Santa Fe Shopping Tips by karenincalifornia

The stores in downtown Santa Fe have a great selection of jewelry, pottery, clothing and handicrafts in the New Mexican style. I picked up some gorgeous Zuni and Navajo sterling silver and turquoise jewelry, beautiful Acoma pottery, and also some very comfortable moccasins that I wore until they completely fell apart.

The biggest change we noticed from 1988 to 2005 is the proliferation of high-end fine arts galleries and fine jewellers. Those stores are extremely pricey - way beyond my budget. However, you don't have to spend that kind of money for beautiful jewelry made locally. Instead, look for folk art designed by local pueblos or native jewelry made of sterling silver, lapis, turquoise and opal.

What To Buy: My daughter and I had a great time shopping for jewelry here. We bought earrings and bracelets. She doesn't know this yet, but my husband and I also bought her a beautiful Zuni link bracelet for her 8th grade graduation and a matching set of tear drop earrings. Each separate link in the bracelet has an intricate inlaid design made of turquoise, black onyx and coral stones. I think she'll love it!

What To Pay: We didn't do our shopping at the fine jewelers - that would have been way too expensive. There's no need to go to these places unless you want diamonds, 14K gold and precious gems. Go to the stores that specialize in native sterling silver jewelery. We bought beautiful earrings and bracelets for a mere $30 to $50, a fraction of what we could have paid at a fine jeweler in Santa Fe.

One of our favorite stores was the Virginia Trading Post. We liked their prices and selection of jewelry and their T-shirts, which had embroidered Southwestern designs, rather than simple silkscreen prints.

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Theme: Other
Phone: 505-983-6165
Address: 82 East San Francisco, Santa Fe, NM
Directions: Just south of the central plaza

Name of Shop: Galleries on Canyon Road

THAT was a piece of trivia that surprised me. What used to be a backwater turquoise mining town - Santa Fe - is now the second largest art market in the U.S., second only to Manhattan. The art IS incredible - and very plentiful.

A good place to see the sophistication of the art is in the galleries on Canyon Road. They are lined up all along the road, and display a wide range of art from traditional to contemporary, from Southwestern to international. There is even a gallery called Pushkin dedicated to Soviet trained artists.

What To Buy: Paintings, pastels, watercolors, sculptures, jewelry, pottery, tapestries, yard sculptures, fountains.

You don't have to be in the market to buy works of art to enjoy Canyon Road. I really enjoyed strolling along the road and going from gallery to gallery. Some of the art fell in the category of stuff I would never buy, but a lot was so impressive, it literally took my breath away.

A visit to Canyon Road is like a visit to a museum, but the best part of it, it is free!

What To Pay: OK, here's the catch. The art isn't cheap. Most items sell for thousands of dollars.

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Theme: Art
Directions: Canyon Road is just south of the river and just east of the downtown area.

Name of Shop: Canyon Road Fine Art

One of our favorite galleries on Canyon Road was Canyon Road Fine Art. It's a small gallery, displaying works of about 10 artists. The owner of the gallery has taste in art very much like my own. I loved just about every work being displayed. Most of the art consisted of still lifes and landscapes with some portraits.

What To Buy: We bought a painting entitled "Santa Domingo & Onions" by Wendy Higgins. My husband and I admire the native pottery and we both like to cook, and cook with onions a lot, so this seemed to be a very appropriate piece of art for our home.

The artist Wendy Higgins has an interesting background. She studied art in college, but her art department valued abstract expression more highly than Wendy's representational style. She learned little about art in college. She then became a landscape architect and did not start painting again until 18 years later, and then she moved to New Mexico. Much of her art now has a Southwestern influence.


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Theme: Art
Phone: 505-988-9511
Address: 621 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Directions: Canyon Road Fine Art is about a quarter mile up the road.
Website: www.canyonroadfineart.com

Name of Shop: Wind River Trading Company

You don't have to go to one of the pricey fine arts dealers to buy beautiful native pottery in Santa Fe. There are numerous shops that sell authentic pueblo pottery and other tribal art at very reasonable prices.

The pottery comes from the local Navajo, Santa Clara, Anasazi, Hopi, Jemez, and Acoma pueblos. Each pueblo has their own distinct style. After a couple of days in Santa Fe, you'll be able to identify the origin of the pottery on your own.

What To Buy: We liked the Acoma style, so we picked up some pottery made at the Acoma Pueblo. Like the hilltowns of Italy, the Acoma Pueblo is situated at the top of a mesa, originally built there as a defense against marauding enemies. Today, the intricately decorated and often symmetrical pottery is highly prized and displayed in many museums.

Wind River Trading Company sells more than pottery. You'll also find jewelry, clothing, belt buckles, blankets, moccasins and more at this store. When my son was 9 months old, we bought one of his first pair of shoes here - a pair of moccasins. Fond memories!


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Theme: Home Furnishing
Phone: 505-982-1592
Address: 113 East Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Directions: Just east of the Palace of the Governors

Name of Shop: Primavera Gallery

If you are looking for that light fixture that no one else has, go to Primavera Gallery in downtown Santa Fe. Their fixtures are works of art. No two of these hand-blown light fixtures are the same. They are simply gorgeous.



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Theme: Home Furnishing
Phone: 505-995-8552
Address: 209 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM
Directions: Just west of the central plaza.

Name of Shop: Yard sculptures on Canyon Road

Some of the galleries on Canyon Road sell very unusual sculptures. We liked the wind powered sculptures at this gallery. The photo doesn't do them justice, but they were rather mesmerizing, sort of Zen-like, with their pinwheel effect. The sculptures were so finely engineered that the slightest breeze would send them into a spin. These particular sculptures sell for about $4000. At that price, you probably wouldn't want to stick one in your front yard.



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Theme: Art

Name of Shop: Native American Bazaar

Daily, from early morning until 4:00 pm, Native American vendors spread their blankets and goods underneath the overhang along the Palace of Governors. You can find some really good deals here on exquisitely designed jewelry. The bazaar is nationally famous.

If you see something you really like, you'd better buy it on the spot, rather than think about it. My daughter saw a Zuni bracelet that she liked a lot. She didn't find anything she liked better anywhere else, so the next day we went back. The woman who was selling the bracelet wasn't there, much to my daughter's disappointment.



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Theme: Jewelry
Directions: On the north side of the central plaza.