Our parents, “The Ugly Otter and his Beautiful Wife” started this busines. They lived in the Casas Adobes area of Tucson, Arizona, and many parts of the Southwest. They studied and collected Indian Art, Sterling Silver Jewelry, and Jewelry Making for a good portion of their life. They were “retired” from their previous employment, were doing this Web Site to keep them busy, so they would have a purposeful routine in life, and enjoy the great customers we have. The Original Ugly Otter passed away a few years back. “Beautiful wife” is a consultant for us since we took over the site.
They specialized in, and traded in, sterling silver jewelry for many years. They, and we do not claim to be experts in this or any other field, but this is where all our interests have been for a long time.
All The Otters travel extensively collecting the things shown on these web pages. We frequent the Navajo, Zuni, and Santo Domingo Reservations about once each month, depending on need. We also visit other Reservations frequently, and know some of the artists who make these items, and many of the things shown on these pages are purchased directly from those makers.
We haunt Pawn Shops in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and anywhere else we happen to be. We continue to hunt quality Old Pawn items for our web site. This requires a lot of travel, palaver, and a great deal of plain ‘ol “horse trading”. It’s fun, but time consuming. And considering today’s gasoline prices, expensive! We are leaving this picture up because for one thing, it’s the right thing to do, and because it’s one of my favorites. This is how they were most of the time, always making each other laugh!
In July, 2007, they decided to diversify their work load, so they turned the order-taking, shipping, and web page up-dating over to us daughter (Cathy) and son-in-law (Dan) who live in Elko, NV. In August 2016 the website was turned over to (Cathy) and (Dan) they thought we were younger, more energetic, and eager to help the web site grow and prosper. We continue to buy the jewelry, and scout for more old pawn items which you see on this web site. This keeps all of us busy, and, hopefully, improves the Ugly Otter Web Site with a wider choice of items.
We are the Ugly Otters, a family that holds true to their values.