Wilford's Wife Becomes Buyer & Business Partner

My wife and I suffered through one business failure in Santa Fe, NM a couple of years ago so she was very much against another business venture. As a result, I was left alone to start Wilford's Trading Post, but gradually she came on board and now she cannot contain her enthusiasm. It's nice to have the help now. I particularly appreciate her expertise especially given her artistic background--she has Master degrees in Fine Arts and Education and currently teaches both art and music in the Gallup Public School System, nearly 100% of her students (preschool through 5th grade) are Native American, mostly Navajo. In our wholesale shopping this past week, she locked in on a Sammy Smith micro-inlay necklace which she describes as an excellent work of art. I posted it on Ebay tonight as Item number: 360010200838.

Over the next few months we plan on increasing our offerings substantially and we will continue to feature some of the best known Native American Jewelry artists. Sammy Smith is noted for his excellence as a micro-inlayer.

There is another Sammy Smith in town. He is a fetish carver, I have one or two of his pieces up on the site.

Pecan Pie and Lab Opal

The acquisition of Ebay Item number: 360009444097) began with a seasonally appropriate pecan pie freshly baked right in our home kitchen for gift delivery to Sunrise Jewelry. December tends to be slow in the business so I had firmly resolved not to come home with any jewelry piece. Solomon showed me a few new creations and I shrugged, but when he showed me the opal dazzler I bit the hook. He also showed me the rather drab block from which the glittering synthetic opal pieces were cut. Lab opal as I understand it is superior to most of the naturally found products (colors and stabilty) and involves a long, tedious process to produce in the lab. The opal in this necklace sells in raw block form for $1000 a pound. About $100 of the raw opal went into producing this necklace. All the work is individually done, but as soon as the opal piece sells, I'll put in for another similar one.

For new style Native American Jewelry, Sunrise Jewelry does the best work by far in my view. But what I appreciate most is the education I receive every time I visit.