FRITZ CASUSE

Sterling Silver Turquoise & Peridot
Pendant with Pearl

Despite its controversial link to the military, New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument provides stunning natural visuals.

Situated within the mountain ranges of the Tularosa Basin are landscapes of beautiful white sands composed of gypsum crystals that remain cool to the touch during high temperatures.  New Mexico is also home to featured jewelry designer Fritz Casuse.

PAT PRUITT

A National Historic Landmark since 1966, New Mexico’s Puye Cliff Dwellings is a remarkable site of carved rock dwellings that Pueblo Indians called home during the 12th century. New Mexico is also home to featured jewelry designer Pat Pruitt.

VERNON HASKIE

Since the 19th century, Meteor Crater has been a location of high interest. Located in the Arizona desert, the 570 feet deep crater has drawn many to its spectacular inverted topography. Arizona is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Vernon Haskie.

MARIA SAMORA

Located in New Mexico are a number of well-preserved 12th century Pueblo structures, known as the Aztec Ruins National Monument.  These structures were constructed by the ancient Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi people. New Mexico is also home to featured jewelry designer Maria Samora.

COREY W. MORAES

Today we venture to Washington State taking in the scenic and historical location known as Chinook Point.

A one-time camping place during the 19th century to members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Chinook Point presently comprises the Fort Columbia State Park. Washington State is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Corey W. Moraes.

KEZHA HATIER

Standing amidst Paris' 4th arrondissement is the Pompidou Centre an ominous structure of steel columns built over three decades ago by Italian and British architects. A wildly popular attraction, the building houses a public library and Europe's largest museum of modern art, Musée National d' Art Moderne. France is also the ancestral home of featured jewelry designer Kézha Hatier-Reiss.

Acute attention to one's surroundings seems to be a universal characteristic of the creatively inclined from authors who draw upon several personality types to create a single character to actors who capture nuances of voice and movement to embody a role.

I have often referenced jewelry designers' unique capacity for sensory absorption, finding design potential, and beauty in an array of materials.

Nel Linssen's (Netherlands) colorful paper jewelry and the floral-inspired, bicycle inner tube renderings of Thea Tolsma (Netherlands) are two examples of jewelers' subliminal connection to his or her environment.

A variety of Reiss' collective memories informs an aesthetic that is uniquely understated. "I spent most of my childhood on a stool in my father's workshop watching him work with leather and silver or in the museums and galleries of San Francisco and the Bay Area," says Reiss.

"I traveled extensively with my parents to Indian reservations in the United States and Canada. We went camping for weeks in remote places of the American Southwest. I spent summers combing the beaches near my grandparents' house in Tomales Bay in California.

The style of ceremonial jewelry, the colors of seashells, and the shape of gnarled wood and rocks each serve as inspiration. Many of my design ideas are also influenced by the old dress and art of my French and Native American ancestors."

In her Sun Series collection, Reiss incorporates repetition of a simple circle form to build complex yet elegant patterns. Her materials of choice include 24-karat gold vermeil, sterling silver, 18- and 22-karat gold and such stones as turquoise with swirled, black veins, gold citrine and black onyx druzy so intense in color it resembles nutrient-rich soil.

Reiss' use of small elements like the sinewy, intertwined prong settings of her flower rings evoke outstretched branches. These unusual prongs' twisting grasp of a large gemstone is poetic and lyrical.

The airy, arabesque outlines of her Coral Web items evoke the sights Reiss undoubtedly encountered during her beach combing excursions along the California coastline.


"My collections are hand carved and cast blending traditional lines and colors with modern ones. The completed piece promotes a feeling of beauty, connection, and confidence."
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Photo 1 (top right): 24-Karat Gold Vermeil Anemone Ring with Black Onyx and Druzy
Photo 2 (bottom left): 24-Karat Gold Vermeil Sun Series Choker Necklace

MICHAEL ROANHORSE

The Sante Fe Botanical Garden, located in New Mexico, is a vivid, natural landscape.

The structure houses the Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve; the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve; and lovely flora including blue flax and velvet weed. New Mexico is also home to featured jewelry designer Michael Roanhorse.

DAWN WALLACE DESIGNS

Today we visit the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which could easily be considered a modern-day Eden. 

Encompassing 40 acres, it is positioned in a valley and over 1,000 plant species gloriously emerge from rich, volcanic soil. Hawaii is also home to featured jewelry designer Dawn Wallace.

DENNISON TSOSIE

Today we visit Arizona and are profoundly moved by the sight of the magnificent, world-renowned Grand Canyon. The powerful currents of the Colorado River carved out the intricate layers of rock, the caves of which became a homestead to many Native Americans. Arizona is also home to featured jewelry designer Dennison Tsosie.

The American Southwest is an area commonly known for its exceptional silver and turquoise jewelry.

The Navajo Indians, in particular, are recognized for creating spectacular sterling silver pieces that encompasses about 150 years worth of Mexican, Moorish and Spanish design influences.

The art of silversmithing was not only passed down through generations within the Navajo tribe, but the art was initially passed down from one culture to another.

According to historians, the first Navajo who learned the craft, Atsidi Sani (a/k/a Old Smith), learned the trade from Mexicans who learned it from Spaniards.

Tsosie is a third generation Navajo silversmith who trained under the guidance of his grandfather. At the age of eight, he assisted the elder Tsosie with mold casting and within a few years, he was creating his own jewelry pieces.

Tsosie's grandmother, who weaved elaborate rugs, also served as a prominent role model in the designer's work ethic. Perseverance and detail-orientedness were essential to his grandmother's trade, and he understood these character traits were just as necessary in metalworking.

Imbued with natural artistic gifts, Tsosie also excelled at painting, a skill he taught himself, and the subsequent sale of his artwork enabled him to help with family finances. As an adult, though he continued making jewelry part-time, Tsosie obtained employment that was more lucrative.

His desire and love for silversmithing, however, remained and despite the surge of cheaper, mass produced imitations of Native American silver jewelry, Tsosie wanted to become a full-time silversmith in the tradition of his grandfather.

In 1988, he established his company The Navajo Silversmith, and discovered there was still a populace craving authentic, Navajo sterling silver jewelry. Tsosie creates both custom and ready-made designs.

He divides his collections between traditional styles, and contemporary aesthetics implementing longstanding techniques such as inlaid stones like carnelian, lapis, or turquoise, as well as overlay, a technique commonly associated with Hopi Indians.

Overlay involves carving out a design in one sheet of silver and then soldering it to a second sheet, which serves as a backing. The backing is then oxidized or blackened creating a contrast of high polish silver and black metal.

His gorgeous silver pieces are clean, angular while the more traditional items highlight chunky stone arrangements. Both aesthetics capture the spirit of the Navajo people with designs inspired by horses, eagles, petro glyph stone carvings, and talismans.
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Photo 1 (top right): Sterling Silver Shaman Necklace with Gold Accents and Turquoise Heishi Beads
Photo 2 (bottom left): Sterling Silver Horsing Around Overlay Cuff

DENISE WALLACE

Rich with history and natural attractions, we walk along the Redoubt Lake Trail of Alaska's Sitka National Historical Park.

Established nearly 100 years ago, the two-mile long "national monument" consists of giant Spruce trees, flowers, shrubs, and magnificent replicas of native totem poles including the Raven and a Bear, and the Village Watchmen.

Alaska is also the ancestral home of featured jewelry designer Denise Wallace.

RON HENRY

One of the largest galleries of cottonwood trees is part of an indoor conservatory featured in Albuquerque, New Mexico's Rio Grande Botanic Garden.

The garden covers a whopping 10,000 square feet and we are eager to explore the grounds, which is encased inside a stunning glass house. New Mexico is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Ron Henry.