MEET THE ARTIST:

Tawny was born into a large family of well known & highly reputable Navajo silversmiths who have all seemed to have made a name in the industry.. After all,when your father is "Lonnie Willie" & a few of your uncles are Ronnie & Rudy Willie(Rudy is married to jeweler Happy Piasso) & your brother is "Cooper Willie" & your cousin is Dakota Willie, well then you may understand why there was no escaping the art of Navajo silversmithing for this artist..(All these names are in my listings)

She's relatively new to the industry & was taught by her dad Lonnie (Who is now retired) where he started having Tawny working with copper since it's a less expensive metal,so if there were mistakes(Which there always is!) it wouldn't be so costly.

Tawny shares both Navajo & Sioux blood lines & was raised on the Navajo reservation in the town of To’hajiilee,NM (Toe-hah-jah-lee) & after graduating from school,moved to South Dakota to live with her mom. She then left SD to be closer to her dad & now resides in Albuquerque,where she spends most days creating jewelry & being a mom..

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.

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THE RING:

Made exclusively for my store, Tawny made this with 3 stone ring where the turquoise comes from the Nevada Fox mine..These are older stones that came out of the mine years ago, that her dad Lonnie had in his private stash & has been hanging onto all this time..That is until Tawny got a hold of them!

Designed with a obvious traditional Navajo edginess, each stone sits in a smooth bezel & has both beads that look like little "Navajo Pearls" & wire wrapping where both follow the shape of the stones all along the perimeter.. The face of the ring sits on a split shank & is finished in a matte oxidized finishing,so there will be no need to polish this!

**I have listed a similar ring to this that's made with the same turquoise,but is much bigger & has a 3-3/4" length!! (See photo 11) You must check out the rings already posted that Tawny made for me & which also have some excellent quality cuts of turquoise in them!! (See "Ring" listings & then click on “Tawny Willie”)