trading bird gallery

We spent several hours across two days visiting the shops and galleries in Madrid. It is "off-season" so the foot traffic was light. In general we found the shop folk pleasant but not overly enthusiastic enough to really make an impression. We were pleasantly surprised at the Trading Bird Gallery. It is one of three or four shops that specialize in Cerillos turquoise with an ownership in a local mine. The clerk introduced us to the mining practices and shared with us stories of the Native American artists from a local Pueblo who do some of the work. We bought a few Zuni fetishes and really felt we had the feel for the local crafts. Their rices were competitive as well.If seeking turquoise, I would highly suggest trading at the shops with the Cerillos connections and certainly visit Trading Bird, the back story is fascinating.

This store has some really interesting things on their porch, rocks, horse shoes, rail ties, etc but no prices! Everything says "inquire inside". That's annoying. Inside they have even better stuff, pottery, books, a reading nook, rocks, jewelry and an uppity, aloof sales clerk who didn't say "boo" to me or my mother. I'm afraid you lost 2 customers ma'am. I'll be back if ever in Madrid again and hopefully someone else will be working.