Just a few miles west of Gallup, NM., nestled amongst the canyons & hills of the small town of Lupton, AZ., lies the unassuming workshop of the young Navajo artist, ALVIN YELLOWHORSE. Alvin learned the silversmithing trade at an early age from his father, Frank Yellowhorse, & later mastered the techniques of cutting the small turquoise & other colorful stones into precise little pieces in which he assembles into intricate designs inspired by his Anasazi ancestors. This technique is called “Channel Inlay”. A style of inlay where all the stones are cut & assembled together first & then ground flush before being highly polished. Alvin is credited for originating another style of inlay called “Corn Row Wave Inlay” in which the stones are individually cut & rounded over before setting them into a silver or gold bracelet, pendant, ring, or link bracelet. Corn Row Wave Inlay is much more time consuming as he has to completely finish each stone one at a time before placing them into the gold or silver setting. Alvin creates each piece one at a time.

American Masters of Stone