Neo Southwest

Neo Southwest Earrings by Venaya Yazzie
Photo courtesy of VJYAZZIE 2017
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

These are my 'newest' Indi.Ear earring designs.  I really admire them.

The passion I carry for designing and creating modern Indigenous southwest jewelry items is 'rooted' in the vast and strong history of my Indigenous tribal identity.  This design was inspired by the ancient Hopi Pueblo "mosiac" style of jewelry-making. In this pair of earrings I have chosen to use the abalone shell as the main element of the earrings. The other included materials include: heishe shell beads, mother-of-pearl shell and desert turquoise.  The backing of the earrings is a wooded rectangular piece and the earrings are finished with sterling silver wire and french hook.

For the contemporary southwest Indigenous person, wearing cultural jewelry is much more than just "dressing," for it concerns the spiritual and also respect for the ways of our ancestors and the belief system.

I make these pieces in many ways as an homage to my desert People, the Dine' and the Hopi.

Blessings.

posted 11-14-17
By Venaya J. Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED