Cuff bracelet

Cuff bracelet
Angelita (Angie) Reano Owen
about 1990–1992
Turquoise, spiny oyster shell, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, shell

Jewelry communicates many things—rank, status, place, and culture among them. Pueblo and Diné (Navajo) artists are celebrated for their extraordinary lapidary skill at combining stones like sky blue, often locally-mined, turquoise with red spiny oyster shell, dark blue lapis lazuli, and other stones to create architectural landscapes. Beginning in the 1970s, Angie Reano Owen reintroduced the extraordinary stone-on-shell inlay technique previously practiced by Pueblo artists. Creating a mosaic of small rectangular materials set in a herringbone pattern, Owen produces a design that is deeply rooted in her culture’s rich past. After mastering the technique she taught it to other members of the Reano family, who were well-known heshi (shell) beadmakers. Many in her family now produce similar jewelry. In 1992 this bracelet was awarded a blue ribbon at Santa Fe’s Indian Market.

The Daphne Farago Collection
2006.407