
Master Navajo Jeweler
Edison Cummings is an award-winning Navajo jewelry artist. He’s remarkable for his exquisitely detailed silver and turquoise jewelry and unique mix of tradition and innovation. “Cummings finds the inspiration for his elegant forms in sources as diverse as architectural lines or the shapes of discarded metal along a highway,” notes art critic Mary Thomas in the Post-Gazelle.
Born in 1962, he studied at the Institute of American Indian Art – first painting, then sculpture – and at Arizona State University – where he discovered metalsmithing during his degree in education. In addition to his penchant for raised metal forms, since 2005 he has experimented with patterns in wood and stone: “Although these appear to be Loloma inspired, Cummings’ training first as a silversmith led him to embellish the stone and woodwork with inset bezel-set stones. This feature distinguishes his work from that of other jewelers,” says Diana Pardue in Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry.