Vacation in Scottsdale

I had to tear myself away from the earthquake and tsunami videos to update my blog. We love Scottsdale, and were there last weekend for the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market. We had a blast! We're members of the Heard, so we got all dolled up for the Best of Show and Silent Auction held last Friday night.

I don't often get the chance to wear my squash blossom necklace. Virtually everyone there was in their best silver or turquoise. We we thrilled when our bid won the silent auction on a very small "Wide Ruins" Navajo rug. We met some really interesting people, and had dinner with the entire editorial staff of "Ornament" magazine. We're definitely going to subscribe!

We really loved the fair and market too. Navajo fry bread, yum! I took these pictures of sand paintings for my good friend, Virginia.
These two paintings blew me away! I've never seen a sand painting of corn before; the wheel below is more traditional. The detail on both is unbelievable. Can you believe this is how they are made? I'm still not sure how they "fix" them to survive upright. The painting of sand is about 1/4" thick.We have a small collection of katsinam, (more commonly known as kachinas - but my husband is a purist.) One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet several of the Hopi carvers who made our figures. We memorized the (incredibly difficult) Hopi names of our carvers and asked those with the same last names if they were related. In both cases they were first cousins! The Hopi people are very family oriented and super friendly, so were able to pass along our greetings to the absent carvers. We had a really wonderful time, and, as usual, hated to leave Paradise Valley.