Navajo
Southwest
2010
Sterling silver and turquoise
Size 9
21.05 grams
Signed Michael Roanhorse
Provenance: Private collection, Las Cruces, New Mexico
The band is wide and heavy, flaring slightly toward the top edge, and the whole outer surface is cut into deep triangular facets that alternate point up and point down around the circumference, each filed clean so the ring reads as faceted metal rather than as a decorated surface. A single oval turquoise sits low on the band in a plain bezel, blue with fine black veining, small enough that the silver remains the subject. The inside of the shank is stamped with its own band of decoration, work that only the wearer sees.
Michael Roanhorse is a Navajo silversmith from Crystal, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation in the Chuska Mountains, born into the Tábaahí and Kinyaa'aanii clans. He learned the basics of silver and metalsmithing from his father and researched further techniques on his own, and works full time as an artist in Santa Fe across jewelry, sculpture, and painting. He draws on the oral history handed down within his family for the ideas behind individual pieces. He describes his method in three stages, envisioning a piece first as an abstract painting, then as a three dimensional sculpture, and finally combining the two into wearable form. His work has been recognized at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the Eiteljorg Museum.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Navajo
Southwest
2010
Sterling silver and turquoise
Size 9
21.05 grams
Signed Michael Roanhorse
Provenance: Private collection, Las Cruces, New Mexico
The band is wide and heavy, flaring slightly toward the top edge, and the whole outer surface is cut into deep triangular facets that alternate point up and point down around the circumference, each filed clean so the ring reads as faceted metal rather than as a decorated surface. A single oval turquoise sits low on the band in a plain bezel, blue with fine black veining, small enough that the silver remains the subject. The inside of the shank is stamped with its own band of decoration, work that only the wearer sees.
Michael Roanhorse is a Navajo silversmith from Crystal, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation in the Chuska Mountains, born into the Tábaahí and Kinyaa'aanii clans. He learned the basics of silver and metalsmithing from his father and researched further techniques on his own, and works full time as an artist in Santa Fe across jewelry, sculpture, and painting. He draws on the oral history handed down within his family for the ideas behind individual pieces. He describes his method in three stages, envisioning a piece first as an abstract painting, then as a three dimensional sculpture, and finally combining the two into wearable form. His work has been recognized at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the Eiteljorg Museum.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
