Navajo and Pueblo Jewelry Design

Featuring more than 400 colour images, this visual history of Southwestern Native jewelry design after 1945 details how Native jewelers made their products into an American success story. There are few success stories more vivid than the rapid rise of Indigenous-made jewellery design in the American Southwest. The source of this continuing success lies in the brilliant patterns and motifs of Navajo/Dine and Pueblo metalsmiths and lapidaries. Their post-1945 work took them from skilled craftspeople to acknowledged fine artists. This comprehensive design history of Southwestern Indian jewellery after 1945 discusses fashion elements growing in the 1950s through 1970s, providing timelines of historic events. After 1980, the fine art aspect of this jewelry is highlighted, showing that Native artists developed jewellery designs based on the past but realised in contemporary forms. Designs, both ancestral and inventive, derive from tradition, materials and construction, and personal vision. Key Features: Informative text explains what kinds of designs have been used historically, what notable artists created them, and what collectors and enthusiasts need to know about this jewellery design. More than 400 photographs of jewellery showcase eight decades of design progression. Timelines of historic events from 1946 to 1979 provide additional perspective. All quotes in the book are by Native jewellers. Navajo and Pueblo Jewelry Design: 1946 2026 offers educational, descriptive, and visual detail to continue the story that began in Navajo and Pueblo Jewelry Design: 1870 1945.