The bead played a vital role in Pueblo Indian jewelry design, and its influence continues today in modernist American design. In these pages, featuring more than 250 breathtaking photos, renowned expert Baxter integrates her decades of research with updated findings. Beads were made in the prehistoric American Southwest by the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians, and survived into the historic era. Bead jewelry creations in shell, stone, and silver are important in the Native American jewelry marketplace. This book revisits some leading misconceptions about Pueblo jewelry-making in the existing literature. A survey of modern Pueblo jewelry innovation confirms that its design is second to none, and discusses how Pueblo design meshed with American mid-century modernist expression. Today's Pueblo jewelers, also featured here, continue to offer invention and originality.

This richly illustrated study of Southwestern Indian jewelry-design history is a must-have for collectors, jewelry designers, and students and scholars of Native American arts. Southwestern Indian jewelry inspires admiration and creativity through its beauty, mastery, and meaning. Delve into this fascinating and creative world with renowned design historian Paula Baxter as she explores the work of Navajo and Pueblo craftspeople in the years following the American Civil War to the end of World War II. During this productive 75-year period, Native American jewelry became increasingly popular in the US and international marketplace. Collected and celebrated as examples of true American artistry, these works continue to be highly desirable and eminently wearable. Through Baxters well-researched yet accessible text and more than 450 color images, readers will come to understand how Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths and jewelry makers exercised shrewd judgment to retain control over their inventive designs. Starting in the 1870s, these artisans interwove tradition, new fabrication methods, and personal vision to create works both for tribal adornment and tourist commodity. From the turn of the century to the 1940s, these designs evolved in harmony with the emerging modernist aesthetic. Native jewelry was winning critical attention and praise, becoming highly desirable products in the national and international marketplace. Follow the development of Navajo and Pueblo jewelry chronologically, from design origins to the pairing of silver and stone to the modernist styles around midcentury. Included are historical timelines, boxed supplemental information, a glossary of key terms, and an extensive bibliography. Written by a recognized authority and the author of such go-to references as Southwest Silver Jewelry and The Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry, this book is destined to become a classic in the field.