In this second lecture of the ‘Honoring Our Roots’ series we are honored to host Lyndon Tsosie of House of Stamps and his lecture 'The Essentials of Navajo Jewelry Making'. Lyndon will discuss the early beginnings (early 1900’s-present) of Navajo jewelry’s minimal use of machinery to create exquisite wearable art.
Lyndon Tsosie was born in 1968 in Fort Defiance, Arizona and has become one of the rising stars among contemporary Navajo jewelers, a masterful inlayer of fine materials who exhibits innovative forms and design concepts.
Since the early 1990s, Lyndon has been designing and fabricating jewelry. His style is extremely unique, combining contemporary three dimensional shapes, masterfully cast designs, and bold textures that portray landscapes. Often his pieces include sections that are cast in tufa stone. Many of his pieces include asymmetrical designs using precious and semiprecious stones of the highest quality. His pieces can include a variety of metals, including sterling silver, all karats of gold, and platinum. His work includes a wide variety of high grade, natural stones – masterfully cut, polished, and set.
Lyndon challenges us to expand our concept of jewelry and art with his inlaid boxes, which might be shaped like a jewel box or a Navajo Hogan, revealing an interior river of opal or surrounded by “logs” of pink and red coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli and deep purple sugilite. Lyndon’s necklaces, bracelets, and rings, look like modern miniature paintings made with inlaid stones, and have been compared to the artwork of Klee and Mondrian.
Lyndon has been entering his work in Juried shows since 1994 and has won many awards. He has been a recipient of top awards at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Art Market (Southwestern Association for Indian Arts) in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Heard Museum Guild Art Market in Phoenix, Arizona – as well as the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial, New Mexico State Fair, and the Southwest Art Festival.
Lyndon has become internationally popular and his work is sought after all over the world. Many of his collectors are from Japan and Lyndon has spent a lot of time in Asia. His newest pieces feature strong influences from Asian art – including unique techniques that he has learned and brought back to the Southwest United States.