Four Winds Gallery would like to thank everyone who came out to the opening of Born of Fire: The Life and Work of Margaret Tafoya at the beginning of the month!  We were honored to have Tafoya family members Toni Roller and Nathan Youngblood showcase their work and share this longstanding and revered Santa Clara Pueblo tradition with us.   We were also very excited to have author Charles King present - his comprehensive book on Margaret Tafoya's life and work enriched the exhibit even further.  

This years 33rd Santa Fe Indian Market was a great success for our gallery. We wanted to focus on picking up new artists that reflect contemporary directions in Native American Jewelry and we succeeded. Maria Samora, Taos Pueblo, Fritz Casuse, Navajo and Pat Pruitt, Laguna Pueblo are all extremely talented artists who have received wide recognition for their skill and design.

We purchased several necklaces, earrings bracelets and a ring of Maria's. Her work has very organic and geometric forms and she uses texture and patinas to show the depth on the surface of her work. She works in both gold and silver with diamonds as accents in some pieces. Her work is quite elegant.

Fritz's work is characterized by amazing structure and engineering.  His unique designs are put together with great skill that create light yet strong jewelry with beautiful textures and stones. The are like jewelry sculptures.

Pat's work is bold and modern in design yet highly wearable. He uses stainless steel which he carves, combines with stone and sandwiches with silver. It is stunning in it's minimalism and suitable for both men and women.

Please call the gallery for more information on additional work not shown here and keep checking our website for this and other new work coming soon.

She is known for her "sandwich"  necklaces such as the one above with the shell blank sandwiched between two different colored mosaic designs. The first step in the process is cutting the blanks out of shell.  Then she attaches the small mosaic pieces to both sides of the blank in their rough form. Finally she grinds the glued mosaic pieces flush then polishes them to a high shine.