An enduring legacy: Childhood friendship led Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird to a collaboration spanning over 50 years

The stratifications of a jasper belt buckle by Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird resembles a landscape.

But that’s just the beginning.

Flip it over, and you’ll find a carved bird with a branch.

Johnson (Diné) and Bird (Santo Domingo/Laguna Pueblo) have created timeless and sophisticated jewelry that remains as wearable in New York City as it is in the Southwest for more than 52 years.

An enduring legacy: Childhood friendship led Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird to a collaboration spanning over 50 years

Drawing inspiration from prehistoric pictograph and petroglyph sites, the couple use stones well beyond the usual turquoise and coral, featuring uncommon contrasts of materials like pearls, opals, dinosaur bone and more.

Santa Fe’s Owings Gallery is presenting a showcase of their award-winning work through Sept. 14.

“We have known their work for 20 years,” said gallery director Laura Widmar. It’s “the contemporary nature of it. They use very unusual stones. They just have a refined, sophisticated sensibility. The pieces from 35 years ago look as contemporary as they did then.”

The pair met in 1960, when Johnson was 14 and Bird was 12. Their parents worked together in Brigham City, Utah, at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Intermountain Indian School. Their childhood friendship endured and they have been creating jewelry together since 1972. Johnson is the silversmith and Bird is the designer. Together they have developed and refined a distinctive style, not easily defined.

“Most people have a preconceived idea of what Indian jewelry is and when they see our work, they are not sure if it’s Indian or not,” Bird said. “I like that. I also like working with Yazzie, sharing ideas, growth and credit.”

The show features a selection of belt buckles, bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Bird’s design sensibilities and Johnson’s metalwork and fabrication skills have combined to create uniquely innovative fine jewelry. Together, the artists preserve the inherent natural beauty of the materials they use, recalling Southwest landscapes and shifting skies, often in asymmetrical, dramatic designs.

The jewelry of Johnson and Bird has been exhibited in numberless domestic and international shows and is featured in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution, The British Museum, Santa Fe’s Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Scotland.