By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — When picturing jewelry of the American Southwest, it’s easy to conjure a cliché of silver-and-turquoise bolo ties and squash-blossom necklaces. But it’s unlikely this fantasy includes the work of the Patanias, a family of Italian-American entrepreneurs who helped make the region famous for its bold jewelry. Since the 1920s, when first-generation immigrant Frank Patania arrived with his old-world techniques and adapted them to local tastes and materials, the Patania family has been an...

Native American Jewelry Lowdown: The Story Behind Turquoise and Squash Blossoms

By Maribeth Keane and Bonnie Monte — Thanks to my father, I basically grew up involved with Indian arts and culture. He was a graduate of the University of New Mexico and wrote the first popular book on Southwest Indian arts and crafts. In the summer of 1949, he opened a little shop called Ghost Ranch Trading Post at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. That winter, he moved the shop to Tucson, Arizona. I started doing some of the buying for the shop when I was 16 and took over the store in '72, shortly after I turned 21. I...

Christie Romero on Differences Between Fine and Costume Jewelry Over the Decades

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I started out with general antiques and collectibles... I was a dealer for a while and bought and sold all kinds of things. Gradually jewelry became my focus. In the mid-1980s I started getting serious, and in 1988 I started teaching small classes, workshops, and seminars, primarily on costume jewelry but also some fine jewelry. Vintage costume jewelry was just beginning to take off as a collectible. Up until that time, most people thought it was junk. They didn’t understand what it was...