Components

*Pilot Mountain turquoise bear and abalone fish by Zuni artist Daryl Shack, Sr.
*Pipestone and Picasso fish by Zuni artist Jasper Beyuka
*Handmade glass beads by Karen Ovington
*Handmade stoneware birds and beads by Fete of Clay, Oaxacan birds, carnelian fish, hand carved boxwood fish pair
*Hand cut coins, Tibetan ornaments, old trade beads
*Ojos by Eidos, thunder egg, Baltic amber, crop circle flint, heishi, blue mussel shells, crystals
*Sterling and Thai silver beads, charms and findings
*Signed, numbered, dated

Item #522 - Sold

Ts'oya T'sana ("Little Beauty") Necklace

Ts'oya T'sana
Ts'oya T'sana Necklace
 Ts'oya T'sana Necklace
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This was a special order. My customer wanted Daryl's gorgeous bear and she also loves fish and birds. She wanted Ts'oya T'sana on a wild treasure necklace, and she wanted the bear to be removable so she could wear the necklace even when the bear preferred to hibernate. The design posed lots of challenges. First of all, before the fire I would have had lots of materials to choose from, however this order required a lengthy search for "I'll know it when I see it" components. Fortunately for me this dear lady was patient with my endless delays.

Next came the issue of how to attach the bear. She is a very chubby little girl with heavy shoulders and posed in a naturalistic position. Plus Daryl gave her a fabulous bundle which I wanted to show off. The combination gave me limited options for balancing her on the necklace. When I found the beautiful boulder of Baltic amber, I knew how she wanted to sit on the necklace! Plus the boulder gave me the option of attaching the tassel slightly to the back to balance her properly.

On to the lovely Beyuka fish... I would never drill a carving and glue a metal attachment into it, and the animals are never that happy when they are trapped in wire, so I beaded some fish coveralls for them and let them swim free. I let the ojos (slices of Brazilian agate geodes) swing free as well so they can be used as monocles whenever necessary.

Finding bear, fish and bird components was great fun! Putting them into some sort of "order" required endless reworking, but eventually it seemed to come together. Ts'oya T'sana got fed up with my endless fussing and was very glad to find her person let me tell you! The list of components actually takes 3 1/2 pages in my notebook, so it would be boring to list them all here. But you might enjoy finding them in the necklace. You might notice I cut 3 quarters to serve as charms (no, it is not illegal): Alaska (grizzly with salmon), Oklahoma (Scissor-tailed Flycatcher) and Idaho (Peregrine Falcon). The fish, shell, bird and feather charms and beads are pretty obvious, but there are also: old Venetian feather beads, a thunderegg, the huge Tibetan fish on the counterweight/extension has a beautiful bird on the reverse, etc.