Calvin Begay was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1965, and grew up on the Navajo Reservation at Tohatchi. He began designing jewelry in 1975. His work reflects both superb design sense and the ability to inlay stones and silver with extraordinary attention to detail.

As a talented Navajo jewelry artist, his designs and work have won awards, such as Best of Show in the 1989 Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial. Pieces by Calvin can be identified by the precision of the inlay and the silver work. He has earned feature treatment in Southwest Art Magazine and Arizona Highways Magazine.

As a hands-on maker of jewelry, Calvin often signs his work. As a designer, working with others who complete designs under his direction. He often includes the signature of one or more of his studio colleagues who complete his pieces. For a while, Calvin’s studio was in Gallup at “A Touch of Santa Fe.” He occasionally did not sign his work during that time, using the TSF stamp as his halllmark.

Sometime around the end of 2006, Calvin ended his association with TSF and discontinued use of that hallmark. A Touch of Santa Fe, however, continues to use the hallmark. As a result, a bonafide Calvin piece may or may not be signed by him or carry the TSF imprint.

To determine if an unsigned piece attributed to Calvin truly is his work, ask your source for a Certificate of Authenticity. This puts them on the record. If it is later determined that Calvin Begay did not create the piece, you have attribution on paper to back up a request for your moneyback.

When you own a certified Calvin Begay work of Navajo jewelry art, whether it is a bracelet, earrings, necklace or pendant, you have an object that is both beautiful and authentic in its Native American heritage.

Acoma Pueblo sits just south of heavily traveled Interstate 40, west of Albuquerque. It’s almost impossible to miss. Acoma’s Sky City Casino is aggressively marketed and easily accessible from the Interstate.

The jewel of the Acoma pueblo is the original village and artists that work from it. Sitting atop a shear-walled mesa, the village was built to protect the Acoma people from invasion and destruction. When Spanish Catholic missionaries ultimately penetrated the defenses, they built a village church and converted many Acomas to Catholicism. The native culture has persisted, however, in elegantly formed and painted Acoma pottery.

These delightful objects of art often carry price tags that new collectors find off-putting. How can a pot be worth so much?

1. Clay is collected from secret deposits miles from the pueblo village. Artists can only get there on foot. The journey is long and tiring..

2. The clay is in chunks that are as hard as slate. They must be crushed or dried, sifted and strained to remove non-clay elements, such as small stones and pieces of wood. The remaining clay is ground fine using a special grinding stone.

3. Temper, in the form of finely ground potsherds from old broken pots is added to bind the clay for strength and pliability. The quality of Acoma clay fosters pottery walls that are almost impossibly thin, yet quite strong.

4. The dry, tempered clay is slowly mixed with water and more temper, until the artist believes it has the proper texture and consistency.

5. The pot is formed with coils of clay to build up the wall. This work can take a long time, with pauses to let each coil set enough to support the next coil.

6. Eventually, the shape is defined and the scraping of the surface begins. A piece of gourd smoothes the walls of the pot. This scraping takes place in stages, until the wall is as thin as the artist wants. Shaping concludes by burnishing the wall with a smooth stone.

That’s a lot of work. And the pot is only half-done. There’s painting and firing to do yet.

Yes, you can find cheaper forms of Acoma pottery. These are pots that skip all the hand-work. They are molded, fired and sold to artists to be painted. They are known collectively as “greenware.” While often attractive as decor items, they are not the same quality as authentic hand-built pottery.