Marcine Stead was born, and still lives today, in the ancient pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico. Marcine is of the Zuni Native American culture and is of the Big Badger (from her mother's side) and Small Cottonwood (from her father's side) clans. Like other Native American cultures, clans are deep-rooted in Zuni culture and allow the people to distinguish who it is safe to marry by avoiding members that are too closely related to themselves, thereby keeping the Zuni blood strong. Every Zuni citizen will identify themselves as both a "Big" and "Little" clan. A Zuni would never marry someone from the same "Big" clan as themselves. As a matter of fact, Marcine's husband, Eugene, who assists her with her jewelry making, is of the Sioux Native American culture. Marcine began making jewelry as a young girl but originally could only make one-stone ear posts. She learned the traditional Zuni style of "cluster" jewelry from observing her mother and grandmother. Marcine's mother lived into her 80's and made jewelry right up to the end, even when she was bed-ridden with illness. Today, Marcine continues to make her jewelry in the same "cluster" style she learned as a child and is passing this craft on to her own daughter. Watch this video of Marcine Stead demonstrating how she hand-makes traditional Zuni silver, turquoise and red coral jewelry. The supplies of silver, turquoise and red coral that Marcine uses in her jewelry are acquired from local suppliers who sell, or in some cases accept finished jewelry as payment, these supplies to the Zuni people for making jewelry. The turquoise Marcine uses comes from Arizona, the silver from Nevada, and the red coral (which priced at between $70-35 an ounce is more expensive than turquoise) from the Baja Sea in Mexico. All these supplies come to Marcine in unfinished form and must be cut, shaped, grinded and buffed before her jewelry will have the clean, polished and ornate quality seen in finished pieces. To very simply explain the process of making traditional Zuni "cluster" style jewelry (allowing some techniques to remain the artist's secret), Marcine will follow these steps: First, cut and shape the silver to the size of the piece (including creating the small casings that will hold the stones); Second, grind and shape the stones to fit the casings of silver (including smoothing out all edges from shaping); Third, meticulously set the stones into the casings (paying attention to choose stones of the same color tone to ensure the best appearance of finished pieces) and tighten the casings around the stones to give them a strong fit; and Lastly, buff the entire piece of jewelry, silver and stones together, to give it the polished and clean appearance that is most beautiful and most preferred. As previously mentioned, Marcine Stead specializes in making earrings, pendants, necklaces, and bracelets, all of silver and with either turquoise or red coral stones. To view a catalogue of Marcine Stead's traditional Zuni "cluster" style jewelry, please click on the link below. |
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| Catalogue of Zuni "Cluster" Style Jewelry by Marcine Stead | |
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