Handmade jewelry reflects much more than a work of art or a beautiful adornment. Often it is a family tradition as well, preserving the skills and knowledge handed down through generations of artisans to create new heirlooms for today. That tradition is a part of Darwyn Cowboy’s lineage. He is a fifth-generation bead maker, the latest in his family to take up the craft of creating the silver.

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Navajo pearls are a popular item in today’s jewelry market, which is what got Darwyn and his wife Vinita into bead making. Darwyn’s family, the Haleys, are well known Navajo bead makers from Gallup, New Mexico. The family asked if the couple could help with the laborious process of crafting the beads to fill the orders they’d received. The two agreed and have been involved in the family business ever since. In spite of the labor-intensive process of creating the beads, Vinita enjoys the work and appreciates the tradition of bead making. She grew up watching relative silversmiths so the world of jewelry was familiar to her. She jokingly said that bead making is what helped put her through college.

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The process of creating Navajo pearls is involved and time consuming. Additionally, the silver used is largely heavy gauge sterling silver, which adds to the quality of the finished piece. Once the orders are in and the silver is purchased, it is melted then rolled out and put into a cutter. The silver is cut into the desired lengths, according to the style and design for each order. Vinita and her husband then use a puncher to make the hole in the center of each bead, taking care to make them as centered as possible. Each bead is then stacked; making certain each hole is rounded. From there they will be sanded and polished, then strung to create the silver necklaces the family sells.

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Due to its labor-intensive process, the family makes about six to eight necklaces in roughly four or five days. The number they produce is also dependent, Vinita said, on how much silver they can get. With each piece carefully sanded and polished by hand, their customers can be assured they are getting a truly individual item. These Navajo pearls will not have the uniformity of beads created on a machine; instead, each one is unique and carefully crafted by the hand of the artist. Doing this ensures each piece will be unlike any other, a true hallmark of a handcrafted piece of jewelry. Beads, like other types of handcrafted jewelry, are often known by the artist who produced them. Darwyn’s family has a longstanding reputation for creating excellent beads.

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These beads are the result of a multigenerational tradition of silversmithing within the Haley family, so it comes as no surprise that one of the family’s most popular items are what Vinita called “old-fashioned” beads. These are beads which are oxidized to darken them and then sanded with steel wool to give them an antique look. This style adds to the uniqueness of a handcrafted item. Vinita says they are more popular than the highly polished ones the family creates.