Trading Post Negotiations

My house is a representation of my adventures over the years, including the Chinese dining room, the Castle Keep entrance, the Tuscan kitchen (actually on my list), an eclectic living room for all the miscellaneous stuff and the Cowboy/Indian family room with rock fireplace and beam/wood ceilings.  A great addition would be an authentic Navajo blanket to adorn the floor to ceiling fireplace.  Which means BIG, which means expensive, which means a trip to the Cameron Trading Post to hopefully negotiate a reasonable price.  On the way is the Tower, by Architect Mary Colter.  It is an amazing creation at the edge of the eastern side of the South Rim, the interior of which is covered with hand painted Indian designs by a local native artist of that time.

If you look close, you can see small designs in the tower to create interest, including what looks like a condor head on the left side and hieroglyphics on the right.

Here is one image of the designs inside ... they cover all the walls ... and beautiful handmade pots act as lampshades.

Outside views are of course just as dramatic.

The trip to Cameron is just over 50 miles and along the way are many native Indian roadside stands where they sell their jewelry and pottery.  Of course we stopped at several of them.  At the very first we met a wonderful lady and I assume her daughter.  She told us the story of the Juniper berries they use in their jewelry, that the natives think it protects them ... so they even sew a few in their clothes to ensure they are not without sacred protection.  Just to show you HOW nice they were ... when Patty mentioned she was trying to make bracelets for the kids working with her at the general store (and they had broken), she was offered the wire necessary to make her own bracelets.  We were very impressed and returned on another day to purchase several of their bracelets.   Another 10 stops later for photo opps, we finally arrived at the trading post.  I had every intention of getting a blanket, but they were amazingly high priced ... well over $2000.   Since we had been told to look for the blue dot "sale" tag (ask us the sale price), we kept looking until I found the perfect one, priced at $2700!!!!  EEK!  I was however able to negotiate a price well UNDER $2000, much to Patty's surprise, and I left with my prize.

Again, the sales girl was nice enough to provide me with a picture of the lady who actually made it.  All of the wool is natural colors, made by combining different colored yarns to achieve lights and darks.  I can't wait to get it hung on my fireplace.  What could be better???  Hiking the Kaibab Trail to Ooh Aah Point .... tomorrow.