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Jimmy Calabaza of Santo Domingo Pueblo is known for his big and bold designs. As he says, "They aren't for the faint of heart." All his jewelry is totally handmade, including the cutting and shaping of his raw stones-a step many other jewelers forgo. He first began jewelry work in 1974, making traditional nugget necklaces that he would trade for blankets and other goods on the Navajo reservation. "It was like a hobby at first," he explains. Several years later he decided to focus on it as a career and has since then he has not looked back, mastering lapidary work, bead and heishi production, and silver- and goldsmithing along the way. His work can be found in the gift shops of the National Museum of the American Indian (as well as its permanent collection) in New York, the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, among other venues, yet he is, as he notes, "still a well-kept secret."
Necklaces
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Materials: turquoise discs and large bead
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Materials: turquoise and silver |
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