Mark Chee (1914-1981) was one of the Navajo Nation's most famous silversmiths. His silverware work was precise and clean. He used top-quality turquoise. Toward the end of his career, he always had a line of customers waiting for his work

Some artists can capture a person as well as a photograph does, but because of the artist’s control of the surroundings and light, the painting better controls our focus and captures the imagination.

A few weeks ago, we had a newsletter about the inlay work of Navajo artist Sylvana Apache. She and her husband, Randy Secatero, are also accomplished traditional silversmiths.

An Artist’s inspiration can come from anywhere, it’s a matter of looking at the world and letting your imagination go. One Saturday, while working on some canvases as his two young boys watched television, Leland Holiday glanced at the screen and saw Bugs Bunny with a blanket wrapped around him.

Storyteller jewelry by Navajo silversmiths have been popular for about 50 years. Not a lot of artists make this style, as it requires a special artistic talent and a lot of time. 

Silver figures of people, hogans, horses, clouds, sheep and even an occasional outhouse are individually cut out of sheet silver and then soldered onto a second sheet that is sometimes stamped with other designs.

Our major focus for Gallery Walk is a great showing of Stanton Englehart’s paintings but something else came up that is just too good not share. 

We recently met a gentleman from the Colorado Front Range whose father had passed. It turns out that his father was an avid collection of American Indian belt buckles. He may have been a little more than avid!

North of Flagstaff, Arizona 85 miles and 45 miles south of Page on Highway 89 you will find “The Gap” Trading Post. It is situated deep into the Navajo Reservation and lies on a paved highway linking Northern Arizona and Lake Powell. 

It wasn’t always that accessible. 

We are headed to the beautiful Natural History Museum of Utah this coming weekend for our annual Navajo Weaving Silent Auction and Sale and Trunk Show of Native American Jewelry!

There are a few Navajo weavers who make round rugs. These weavings are not common as there are some challenges to creating one. Over the years, we have worked with several women who made them, but they have all passed on.

In 2000, a couple from Scottsdale, Arizona walked into Garland’s Navajo Rugs in Sedona, Arizona, one of the most respected dealers in Navajo Textiles in the country. As they were coming through the front door, a Navajo weaver was making her way out. 

“I stopped and held the door for her,” the man said. “She had a big smile on her face and said thank you. She seemed to be floating on air.

Navajo Yeibichai weavings have been made since the early part of the 1900’s. They depict dancers in a healing or blessing ceremony that is performed after the first frost in the fall. The Yeibichai dancers represent the Yeis, Navajo deities, and are an essential part of the ceremony, which also includes a Navajo medicine man creating sand paintings. 

Weavings depicting the Yei figures first appeared in the Shiprock area of the Navajo reservation. They were encouraged by traders in the area and became a traditional Navajo weaving pattern. The Yeibichai weavings were a natural evolution of the Yei patterns.