Jewelry Artists

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Nancy Brown’s reverance for materials is recognized by her audience as a mark of the exceptional artist, and one “who paints in a palette of gemstones upon a canvas of silver or gold.”

Nancy Brown began the career of artist-goldsmith after several years of focused studies to teach professionally. Nancy taught in California before settling in Santa Fe in April of 1973. Having received increased recognition for her work over several years, by the Fall of 1980, following her first exhibition, Nancy’s reputation for creating exceptional work paved the way for her to become an established and valued artist.

Lorraine Yapps Cohen was born in New Jersey. She comes to the art world following a 30-year career in research & development and business, working for companies like G.D. Searle, Merck and Exxon. Lorraine has two Masters degrees—an MS in Chemistry and MBA in Marketing and most recently she was an Assistant Professor of Innovation and Rider University.

Lorraine’s real love is in design and the aesthetic arts. She has combined her technical background, her work in metallurgy research, and the management of innovation to cultivate her creative skills in jewelry design. Internships with goldsmith Valeria Johnson from Lambertville, NJ and wrap designer, Reggie Paysinger from Houston, TX enabled Lorraine to develop fabrication techniques that complement her own experimentation with metals, stones, and pearls to yield truly unique jewelry creations.

Lorraine lives and designs from her studio in Durango, Colorado

“Colorado has brought a new vision to my designs because here we experience so much more of earth’s geological splendors. New ideas flow freely. Design constraints are removed. Indigenous materials become wearable art.”

“I need to be excited by the finished piece. I need to experience the WOW, the thumping heart, and the jolt of excitement at the emergence of a stunning new design. You know it’s good by looking. Only pieces with WOW factor leave the bench.”

Israel is a country of contrast and convergence: an intersection of cultures and the crossroads for trade since the dawn of time. Ancient traditions thrive within modern life. Today camels are juxtaposed with jets and ancient texts are explored as fervently as the frontiers of modern science. The wisdom of the ages provide a solid foundation for innovation. This is fertile ground for creative minds.

Drawing inspiration from these influences, contemporary Israeli designers combine old world craftsmanship with leading edge technology.

Nelly Cohen, a graduate of Haifa University with a Masters in Art and Modern French Poetry taught art at Yanccodada Museum in Ein-Hod, Israel. Nelly, with her husband Simon, started the Cherie Dori Collection.

The fruit of these artists' efforts are meticulously crafted in 14k and 18k gold. Their sophisticated, clean, modern designs reflect the ancient knowledge of geometry, proportion, and aesthetics. Timeless beauty is revealed in a fresh new way.

For forty thousand years, beads and jewelry have been important to mankind and are represented in all cultures from all times and places. They have been worn to enhance beauty, as talismans, to communicate social circumstances, tribal affiliations, status, and religious beliefs and used as a medium of exchange in barter. Made of durable materials, they are well represented in archeological record.

Scott Diffrient, a forerunner in the world of contemporary bead making, has much influenced the course of his craft. A self-taught jeweler and lapidary and recognized for excellence, his works of art reside in collections of bead enthusiasts throughout the country and are prized as treasured personal adornments as well as highly valued collectibles.

The desire to live in a creative and harmonious way, the profound reverence for the beauty into which man was born, as well as the beauty born of the hand of man, have been his greatest inspirations. Scott has been living and working in the Santa Fe area since 1973, creating jewelry for galleries and private clientele. Santa Fe, like a museum overflowing with art and artifacts from all times and places, has provided constant inspiration.

Scott is a contemporary artist who is willing to invest the time and exactitude necessary to produce such fine works. His artistry, enhanced by his love of ancient cultures, imparts an ancient charismatic power to each piece. These “Modern Artifacts” have a life and a personality that mirror the lifestyle and values idealistic to ancient cultures, where human qualities held high esteem. He uses his medium to communicate ideas of purpose and lifestyle to aspire to, including a conscious effort of self-beautification, representing the political and social values of the wearer.

At a time in history where ecological and social conditions obviously need scrutiny, demanding a new vision and learning from past cultures as to values and lifestyles is intimated in Scott Diffrient’s work.

Gusterman’s of Santa Fe began as Gusterman Silversmiths of Denver and Georgetown, Colorado. The business began in 1950 when Stig and Astrid Gusterman migrated from Stockholm, Sweden to the mountains of Colorado. After the premature and untimely deaths of their parents, Kerstin and Britt took over the family business. After 31 years in Colorado they relocated to Santa Fe. The two sisters decided to bring their traditional Scandinavian simplicity and artistic creations to the turquoise laden southwest.

Over 75% of their merchandise is produced in house. They take pride in the quality of their work, and after 24 years of working side by side in Santa Fe, Britt and Kerstin are more than sisters and business partners, they are close friends. Filling their roles, Britt continues to invent new designs along with silversmith, Susan Barlow, and Kerstin distributes and markets their art with a laugh and a smile.

You will surely find the jewelry of the Gusterman sisters to be unique and exquisite in its craftsmanship, and purity of fluid design.

Teri Greeves is an award-winning Kiowa-Comanche-Italian beadwork artist, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian tribe, but was raised on the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

Her mother, Jeri Ah-be-hill, owned a trading post, where Teri would sit as a little girl and enjoy all of the intricately beaded objects that were on sale. At eight years old she began to bead. The women in her family and the other bead workers on the reservation taught her the traditional stitches and always offered suggestions for improving her skills. She uses a loom for her beaded bracelets. Beadwork in native culture is a custom that celebrates heritage with exceptional beauty.

Teri has expanded this art form to include the native experiences of today with those of the past. Admirably, she stays true to traditional roots while also incorporating her modern perspective. She is most known for her fully-beaded tennis shoes, which feature pictorial elements.

Teri won Best of Show at the 1999 Indian Market and has since won many more awards at the Heard Museum, Indian Market, and Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show. Her work is in the following collections, among others:

* The National Museum of the American Indian,
Washington DC
* The Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
* Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
* Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY

Kai Gallagher was wild and adventurous from the get-go. The sun infused desert, watermelon stained mountains, and soft adobe structures of New Mexico served as the backdrop for her most loved childhood memories and sustained her with their primitive raw beauty and subtle haunting colors. She felt she belonged to this land and it to her.

“My rock story begins with simple cardboard shoeboxes. I collected specimens of pink quartz, chips of blue and green turquoise, ancient shell and fern fossils and big lovely sheets of mica (my favorite). I believed that my collection and my connection with rock were truly special. I still feel this way. Gratefully so.”

Kai graduated with honors three times and has a Master’s in Education, two BA’s, and a true love of literature, poetry and foreign languages. She taught at both the graduate and elementary levels. Her travels have taken her to Europe, South America, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada and China.

“I love the journeying, exploration and the relinquishing into trust that comes with the adventure of travel.”

Kai met Bruce Eckhardt, a talented lapidarist, who reintroduced her to the beauty of natural stones and encouraged her to explore her own creativity. She began her lapidary journey with a beginner’s mind and returned full circle to her passion for rocks.

Her goal is to bring forth the inherent beauty of each stone while maintaining its structural integrity. Kai cares about balance, color and clean design in her work and uses exclusively high-grade natural turquoise and gemstones.”

“My life, as well as my art, is an evolution of my soul. I trust that stone, in some form will always be a part of that evolutionary process. I am grateful for the desert and mountain beauty that continues to inspire me, to my journey, just as it is, to my teachers and to my hallmark KAIZEN, which means ‘on going progress involving everyone’.”

Alfred Lee Jr. of Shiprock, New Mexico, is an outstanding Navajo beadsmith. He is the oldest of two brothers and has a natural talent for bead making. Little did he know that this artistic talent would become a full time career.

Alfred Jr., has been inspired by his father Alfred Lee Sr., who is an award winning Navajo silver and goldsmith. Alfred Jr. has decided to carry on the family tradition and business, that has a nationwide reputation.

His distinctive and stylish creations are eye catching. The traditional and contemporary styles he uses blend with age old designs, the beauty of natural turquoise or coral is often blended with the gleam of gold. Alfred is noted for only using rare and high quality stones with 14k gold.

Don Lucas is a renowned silver jewelry designer. Since 1974 he has hand crafted sterling silver jewelry and continues to produce unique designs that are cherished by all who know his work.
All of Lucas’ work is hand crafted and set with the highest quality stones. He carefully chooses each stone to ensure the best possible look. He uses unique and vibrant color combinations that are stylish with any ensemble. He wants people to feel luxurious when wearing his creations, “I believe that to wear my design is to bring to life exquisite color and style.”
Don Lucas designs have received recognition in prominent areas such as Sante Fe, Los Angeles, and New York.

It was in 1972 that Doug Magnus first took a hammer and homemade tools to fashion silver into simple ornaments, the beginnings of a long journey to the present. His sense of design is rooted in the natural world around us where the artificial boundaries of politics and property do not apply, and in the still point within each of us where all things connect. As a result, his work often seems eclectic, with ties to many cultures. Mostly self-taught, Doug mastered a variety of styles and techniques for metalworking and lapidary gemstone cutting. His early visits to the ancient turquoise mines in the region near Santa Fe were instrumental in his learning the art of stone cutting. His interest in the mines goes well beyond the intense, clear blue beauty of the gemstone and extends to the Cerrillos mines themselves - mines that have produced some of the most spectacular and historically significant turquoise ever found in the United States.

In the early 1970s, Magnus, then an aspiring jewelry designer, was one of the few people who still collected Cerrillos turquoise. “I’ve never forgotten my first visit to the Cerrillos mines. I was captivated by both by the beauty of the panorama from atop Turquoise Hill and by the abundant evidence of early mining - trenches, piles of rubble, deep pits, collapsing portals, and bits of turquoise scattered everywhere. As I began researching the history of the mines, I realized that Cerrillos - both the gemstone and the mines - were very special.” Magnus first arranged to lease the 10-acre Castillian mine site and began digging small amounts of turquoise. Today Doug owns three of the fables mines, “Tiffany,” “Castillian,” and “Alicia Lode.”

So what will Magnus do with his mines? “For the time being, I’ll retain ownership to protect them from subdivision and development. I want to be assured that the mines will always be available for historical, archaeological, and mineralogical study. Countless craftsman have worked Cerillos turquoise for a thousand years, and I guess I’m the last of that long line,” he concludes.

Doug Moore, “Cowboy” to some, “El Tigre” to others, has been designing jewelry for over ten years. Born in Roy, New Mexico, he has had an interesting life. In college, he was a rodeo cowboy and founded the Rodeo Team of Eastern New Mexico Portales College. He rode bare back buckin’ broncos and some bulls. He was in the banking business for 18 years, once married and has one son. He managed a Premier Horse Breeding Farm, Buenas Suerte, in Roswell, New Mexico which produced the most expensive Quarter Horse to date, Easy Jet was syndicated for 30 million dollars. Doug has met with success and with determination. He has come full circle in his life with his jewelry and art.
Doug’s clean lines and elegant inlay of colored stones, semi precious stones and opals met with instant success with the jewelry galleries and collections in the west. He shows mostly in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Santa Fe. All of his jewelry designs are made exclusively in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. He also has many scouts throughout the world searching for the unique stones, semi precious and opals.
Rosarita, a unique material used in his inlay work, it is actually a bi-product of refined gold, and has obsidian/glass features and is a deep blood red color. The horse shoe pendant (cowboy design) is unique because of the detail of the cleet, which is used for traction while the shoe is on the horse. He uses intricate inlay of various stones or pave’ cut diamonds for a more elegant look.
Doug lives in Albuquerque and shares his time in Santa Fe. He is an avid collector of Western Fine Art, and an avid reader of any or all travel and fashion magazines. He enjoys keeping current with “what’s out there”. Doug has always been inspired and attracted to jewelry in all its many forms and beauty. His passions are horses, custom made cowboy boots which he calls “slippers” and he sums it all up by saying “If it’s not fun, I ain’t gonna do it”.

For over fifty years, Northern Cheyenne artist Ben Nighthorse has created beautiful, award winning jewelry designs using the finest gemstones and precious metals.

Ben Nighthorse moved to Tokyo in 1960 to train for the 1964 Olympic games, where he captained the U.S. Olympic Judo Team. In Japan, his interest in metal working grew when he studied under a Samurai sword maker. He began to develop techniques of laminating metals and jewelry designs which were heavily influenced by his time in Asian culture. This can be seen today in his world class work.

After he moved back to the United States, he and his wife, Linda, became champion horse trainers. His love of horses, and animals in general, helped him to create new, innovative designs. American Indians often believe that a person can inherit some of an animal’s virtues by wearing an image of it. That is one reason why noble animals have always played an important role in Nighthorse designs.

Ben Nighthorse also started to focus on using finer materials in his jewelry which were more desired by his European collectors. He uses only the finest natural gemstones, and insists on using 18 karat gold and sterling silver.

As a boy living in the foothills of the Himalayas, Toby Pomeroy was captivated by native artisans creating stunning woodcarvings,, jewelry, and brass vessels by harmonizing bare hands, simple tools, and imagination. Inspired by these craftspeople and touched by the natural beauty of the environment, Toby became fascinated with nature-influenced design. While technologies have come and gone in thirty plus years that Pomeroy has designed jewelry, he continues to pursue the purity of the ancient craft. Like their process, Pomeroy’s designs are timeless, refined and beautiful. His signature style starts with a single piece of solid gold/silver wire or sheet, and the piece is then shaped, formed, cold-forged, set with diamonds and given a final polish. When forged, the molecular structure of the 14K or 18K gold alloy is altered, bonding the elements of the alloy more closely to one another. This process enables the creation of graceful, lightweight, and extraordinarily durable jewelry.

Toby is a designer who is passionate about creating his beautiful, wearable art as he is about preserving the environment in the process. “The jewelry industry is one of the most environmentally destructive practices on earth,” Pomeroy explains. “As I became aware of this, I was disturbed by the conflict in my work and my philosophy.” In 2005 Pomeroy approached one of the nation’s largest gold suppliers and they collaboratively initiated a program to utilize refined gold and silver that is acquired entirely from recycled metal: “EcoGold.”

Today Pomeroy’s studios in Oregon consist of a handful of young artists who, fascinated with texture and form, live to work with their hands. Their commitment to live, learn and create in harmony has the artisans forging reclaimed gold into graceful forms inspired by the simplicity of nature.

“I have two purposes in life: people recognizing their own magnificence and leaving our planet more beautiful, diverse and sustainable than it was when we found it. 
I strive to create jewelry that enhances a woman's true and natural beauty, reflecting the harmony of our earth in balance.”

Gloria is a self-trained fine jeweler who has become skilled in the talents of lapidary, metalsmith and engineering. Combining these skills with her creative craftsmanship, Gloria has become well known for her inlay work work in rings, earrings and pendants.
Her visionary skills have produced a line of reversible jewelry pieces that capitalize on her design, inlay and engineering skills to form a unique and versatile collection that dresses up or down with a simple movement of the hinged elements.

Carol Salomon has collected beads from around the world and imaginatively creates distinctive beaded jewelry. She has participated in the Main Street Arts Festival, Art Ole at the Durango Arts Center and has sold her jewelry at boutiques in St. Louis and Atlanta. Carol will collaborate with a client to create customized pieces with style and grace.

A former owner of an Interior Landscape Company in St. Louis, Carol designed interior spaces with greenery for corporate office buildings. The name Creative Greenery has now been transformed to Creative Beadery.

Jewelry designer Elizabeth Showers believes that beauty is not something you see in the mirror. It is something that is inside each of us.

Elizabeth recovered from anorexia when she was in her early 20s. Although she fortunately lives in freedom now from her eating disorder, like most women she still has moments of self-doubt. She needed her own daily reminder of her inner and outer beauty. Although she started her business in 1996 simply to make pretty jewelry for women, it has developed into a much bigger purpose for her over the past few years. Elizabeth started the Hope Star Collection in 2005 to raise money and awareness for The Elisa Project (a Dallas-based non-profit organization specializing in eating disorder awareness), and then later also for the National Eating Disorders Association. Simply stated, Elizabeth created the Hope Star as a reminder to all women to feel beautiful inside and out on a daily basis.

Elizabeth's company mission is to "empower all women to feel beautiful," because while not all women have an eating disorder, it is important to remind all women to feel good about themselves daily. Elizabeth hopes that women will remember that message each time they wear one of her jewels. As an additional reminder to always feel beautiful, Elizabeth has started placing the Hope Star that she initially only used in her Hope Star Collection on many of her 18Kt gold Couture Collection pieces as well.

Pam Springall is a self-taught artist who stumbled upon her life’s passion for beading by chance. Early in her artistic career, she was buying trade beads from Gambian merchants, which she sold and used for various styles of masks and medicine bags. It wasn’t until she accompanied a friend to the Denver bead show, that she was introduced to the amazing variety of beads and stones that could be available to the creative eye. Then she and her son accompanied a local Danish bead merchant and friend to experience the world of Eastern bead culture first-hand. Through their travels in Bali, Thailand, Katmandu, and India, she feels her eyes were truly opened. As a result, she became impassioned by understanding the quality and history of the beads she encountered, and she became one of the first American women to sell Thai silver.

Besides her involvement in bead-working, Pam also hand crafts her own unique silver beads and cones, as well as her signature clasps. She creates these miniature sculptures through the lost-wax casting technique. She pairs these unique creations with a myriad of colorful and vibrant beads and stones, always staying true to her devotion for the highest possible quality materials. In her designs, she strives to showcase the materials rather than clutter the simple beauty of the stones with complicated combinations. Pam says that she wants to create beautiful pieces that are unique and striking, but entirely wearable.

Pam Springall resides in Glorietta, New Mexico, “with the bears” in the mountains around Santa Fe.

Ray Tracey is internationally renowned and respected as one of the most recognized contemporary Native American jewelers.

Ray Tracey was born in Ganado, Arizona. A full-blooded Navajo, he made his first piece of jewelry when he was ten years old. By the age of 21 he was a professional jewelry artist.

Tracey is self-taught in the American Indian tradition. The skills are passed down from generation to generation. He has also taken classes at a prestigious jewelry school in Memphis, TN.

Tracey lives and works in Albuquerque, NM and employs five artists, all Navajo in his studio. His inspiration comes from many places, but he has designed a lot of jewelry on restaurant napkins and paper table coverings. He says he cannot sit down and force a design to come to him, but it will happen when he is golfing or playing with the kids, or eating—especially chocolate.

His designs start with a creative thought and then the talent and work come in to help expand on that inspiration. Tracey has had his share of ups and downs during his artistic career. But he continues to move on and create new work, never resting on his laurels.

The “Native Samurai” collection reflects Ray’s vision of the harmony of cultures: the richness of Native American heritage and the beauty of Japanese traditions. The symbols used in these exquisite pieces include motifs of the traditional Samurai costume and of the Southwest landscape.

“Designing jewelry is a gift. It’s a god given talent. The inspiration hits me. Without it, I can’t design my way out of a paper bag,” Tracey says.

Juan Velasco was born in Bolivia in 1942. He studied in Bolivia and Argentina, and came to the USA for college in 1961. He received a B.A. in Business in 1965; US citizenship in 1966 and was also drafted that year. He served as an officer in the US Navy from 1966 to 1969, and received his Masters from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management. From there he worked on Wall Street until 1974. After that Juan moved to New Mexico.

“Do in life what you really love to do - fulfillment and money will come," is the advice Juan gives. His passions in life are his wife Suzanne and his son, Adrian.

Juan has been designing jewelry since 1986, and involves artisans in his birth country of South America to cut stones and do some preliminary silverwork. Juan puts together and finishes the pieces in his studio in Santa Fe, and is proud of every handmade item. Juan has worked with stones since he was young, and he is now using Chinese turquoise, Afghan lapis, South African sugilite, Mediterranean coral, Mexican spiny oyster shell and others. The jewelry is all hand made. The piece is first constructed in silver (sometimes gold). The stone is then cut to fit the exact shape. It is set and the stone is then dry ground to match the silver and finally it is polished. Most pieces have hinges, which provide nice movement and flexibility.

Juan has an avid audience for his jewelry. His clean simple lines make his jewelry eminently wearable, no matter what area of the country you find yourself in. He keeps his prices very reasonable, and clients often go home with several of his pieces at a time.

Families have been known to bond in many different ways. For the Yellowhorse family, fine jewelry design is the common denominator. Artie Yellowhorse is of Navajo decent. She is of the “Kee a a ono” ( “Towering House”) clan. The influences of the Navajo culture are readily apparent in this beautiful, wearable art, which evolved from generations of artistic talent. Artie is a third generation silversmith. She was greatly inspired by her mother and grandmother, both of whom were renowned weavers.

Artie resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her two daughters, Desiree and Lei Lani are involved in the creation and design of the jewelry with their mother.

As the tradition continues, Artie hopes that the Yellowhorse designs of today will live on to inspire the young artists of tomorrow.

Zina’s love affair with design began when she was just twelve years old, working for her father in his New York jewelry factory.

In 1973 she began involving herself with the new movement of emerging young designers who recognized the limitless possibilities of working in sterling silver. Her sense of style and fine ability to contribute to the future of modern women, enabled her to develop a remarkable collection of innovative and sophisticated pieces.

One can immediately recognize the signature style of Zina, by its exquisite and architectural grace and glamour. The successful interplay of semi-precious stones and enamel, with surfaces and textures contrasting against the smooth planes of silver, is what makes her work so unique.

She is determined to introduce jewelry that can truly be carried over “from the boardroom to the ballroom."