.
There were also museums on my hit list and, because I apparently don't own enough rocks, places to hunt for rough material to bring back to the studio.
Jewelry Maxxing: More Is More
I recently came across the term "jewelry maxxing," and Santa Fe Indian Market may be its natural habitat.
The photo above is just a taste of how much jewelry everyone was wearing. The show started at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and when we arrived at 7:55, it was already packed with shoppers decked out in allllllllllll their previously purchased jewelry. Men and women alike were layered, stacked, and adorned with pieces they had clearly collected over the years. It was basically a walking jewelry exhibition before we even made it to the artists' booths.
After years of minimalist jewelry and quiet luxury, recent fashion and jewelry coverage has been pointing in the opposite direction: stacked bracelets, layered necklaces, charms, mixed metals, colored stones, oversized pieces, and jewelry that looks collected rather than coordinated.
There was enough extraordinary jewelry within a few city blocks to completely destroy your ability to focus. My friend and I frequently found ourselves examining something from approximately three inches away. Occupational hazard #1.
As a lapidary, buying rough is especially dangerous because I’m not just looking at the rock sitting in front of me. I’m already mentally slicing into it and gambling on what I think might be inside. Occupational hazard #2.
For me, any travel is an opportunity to fill the creative well. A color combination on a historic traditional dress in a museum catches my attention. An unexpected carving makes me look twice. A large installation piece changes how I think about scale. It all gets tucked away somewhere.
Some of those ideas will probably show up at my bench soon. Others may sit quietly in the back of my brain for months before resurfacing in a completely different way.
Curious to see where some of that inspiration lands?
Visit my website to explore my latest inlay work, where tiny pieces of hand-cut stone come together one piece at a time.