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J1926 Paul Livingston
Sterling silver row cuff by Navajo silversmith Paul Livingston. The 7/8” cuff has five rows of 34 Sleeping Beauty turquoise snake eyes in each row. The inside is 5 3/4" with a 1" gap.
The Sleeping Beauty mine is located near Globe, Arizona. Its turquoise is noted for its solid, light blue color with little or no matrix. Sleeping Beauty turquoise is the favorite of the Zuni Pueblo silversmiths for use in petit point, needlepoint, and inlay jewelry. This mine is one of the largest in North America and was still operating until closing August 2012.
About the artist
Paul Livingston
Paul Livingston was born in 1954 and has spent his entire life on the Navajo Church Rock Reservation, where he grew up watching with fascination as his silversmith Uncle crafted raw metal and
stone into beautiful jewelry. Through trial and error and a great deal of help from his Uncle, Paul became an accomplished young jewelry maker. By the time he was twenty-two he was ready
to launch himself full time into silversmithing. Paul Livingston is an acclaimed Navajo silversmith who favors substance in his metal work and high-quality, natural stones in all his settings.
Today, nearly forty years later, Paul is a nationally known and collected jewelry artist. He is particularly known for a style of jewelry most silversmiths shy away from a technique known as ‘cluster and row work’ where multiple tiny stones are used together to form a delicate, colorful designs in jewelry. Paul is happy to work with the little stones, even the tiny round “snake eye” ones and is renowned for how exquisitely aligned the stone clusters and rows of stones are on his pieces.
Even at his age Paul continues to experiment with new jewelry techniques and design styles. He especially enjoys working unusual textures created on metals and will often incorporate a new surface
finish or other design application to see if these changes might enhance the jewelry’s appearance and appeal. Though his forte has always been more traditional even vintage looking Navajo style jewelry, his
contemporary designs are also in high demand. Paul Livingston creates beautiful jewelry using stones that aren’t often found in Native American jewelry. The intricate ‘saw work designs’ of his pieces are especially difficult to achieve but so very visually appealing in Paul’s finished work.
