Jasper Bear Pendant with Chain BBN305

The Grizzli Collection

Garris was an attorney in New York City, and was once an assistant district attorney for Queens County. It was during her legal career that she was nicknamed "Grizzli" by her colleagues for her relentless aggression in the courtroom going after white collar criminals; her late husband, David, called her "Grizzli" ever since they met, and her license plate also read"Grizzli". When Garris attended law school, she met her best friend Gila, who moved to Tucson, and it was on trips to Arizona visiting Gila that Garris fell in love with Native American jewelry, especially pieces with birds or turtles (given her nickname). David was half Cherokee, and even though Garris was very much a Jewish New Yorker without any personal connection to tribal culture or artwork, her love for David amplified her interest in Native American symbolism. Over the years, she amassed an extensive collection of southwest jewelry. We are pleased to find new homes for Grizzli's collection. Many pieces, although beautiful, are not Native American made, and that's why we are selling them here in the Bargain Barn.

About Jasper

Jasper comes from the Greek word, iaspis, which means "spotted stone." A form of opaque microcrystalline quartz, jasper derives its colorful patterns from iron and other minerals. Jasper can be found in a wide variety of patterns and colors, including shades of red, brown, orange, yellow and gray. Unicolor jasper is actually quite rare. Almost all jasper stones are multicolor, featuring stripes, spots or flame-like patterns and it is often named according to its pattern. Jasper has a dull luster but takes a fine polish. It is mined in North Africa, Sicily, France, India, Venezuela, Germany, the U.S.A. and elsewhere. It is thought by some that jasper has the power to give a person courage, drive away evil spirits and protect against bites of snakes spiders.

Native American Bear Symbolism

Bear is considered the most powerful of all of the animals and is one of the most popular subjects of Native American carvers. Bear is a spiritual guide and represents strength and self-knowledge. Bear has supernatural powers and great healing powers. Bear is a symbol deliberate action, introspection, soul and insight for the past and the future. The Bear is the guardian of the West an is one of the animals of the Six Directions. Bears are the main figure in the Mountain Way, an important Navajo ceremony. Bear claws are a traditional adornment to pendants and bracelets.

Our Rescue Mission
of Native American Indian Jewelry and Artifacts

We are in the vintage Native American jewelry rescue business and are passionate about finding new homes for used and vintage jewelry and artifacts. That's why we purchase Native American pieces from estates, inheritances, collection downsizing and New Old Stock (NOS) inventory from closed stores.

Often people contact us after taking a box of Native American jewelry to their local pawn shop and find that a pawn shop is mainly interested in melt value of the metals and not in preserving the beautiful historic pieces. To hear that people have considered selling these treasures for melt value makes us truly sad.

Melt value is usually far below what we would offer for the jewelry. Yet we can't pay retail price for items because of the time and cost involved in finding new homes for them. We have to research, often repair and restore the jewelry, photograph and list each item on our website, and sometimes hold pieces in inventory for years until the right buyer comes along.

Items that are Mexican go in our Mexican Shop. Other items not Native American made or that we cannot verify as such go into our Bargain Barn where you can find some real treasures at low prices.

We hope you'll find something special in our vintage shop that will complete yet another circle of our jewelry re-homing mission.

Jasper Bear Pendant
with chain

HK Item #BBN305

The Grizzli Collection

About Jasper

Native American Bear Symbolism

Our Rescue Mission
of Native American Indian Jewelry and Artifacts

Jasper Bear Pendantwith chain

HK Item #BBN305

The Grizzli Collection

About Jasper

Native American Bear Symbolism

Our Rescue Missionof Native American Indian Jewelry and Artifacts

Jasper Bear Pendant
with chain

Our Rescue Mission
of Native American Indian Jewelry and Artifacts