Harry Begay

Harry Begay began his jewelry making career in the early 1970s and is widely recognized as having revived traditional Native American silver smithing by building jewelry out of ingot sterling silver. Harry’s work with ingot silver is so labor intensive that it takes many times longer to create a piece and results in a piece so thick and heavy that it could not have been purchased from sheet and wire at a commercial supply store. To mirror the intensity and time spent to create the base of the piece, Harry Begay uses only the finest turquoise on the market to finish his jewelry. Harry's contribution to the trade is so significant that he ranks as one of the most collectible Navajo silversmiths of the twentieth century.