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Hopi Cloud Earrings
by Bennard Dallasvuyaoma
Frances and Bennard Dallasvuyaoma are a husband and wife team who left successful careers to become full-time jewelers. Their innovative jewelry is a dramatic blend of both ancient and contemporary traditions, techniques and materials. Frances is Hopi and Bennard is Pima and Hopi. "We design each piece of jewelry to signify balance and harmony," says Bennard. "When we talk about balance and harmony, we mean that there is an order to everything and nothing is in disarray."
Cut and polished by hand, natural gems and stones are set in a modern version of the ancient mosaic style. The results are dazzling; each piece of jewelry in a rainbow of colors combining symbolism from their cultures. The stones are encased in sterling silver or gold cast in sandstone from Hotevilla on the Third Mesa. It was important to Bennard and Frances to find rock from their homelands to cast their jewelry. With characteristics different from tufa stone, learning to work with sandstone is "one of our secrets," says Bennard. The sandstone creates beautiful settings of textured metal which contrasts with the smooth surfaces of the gems. More recent works integrate Pima designs and patterns around the settings.
The Hopi Reservation is "the Center of the Universe," says Bennard. "It's the land that holds the corn. By using the sandstone, the land is holding together the corn in my jewelry, just as it does in life."
View More Work by Bennard...
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Jewelry of the Southwest
Jewelry in the Americas has an ancient history. Beginning as far back as 8800 BCE, Paleo-Indians in the American Southwest drilled and shaped multicolored stones and shells into beads and pendants. Shell beads, dating from 6000 BCE, were found in Nevada and turquoise, one of the dominant materials of Southwestern Native American jewelry was a valuable gemstone and found in ancestral pueblo sites like Chaco Canyon.
Necklaces of heishi beads, or shell ground into flat discs, have been discovered in ancient ruins. Remnants of seashells that were used to make beads were also found. Oyster shell, mother of pearl, abalone, conch and clam have been important trade items in the Southwest for over a thousand years.
From Navajo silversmiths to colorful Zuni inlay jewelry and everything in between, this is a sample of the myriad choices of Native American jewelry from the stunning Southwest corner of America!
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Navajo Sterling Silver Bracelet
The Navajo are the largest tribe of North American Indians. It is said the art of Navajo jewelry silversmith was introduced to the Navajo while in captivity at Fort Sumner in Eastern New Mexico in 1864. During that time it's possible that Atsidi Saani learned the craft of silversmith. By the 1880 Navajo silversmiths were creating handmade Navajo jewelry including bracelets, tobacco flasks, necklaces, bow guards and that eventually evolved into earrings, buckles, bolos, hair ornaments and pins. Also, in the 1880's turquoise jewelry started to appear inlayed in the Navajo's sterling silver jewelry.
The amazing transformation of Navajo jewelry designs can be seen as the tools and process of the Navajo artisans have changed over the years. The 100 plus years of change in economic and cultural influences have influenced Navajo jewelry, although much of the jewelry continues to be handcrafted as it has for hundreds of years.
View More Navajo Bracelets...
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Zuni Thunderbird Pin/Pendant
The Zuni have long been masters of the lapidary arts. Long ago the Zuni Native Americans were creating bead jewelry and fancy shell pendants with mosaic stone inlay on them. This New Mexico pueblo Indian tribe is very traditional and religious, which is reflected in their art. The Zuni people have been skilled lapidary artisans since ancient times. These stone lapidary skills, which had developed over the years, were easily applied to the creation of ornamental jewelry.
With the incorporation of an expertise in silversmithing, the Zuni have taken the art of stone decorative jewelry to another level. Talented Zuni jewelry makers are most well known for their complexity inlay channel designs, fine turquoise petitpoint and hand carved fetish jewelry. They have developed a unique look which can be easily spotted by collectors and jewelry connoisseurs alike.
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Santo Domingo Necklace
 Santo Domingo Pueblo jewelers love to use the handmade flat circular beads known as heishi. Some heishi necklaces contain over 10,000 beads so finely cut they look like strands of hair. Much of the jewelry made today is very similar to Anasazi jewelry found in digs at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Some of the jewelry found in these digs is more than a thousand years old. The word "Heishi", is from the Keresan word meaning "shell," and traditionally referred to shell beads. Today, however, it describes tiny, flat handmade beads of any material. In ancient necklaces made by Anasazi, a necklace might contain thousands of beads. In the old days, each bead began its life as a rough shell fragment, which was drilled with a cactus needle and sanded with hundreds of other fragments on a foot-powered stone wheel. Modern innovations include power tools and large beads featuring inlaid patterns of other stones. View More Santo Domingo Necklaces...
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