ABOUT THE ARTIST:

32 year old Cooper was born, raised & is presently residing on the Navajo reservation in the town of To’hajiilee,(Toe-hah-jah-lee) NM, which is just west of Albuquerque. Cooper was blessed to be born into a large family who are rich in Navajo tradition & who are all jeweler's who've made a name for themselves in the jewelry industry. .Cooper's the son of Lonnie Willie (Lonnie’s the brother to Ronnie Willie) & the brother to Tawney Willie & learned to make traditional Navajo jewelry from his father Lonnie ,who happens to be the one who taught all the family, including Ronnie, as well as his own parents.

Like Lonnie did with Tawney,he started Cooper out by having him work with copper,so if there were any mistakes,it wouldn't be at such a costly price..He then taught him stampwork by having him practice with nickel silver.Cooper has taken what he's learned from Lonnie by putting to good use all those valuable techniques, while developing his own style & while doing it in his own way.

Having mathematical & analytical characteristics forces him to be the 'perfectionist' he is & one thing you'll never find him making is "mediocre jewelry". No matter the price or the size,he wouldn't dare make anything less than the best..This is an artist who is gifted with an excellent "attention to detail" eye that are spot on & impeccable! His lines are clean & precise & everything has to be in perfect balance & very uniform!

His specialty is doing heavy gauge Men’s jewelry, with the focus on extremely masculine men's rings,He's a "Manly-Man's" artist & is highly sought out by men because of this.

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THE RING:
This is one of 12 rings that Cooper made for me that all come in large, to hard to find XL & XXL sizes! (See last photo)

Having come from Lonnie's stash of old stones, Cooper chose for this ring a rounded square cut of natural Pilot Mountain turquoise that has some of the most incredible character! This cut has it's own 'fingerprint' character, where no 2 are alike & has colors of both blue & green, with fine matrix lines of golden & dark browns intermixed throughout.

This very masculine mans ring is made in a traditional Navajo style, where Cooper framed the large cut of turquoise with a scalloped border of heavy gauge triangular wire & traditional saw work that surrounds the light shadowbox setting.

The face of the ring sits on a tapered shank that is incredibly designed! The actual underlying base of the shank is completely textured & has been darkened with oxidation & then soldered atop of this darkened base are 2 heavy gauge wires that sit along the perimeter. Because of the oxidation, allows for the design to become much more accentuated & leaves it more pronounced..(See photos 4 & 5) Also I want to mention that by using this wire for the perimeter design, gives the shank about a 2.7 mm thickness, so it's very durable!