Patrick Smith, Navajo (Diné) Artist and Jeweler
Email: [email protected]
Throughout his artistic career, Patrick Smith’s experimental jewelry pieces are probably best described as a stylistic collision of natural-world elements and contemporary design shapes that combine surface texture with three-dimensional artistic flair.
To create his distinctive, contemporary-style jewelry, Patrick enjoys using multiple metal forming techniques—especially hollowform, concaving, and synclastic/anti-clastic shaping. He adds exciting color with natural stone lapidary work. Engraving a sandy texture enhances hand stamped, tribal-focused motifs, as does buffing a stamped piece to a satin rather than a high-gloss finish.
“One of my favorite jewelry techniques is to fabricate large hollowform pieces in different shapes that present an illusion of mass without the weight. The challenge is not in making a variety of unusual forms as much as fashioning them into a cohesive, wearable piece.”