Mary Ann Spencer, Kingman turquoise, and fine details. I could end right there. But you’re here for a diatribe about what it is and why it matters, right? Okay, I’ll try.

So the fine details are a difficult task to pull off. In fact, it’s not just difficult, it's usually only done by people who really know what they’re doing. Remember, every piece you see is time and effort. Every errant mistake is time, and that time determines how much a piece costs. The artist's time and materials are all variable costs. This means that time spent fixing problems -- like melting silver from mistakes -- lowers the value of the artist’s labor and may even eat into material costs. This doesn’t even account for the time spent making such fine details, which is more than it takes to not make any of them at all. So why bother with those fine details? I don’t know, I’m not an artist. Why did DaVinci paint that background in the Mona Lisa? No idea. From a purely economic perspective I wouldn’t’ve. But these aren’t average people like us. These are skilled artisans. The vision can be realized with skill, so you will get those elements when an artist is skilled enough to do them. Mary Ann Spencer is skillful enough without worrying about cost overruns, so voila.

The turquoise is a dreamy piece of sky and powder blue. You have your “natural” element, which is the matrix, at the bottom there. Why is it there? Well, it looks prettier and more interesting. A wash of blue can also be interesting, but something else there is both a guarantee that it’s natural turquoise as well as going a long way to ensure that the piece is natural. This is a special Navajo touchstone in their work. American turquoise in general tends to have a lot of matrix. But working with the matrix to give you a brilliant piece of art is something I see in Navajo pieces a lot. It’s far more interesting this way. They aren’t masters of the medium for no reason. My love for their work isn’t a fetish. As someone who loves silver and turquoise jewelry, I can honestly say that few are better at it. And Mary Ann Spencer is the proof.

So there it is. A beautiful and interesting piece of turquoise. A frame for the gorgeous gem that has all sorts of axial symmetry. And it’s all made by melting and hammering silver by hand. I sing your praises, Mary Ann.