You're in for a treat with Kateri Quandelacy Sanchez's sweet-natured Bear. It is smoothly sculpted from rich pipestone, a natural dark red argillaceous stone, which is basically fossilized clay. We love its matte finish. We don't see many animal carvings in pipestone from her, so we're delighted to share this approximately 2 1/4" long, 1" wide and 1 7/8" tall friend with you. Gentle eyes from jet inlays are set to a darling face. A beautifully fashioned offering bundle consists of a gorgeous sliver of iridescent abalone with etched stars joined by colorful abalone, spiny oyster shell and lapis lazuli beads. A Zuni Sunface element is inlaid from turquoise, shimmering gold lip shell and pipestone.
Kateri was taught to carve at 8 or 9 years old by her aunt Faye Quandelacy using hand tools. She said "We had a grinding stone that was my grandma’s, one of us would have to turn the wheel and the other one would sit there grinding. I don’t know what happened to it, it was part of a collection that Faye donated to a museum. We had a hand-pump drill as well."
*Adding items to your cart does not reserve item or guarantee availablity. Items are only reserved once purchase is complete.
