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This beautiful bracelet has a whole lot of authentic goodness to it. Made from handwrought copper the bracelet is crafted in the time honored and time-consuming traditional manner; with a beautifully hand-hammered slab of copper used to form the bracelet’s shank then the shank being finely and sparingly decorated with some very fine stamp and chisel work and finally set at the terminals with two hand-cut beautifully-matched sky-blue rectangular turquoise stones, possibly Sleeping Beauty, Arizona or Royston, Nevada set in old-style "foldover" type silver bezels which have been very nicely serrated.
This is the talented Acoma/Laguna Pueblo silversmith Greg Lewis (1954-2022) at his very best. Greg was one of the
very few Native American silversmiths in the modern day who worked with copper, he loved it in fact, and he worked with it ever since he apprenticed for his Grandfather, the renowned Acoma Pueblo silversmith Alvin Concho Lewis who taught him his craft and set him on his artistic path.
Like his traditionally-minded Grandfather, Third-generation Acoma-Laguna Pueblo silversmith Greg lewis was an old-style fellow, he made things like he was still living back in the 19th century and in a sense he was. He lived and worked way out off the beaten path in the tiny Laguna Pueblo village of Paguate about 50 miles as the crow flies west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, under the shadow of the ancient volcano, Mount Taylor. He worked in his small stone house with handmade tools he mostly made himself and he made his jewelry in the classic traditional manner in which he was taught. In recent years, Greg often worked in conjunction with his son and apprentice, Dyaami Lewis as he did on this piece.
Greg Lewis making jewelry, Paguate Village, Laguna Pueblo, NM, c. 1976
Photo by Lee Marmon. Photo source and © Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico
Greg Lewis, at left, and his son Dyaami Lewis, at right, c. 2008. Greg is still wearing the same bracelet as he was thirty-two years earlier in the photo at left.
Photo source and © Martha Struever
The bracelet measures 5/8" in width all the way around. The inner circumference end-to-end is 5 7/8" and the gap between the terminals is 1 1/8" for a total interior circumference of 7”. The bracelet weighs an extremely comfortable 48 grams or 1 3/4 ounces and it is in completely excellent original condition. The bracelet is properly signed on the interior with Greg Lewis’ customary arrowhead hallmark, a cherished hallmark he inherited from his Grandfather and there is also the circular punched "D" hallmark of his talented son and apprentice, Dyaami Lewis who assisted Greg in making this piece.
As with all of Greg’s jewelry, the traditional craftsmanship and technical excellence on display here are remarkable.
We have had quite a few pieces of Greg Lewis’ unique handmade Pueblo jewelry over the past thirty or so years
that we knew him and we can say that this is one of the most unique and interesting pieces that we ever ever had;
it’s a beautifully-crafted and easy to wear model of understated elegance and just-right restraint.
SOLD
An Acoma/Laguna Pueblo copper, silver and hand-carved turquoise narrow cuff bracelet
by Greg Lewis and Dyaami Lewis, c. 2018
