Hopi landscapes, where mesas sit above striated stone layers of sandstone. Figure pendants may reference Hopi Butterfly Maidens or Hopi Corn Maidens. A single hand, sometimes made from silver, may or may not include a piece of turquoise or other stone,
might define an entire piece or simply serve as solitary stamp placed upon or inside a bracelet or ring. Unique to Verma’s work is the inlay of stone on the inside of a bracelet or ring, reversing the traditional approach of stones being exhibited on the outside of the piece – revealing a secret world, if you will, known only to the wearer. Oftentimes, the stones set inside the bracelet or ring are worth more than those on the outside – again, another indication of where true “value” lies within the person.
Nequatewa works every day in her studio from 7 am to 6:30 pm in the summer and 8 am to whenever the light starts to dim in the winter. Light is critical to the process. “It needs to be right,” says Verma. Only if it is right can she see and find the perfect match of colors from various stones that serve to create the inlay designs.
When not creating jewelry, Nequatewa is often busy attending trade or gallery shows, meeting with interested collectors, or briefing museum members on her work. Never does she take a vacation or time off. While a great many other jewelers may take a trip after a major show to reenergize themselves, Verma finds that the people she meets and the conversations she holds at shows like the Santa Fe Indian Market serve to energize her– making her ever more excited to return to the studio.
Nequatewa’s Method and Approach
Nequatewa begins each workday with a prayer. Moreover, she constantly thinks about the various ceremonies and prayers she has been taught so to ‘use them when making jewelry.’ As
Verma is quick to note: Hopi ceremonies gave her the ability to create, and “their teachings provide the foundation for what we do in everyday life, they remind us of where we came from.” The Hopi language is also very important to Nequatewa.
The process often starts with a stone or a piece of gold. Verma believes the stone reveals its true form, and that it is the stone which “actually tells you how to make a piece of jewelry.” This is why she also argues it is important, when picking stones in the rough, to “talk to it” as you know that by doing so “something will come out of it.” Always it is about the relationship with the stone: an image always “comes out of the stone, it is not forced.” Even if a stone breaks when working with it, Nequatewa believes it is “telling you it wants to be used in a different way.”
Sometimes this realization comes to Verma while holding or turning the stone in her hand, sometimes it comes during the grinding process, and sometimes it doesn’t come for weeks, months, even years. It is for this reason a stone “needs to be picked up, handled, turned, in order to determine their place and how they will be used.” And so, a stone might well sit on a shelf until it “provokes” Nequatewa, “teases” or “calls” to her, to take it back up.
For the choice of stones and their paring and placement, Verma finds inspiration from her culture, its craft traditions, and the landscape in which her people have lived for hundreds of years.
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