Our Story at Windmill Trading Company
I started out in 1977 in the small town of Peña Blanca, just three miles north of Santo Domingo Pueblo. In the beginning, I sold the artists the supplies they needed to make their jewelry: saw blades, drill bits, grinding wheels, silver beads, hooks and eyes, and raw materials such as shell, jet and serpentine.
Over time, I began trading those supplies for finished jewelry. I had plenty of beautiful pieces and very few tourists passing my shop, so I started finding other ways to share the work.
The shop that traveled.
In 1997, I decided to semi-retire. Instead of keeping the same retail shop, I outfitted a trailer with jewelry-making supplies and took it from Albuquerque to Santo Domingo Pueblo. The photograph above is from those trading days.
I started this website in 2004. It has changed and grown since then, but the idea remains personal: sharing the jewelry, the materials and the artists I’ve come to know.
A little about heishe.
Heishe beadwork takes patience. The material is cut into small pieces, drilled, strung on wire and ground into beads. Those beads are then sanded smooth and polished before being made into jewelry.
Much of the starting material is lost along the way through grinding and chipping. Fine, thin beads require especially careful work. When you hold a strand, you’re holding the result of many small, deliberate steps.
Shell, stone and color.
Windmill’s collection has included spiny oyster, melo shell, mother-of-pearl, jet, serpentine, pipestone and turquoise. Each brings its own color and texture to a finished piece.
Many of the turquoise pieces described on the original site use stabilized turquoise. Stabilizing helps make the stone suitable for cutting and grinding. The description of each current piece is the place to check its particular materials.
I hope these stories help you enjoy and understand the jewelry. Please feel free to ask if you’d like to know more.
Need help choosing?
If you have a question about an artist, a material or a necklace you’ve seen, we’d love to hear from you.