MEET THE ARTIST:

Tawney was blessed to born into a large family of well known & highly reputable Navajo silversmiths, who have all seemed to have made a name in the jewelry industry..And she's double blessed to have "Lonnie Willie" for a father.(Who is now retired) Lonnie happens to be the brother to Ronnie, Juan & Rudy Willie and for those that know & follow the industry, Ronnie is probably one of the most well known out of the brothers. It was Lonnie however that taught Ronnie all he knows, including everybody in his immediate family,like Tawney's brother Cooper Willie AND he also taught his own mother & father what there is to know in regards to making jewelry!! You might say Lonnie is the "Maestro" of the family & what a blessing it is for Tawney to have someone that's so highly skilled as Lonnie,to have mentored her!

Lonnie gave Tawney her start by having Tawney work with copper since it's a less expensive metal,so if there were mistakes(Which there always is!) it wouldn't be so costly, as well as having her work with nickel silver so she could learn the art of stamp work.

It's her leaning on Lonnie's wealth of knowledge & her repetitious work that has helped her to become the artist she is today & continually gets artistically inspired from her surroundings, where she'll then turn those ideas into pieces of art.Her work will always be traditional Navajo, but with a really artsy type vibe that leans toward being on the contemporary side of Navajo jewelry.I hope you find her workmanship & her art to be as impressive & as beautiful as I do!!

*******************

THE EARRINGS:

These playful Navajo Butterflies are made with a time consuming method & are unique for the fact where Tawny designed these from one piece of sheet sterling & then the butterfly was then cut out from that same sheet, rather than cutting out the circular form & then soldering the butterfly to that.(See backside photo)

The butterfly is made up of a twisted wire outline,hand cut wire & hand melted beads for the wings. The abdomen is depicted by a oval cut of premium Sleeping beauty turquoise that came from her father Lonnie's old stash from the days when he himself, was a jeweler.These cuts were mined before the mine closed & before they started treating turquoise!

I do want to mention that these do have some weight,so please read the weights below & make sure you can wear this weight before purchasing.