Beach 800 Finds And Help Needed

[mn90403]

I detect at the beach often because that is where I live. (Lately I've also been doing some surf fishing.  The yellowfin croakers taste pretty good.)  When detecting at a beach you don't know if you are going to find coins, relics or jewelry.  That leaves me to post my finds here.

The first picture is of my finds for early (2:30 - 5:30) this morning.  We have a negative tide on a practically flat ocean.  There is very little energy so I decided to go out to the edge of the water which now has about 9 feet of change.  That exposes 75-100 yards of sand that is often times under water.  This is where people swim.  When there are waves most things will wash up but for now I went to search the flats.  I was not the first one there.  When I arrived two others were coming from the direction I wanted to go.  One searches high and the other low.  I don't know them so we just headed our own ways.  My first find was the earlobe ring/insert that looks like mother of pearl.  It is stainless.  As you can see there is not much out in this area right now and I worked it for over 3 hours. 

About 2 hours into it I got a light signal.  I have my shovel type of scoop now because of a bad back.  When I went to dig the target I could feel resistance so I pulled back quickly and I could see something in my light.  It was the clasp to a chain so I reached down to grab it.  The clasp is the only metal part.  I kept going and going and going until I had this long necklace in my hand.  It was very stiff at first as sand was lodged in all the puka holes.  I noticed there was a figure on it but in my headlight I couldn't get too excited about it.  I've since looked and looked at it and I'm impressed with the design and workmanship.

We can't figure out who (in a general sense) may have made it because it has coral birds, turquoise, puka and the carved bear as part of its features.  Has anyone seen anything similar?

 

 

 

The other pictures are from my hunt a couple of nights ago where there was then normal assortment of finds including 2.2 grams of gold chain.  It's always good to get gold!

 

I hope I can determine where the 'northwest looking' puka necklace came from.

Mitchel

 

 

 

[fredmason]

Looks like hobby type necklace....too me.

nice stuff.

fred

[2Valen]

5 hours ago, mn90403 said:

I've since looked and looked at it and I'm impressed with the design and workmanship.

Is the bear made of plastic, bone, or ivory?

Plastic is usually from cruise ships, bone is the Alaska native way, and ivory is usually Asian. Some of the Asian bears are for fertility, so keep it away from the wife.

[mn90403]

I believed that the bear was made out of a soft stone but as it dries I see that it is made from two pieces.  The material may be soapstone as it has been carved and has little dark flecks in it but I can't see a grain.  The stringing material is a wire and not a monofilament string.  It has been soldered at the clasps.  Each of the birds is unique.  The pukas have a ridge on one side and smooth on the other but they have been shaped to be similar in diameter but their thickness varies.  I have found one stringing 'mistake' where one side has 7 and the other side has 6 it is corrected later with a 5 and a 6 to make both sides equal.

[2Valen]

29 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

I believed that the bear was made out of a soft stone but as it dries I see that it is made from two pieces. 

I will check some of my wife's resources to find who used soap stone the most, then hopefully that will lead to who made it.

Valen

[2Valen]

Here is a necklace that I found on Amazon and it looks like the same bear. There is a color difference, but with that said I believe that it is something made in China. It can come in several different styles and they all come from the same manufacture.

The cost on these are about $50.00 ( US ).

Still a great find.

 

[mn90403]

This reminds me of the puka more than the bear but you did bring up a point about China.

Quartzsite, Arizona has several big dealers in stones and gems and pieces that are finished for sale.  It seems that at least on of these big dealers is Chinese owned now and they take many raw pieces and send the material to China.  It is crafted there and returned in a finished state where it be by the piece or an entire piece of jewelry.

That is how you make money in that business any more and even some 'Native American' stands around the west purchase and sell these to tourists.

[2Valen]

mn90403,

 

I did see one that looked just like yours and then went I went back to find it I could not find it again.

Anyways I am glad that I was able to help a little.

[mn90403]

I spent the day today going to 3 jewelry stores.  I won't say where so I can tell the complete story.

These stores were looked up on the internet and were selected because they deal in native Americana.  When I entered the first store I was greeted by a salesperson who knew nothing about the necklace but told me to talk to someone else.  He told me that it was just strung on fishing wire, the beads were fake and the bear was not stone and maybe shell.  He said the turquoise was not real.  I said thank you and moved on down the street to the next store.

When I passed by I almost didn't want to go in but it was mostly empty so I went to the desk.  The nice gentleman at the desk looked closely at the necklace and said this is very nice.  It shows good craftsmanship.  He told me that it was not puka but heishi beads.  He said the bear was probably an antler and was probably not from the northwest but from the southwest.  He did a quick internet search and made me feel really good about it.  Another woman in the store liked it very much also but she lost interest when I said I found it.  haha  They started getting busy and I thanked them and left.

The 3rd store told me they knew nothing about it.

All of this experience reminds me of trying to deal a bit with a jewelry store.  Let me be very kind and say most of them are low ballers and unreliable if you don't know their game.  How do you find a good jewelry store? 

[2Valen]

57 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

How do you find a good jewelry store? 

Instead of asking where the item is from, ask for an appraisal and put it on them to tell you where it is from. Above all do not tell them that you found it.

I did a little more searching and think that it might be Indian, Aztec, or even Mayan.

They all used similar stones and arrangements on this item.

Let me know if you find out, I think it is a interesting item that you found.