Meet the American Indian artists who create our silver and turquoise jewellery and Zuni carvings.

The natural beauty of turquoise, silver and shell hand crafted into beautiful American Indian jewellery - wearable art - is the perfect compliment to our hand crafted luxury leather handbags and vice versa.

We also feature a hand picked selection of Zuni carvings, which we believe will delight you!The artists who design and create American Indian jewellery and carvings are artisans whose unique skills are learned and handed down through many generations.

We have provided a biography and where possible a photograph of the artists that are featured in our shop.

We are certain that you will enjoy reading about these exceptional people.

Featured American Indian Artists:

Ron Henry | Peter Nelson | Charlene & Frank Reano | Alfred Joe | Lynn Quam | Delvin Leekya
Hayes Leekya | Pernell Laate | Carl Etsate | Karen Zunie | Duran Gasper

Ron Henry

Ron Henry grew up in Coyote Canyon, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation. He attended school through the 8th grade at Tohatchi School. His mother, Louise, was a talented Navajo weaver and silversmith. His older brother, Ernie, taught Ron to design and make traditional style American Indian jewellery. In 1975, the Henry family moved to Rochester, Minnesota to both make and market their jewellery.
They opened a store, Chi-Nah-Bah, where Ron developed his skill as a silversmith. He designed much of the American Indian jewellery sold from the family business.

After Ron graduated from high school in Rochester, he took a job with IBM. Shortly thereafter, he had the opportunity to relocate to Tucson, when IBM opened a new plant.
After a couple of years Ron decided to step out on his own and become a full-time American Indian artist. His style has evolved over the years and now is very contemporary. He uses inlaid stones and 14K gold in his heavy silver creations.

Ron is the father of three children and continues to live and work in Tucson with his wife Nicci.

Back to Top

Peter Nelson

Navajo artist Peter Nelson was born to Tsinnijinnie (Blackgoat) clan and for Copah (Water) clan in 1954 at Keams Canyon Hospital. He was named Peter for the doctor that delivered him. His mother, Jeanette Nez, was taken to the hospital by an uncle (Joseph Nelson) because Peter's father worked for the railroad and was not home. Mr. Nelson signed the birth certificate, so Peter's name became Nelson instead of Nez.

Peter grew up at White Cone, Arizona, attending school at Greasewood and Dilcon. He graduated from High School at IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was at IAIA that he learned silversmithing, painting, and sculpture. Though he is known today as a silversmith, he still produces one painting each year.

In the early 1980's Peter met Shirley George, who later became his wife. They are the parents of 3 daughters and have 2 grandsons.

Peter has shown his American Indian jewellery at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, and the Museum of Northern Arizona. The MNA has awarded Peter's work as Best in show several times. He also has numerous awards from the American Indian Market.

Today, Peter Nelson's unique style combining traditional and contemporary Navajo styles is enjoyed by many collectors around the world. His intricate overlay designs, some that incorporate 14K gold, are beautiful and popular expressions of his art.

Back to Top

Charlene & Frank Reano

Charlene Sanchez-Reano is a full blooded American Indian. She was born in 1960 into the Santo Felipe Pueblo. She attended New Mexico Highlands University, where she majored in art.

She was inspired to continue the long lived tradition of hand making jewellery from her clan members using ancient American Indian methods of constructing the fine jewellery.

Charlene married into the Santo Domingo Pueblo and that’s where she honed her skills in traditional American Indian jewellery making in the Santo Domingo style. Santo Domingo jewellers have an incredible history of creating essentially the same type of jewellery perhaps for thousands of years.

She collaborates with her husband, Frank Reano and they specialise in authentic handmade American Indian jewellery but the methods used to construct their beautiful pieces are the same ones which were passed down by the Reano family. While their beautiful pieces look very contemporary, the designs are combined with very ancient symbols. Charlene & Frank’s creativity and hard work have warranted the title of prize winning American Indian artists.

Awards: 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Place; 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market 1st, 2nd & 3rd Place; 2005 Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Division; 2005 Santa Fe Indian Market 1st Place.

Back to Top

Alfred Joe

Alfred Joe, Navajo. Best known for his dramatic designs, fabulous stones and intricate techniques, Alfred Joe was born the eldest son of Rose Ann and Robert Joe in Winslow, Arizona.

He learned the basics of American Indian jewellery making from his Uncle Colbert Joe, Sr. He has worked with many prominent silversmiths, several of whom worked for him at the shop he operated in Winslow during the 1970s. "Little Squash" (the family's nickname for his oldest son) closed in 1979 when silver prices skyrocketed, giving him the freedom to concentrate on just his own work.

Al considers his work both traditional and contemporary American Indian, with an emphasis on the contemporary. He has mastered a variety of techniques, such as hollow forming, overlay and raising metal. He enjoys working with natural turquoise stones from the famous older mines, Lander, Bisbee, Morenci and Indian Mountain, but also uses lapis, coral and other stones. Al's double-sided pendants are prized because of the magnificent stones he uses, each side with a different stone and different design. His striking silver and gold beads stand out from others with the innovative rail design he creates by placing strips of metal between the two halves of the beads.

His signature American Indian rug design bracelets get their dramatic design from an overlay of silver dust he uses to provide texture and contrast. His work has won numerous awards, Santa Fe Indian Market, Gallup Intertribal Indian Ceremonial, Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show and the Navajo Market Place at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Alfred Joe was named the Indian Arts and Crafts Association Artist of the Year for 2001, a well-deserved honour for this innovative artist.

Back to Top

Lynn Quam

Lynn Quam is one of the most collected of American Indian Zuni carvers. It is said that "Lynn Quam's fetishes are an artful merger of Zuni traditional carving and modern sculpture. Lynn's fetishes seem Henry Moore like with their graceful, abstract, smooth lines".

However, Lynn goes beyond Mr. Moore as his fetishes share with us the traditions and spirit of the Zuni Pueblo. Stone and shell come alive in Lynn Quam's hands.

Lynn is married to another extraordinary American Indian Zuni pueblo carver, Jayne Quam, who happens to be Navajo but lives with Lynn and their children on the pueblo. Lynn Quam is particularly well-known for his buffalo fetish carvings.

Back to Top

Delvin Leekya

Delvin Leekya is the grandson of famous American Indian Zuni fetish carver Leekya Deyuse. When his children entered school, Leekya requested that they take his first name as their surname. All of his children (Alice, Sarah, Elizabeth, Robert, Francis, and Roger) did so.

Leekya Deyuse had six children with wife Juanita Cooeyate, many of whom have become well-known American Indian jewellers and/or carvers. Sons Francis, Robert and Rodger and daughters Sarah and Alice achieved recognition, as have many of their own children, including Delvin.

Back to Top

Hayes Leekya

Hayes is the grandson of Leekya Deyuse, one of Zuni's most famous and respected patriarchal carvers from the late 1800s until his passing in 1966. It is said of Hayes that his work "shares the distinctive, joyful, chubby look of other Leekya family carvers".

Hayes is noted for his Zuni stone carvings and the obvious sense of fun that he instils in every piece. Heavily influenced by his father Francis Leekya Sr. and his brothers Delvin and Freddie he was persuaded to start carving around 1997. Today he is amongst the ranks of highly respected American Indian Zuni carvers.

Back to Top

Pernell Laate

Pernell Laate is highly regarded for his intricate Indian American Zuni fetish carvings in bone and antler. His animals perch on a rocky terrain and twist toward a sound in the forest, or lunge toward their prey.

Pernell is able to capture the essence of the animal and its existence in nature. Occasionally he carves kachinas out of wood. A kachina is a spirit doll that communicates with Great Spirit and so can give guidance, as do the animals depicted in his fetish carvings.

Back to Top

Carl Etsate

Carl Etsate is a very talented American Indian Zuni carver and artist - and also a terrific character by all accounts, as you can see from his photo! Carl uses a variety of stones in his carvings, but prefers serpentine and picasso marble.

His carvings vary from simple "pocket" fetishes to elaborately carved and inlaid fetishes as well. His work is sought after and loved by many collectors as it is both traditional and very affordable.

Back to Top

Karen Zunie

Karen Zunie is a very famous and respected Indian American Zuni carver, but somewhat elusive in terms of biographical detail. Karen is related to the equally famous Cheama family by marriage and her style is very much like that of her husband Lance Cheama.

Karen's attention to detail is, in some people's opinion, better than that of her famous husband and she always creates stunning work. She has the ability to create work that captures the life essence of the subject animal. American Indian art at its stunning best!

Back to Top

Duran Gasper

Duran Gasper, Zuni, was born in 1970 and is the son of Rose Gasper and brother to Arnie Gasper. Duran learned Clusterwork from his mother Rose and Inlaying from his brother Arnie. Like his brother Arnie, Duran worked for American Indian jewellery designer Ray Traci as an inlayer prior to setting up on his own.

The American Indians of the Zuni Pueblo are renowned around the world for their mastery of Lapidary and Inlay. Zuni Inlay jewellery is amongst the most coveted hand crafted Jewellery in the world today.

Back to Top