Customer Reviews

Southwestern Indian Jewelry: Crafting New Traditions

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4 star:		(1)
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Many years ago, too many to mention, during visits to the national parks in the West, I purchased beautifully hand-crafted "pawn" Indian jewelry. Although, thankfully, "pawn" is no longer sold in our parks, I still treasure and wear what I own. So, you can imagine my surprise when I picked up Dexter Cirillo's wonderful and authoritative book on the new Southwestern jewelry being created by today's Indian artists - pieces totally different but none-the-less as creative, unique and expressive as mine. However, this is much more than a picture book. Although the photography is dazzling and certainly moves you easily through the book, it's the text that continues to hold my interest. The stories, anecdotes and explanations make me feel like I know these artists intimately and can relate to the historical references just as they have. My favorite piece? An equisite necklace, which has nine four-sided reversible beads inlaid with 36 distinct bird designs created by Jake H. Livingston. And, the delighful inlaid holiday turkey pin made by M. Dale Edaakie - I love it. As I continue to read about these 85 artists, I am already planning a trip to the Southwest and will use as my guide the jewelry and Indian market sources provided by Cirillo in the back of the book. While, arguably, I may not find many of the jewelry pieces pictured in the book affordable for the budget-conscious consumer, this book "Southwestern Indian Jewelry, Crafting New Traditions" is a bargain for anyone interested in the Southwest, Indian artists and their crafts, history of the New West, fashion, jewelry, stones and gems, and, just a good read. Congratulations to Cirillo and Doty for a fine and scholarly work.

Once again Dexter Cirillo has created an outstanding book on Native American Indian Jewelry. The jewelry throughout is photographed beautifully and includes pieces from established, as well as up and coming Native artists. This book is a definite must for any collector of Native jewelry.

This wonderful "sequel" to the earlier Cirillo book is even more comprehensive and the photographs are excellent...a "must have" for serious collectors and fans of silver from the American Southwest!

This, her latest book on Southwestern Indian Jewelry by Dexter Cirillo, is a well written, finely illustrated and impressive volume that I would recommend to anyone interested in this beautiful art form. However, while the list of artists featured in the book is long and contain most of the big names in contemporary Native American jewelry, there is at least one glaring omission. It is inconceivable to me that any serious author on this subject would fail to include Ervin P. Tsosie who, in my and most collectors opinion, is without an equal in the art of mosaic inlays today. This omission, deliberate or not, is a blemish on an otherwise excellent book. Omissions, sadly, also marred her great first book, published in 1992, failing as it did to include two of the giants in early Southwestern Indian jewelry, Leo Poblano and Lambert Homer.Southwestern Indian Jewelry: Crafting New Traditions