New Mexico jeweler Jennifer Jesse Smith says her career as an artist was started thanks to a Lakota medicine bag. “As a child growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota,
I was fortunate to be surrounded by Lakota culture and spirituality. My mother and Lakota grandmother made me a sacred Lakota beaded medicine bag, instructing me to wear it every day for protection,” she says. “My grandmother, Darlene YoungBear, was one of the last old-time traditional Lakota healers. My mother, Cathy Smith, was her apprentice and they taught me everything I value in life, living, healing and art. They blessed my little medicine bag with sage and put sacred things inside.”
She adds that the bag was a “source of endless wonder, mystery and spiritual power. It validated my imaginative way of seeing the world and ignited my passion for creating art.”
Today Smith is a prominent jeweler in Santa Fe, where she and her mother own Nambe Trading Post. Smith knows how to do a variety of art forms, including quillwork and beadwork, but her true love is in silver, gold and natural gemstones. “Owning and operating a trading post has given me the opportunity to find rare and exotic goods that I incorporate into my designs and pieces, such as natural, untreated turquoise and other gemstones,” she says. “My designs are constantly coming forth from everything that inspires me.”
She continues, “All of my work has a creation story—an essence that bonds the work with the wearer. I feel I’ve done my best when the client connects with the soul of the work, when it unites with their spirit and their adventure. My work is about connection, myth and personal power. I refuse to create for the sake of ‘eye candy’ alone. The work must have meaning, mythos and beauty or it has no real power. The worlds’ best treasures have a good story attached and, like the natural world we live in, power is best expressed in beauty.”
For information visit
www.jenniferjessesmith.com or www.nambetradingpost.com
Her work is also on Instagram:
@jenniferjessesmithjewelry
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