J639 Ray and Mary Rosetta
Vintage Serpentine heishe necklace by the Rosetta family. This 10 strand finely cut heishe necklace is 24”.
Ray and Mary Rosetta were among the first heishe makers and the originators of hand drawn silver and gold heishe. Their five children continued the tradition of heishe making and their heishe necklaces are much in demand. Their hallmark is a small crown on the silver cones.
About the Artists
Ray and Mary Rosetta
Ray and Mary Rosetta, who were the first to make liquid silver in the early 70’s.
Ray and Mary of Santo Domingo Pueblo vividly remember the stir they created at Indian Market in the 1950s when they introduced the shimmering sterling necklaces they called “liquid silver.”
“We did real fine silver beads, and people had never seen anything like it,” Ray Rosetta says. “Everybody rushed to buy them.”
Liquid-silver jewelry consists of tiny silver heishi, or beads, threaded together in strands that shimmer like a metal waterfall. The name came from the wife of a friend. “She held it in her hands and said it was so light, almost like water,” says Rosetta. “From there we started calling the pieces liquid silver.”
Now, although most liquid silver is machine-made by Anglos, the Rosetta’s’ sons craft it by hand using 20-gauge silver.
“My wife and I hardly make any more liquid silver,” Rosetta says. “With the arthritis in my back, I can’t pull the silver anymore.”
At the Rosetta’s’ first Indian Market in 1955, they sold their necklaces from the porch outside the Palace of the Governors. “We wondered if the market would catch on,” says Rosetta with a laugh. “It has changed, but it’s still the best place to sell. It’s a good market for real fine things.”
History of Indian Market
By: Jo Ann Baldinger | July 16, 2010
