Hopicrafts — Southwest Jewelry Shop & Marks

Hopicrafts — name card, T.Skies Southwest Jewelry Guide

Name-card placeholder — historic shop-mark imagery to follow. © Turquoise Skies Inc.

Hopi silver shop · Phoenix, then Kykotsmovi (Second Mesa area), Arizona · 1961/62–1983 · Southwest Jewelry Guide

Overview

Hopicrafts, formerly known as Hopi Enterprises, was started by brothers Wayne and Emory Sekaquaptewa. Per Hougart, the business operated between 1962 and 1983. Wright records that the brothers, who had learned silverwork in Phoenix, founded the business there, hired their brother Eldon James and Bernard Dawahoya as silversmiths and Peter Shelton, Jr. as a designer, then moved the operation to Kykotsmovi, where the name soon changed to Hopicrafts. In 1971 the salesroom moved to the new Hopi Cultural Center, though the workshop remained at Kykotsmovi.

Wright credits the shop with raising the bar for all Hopi silverwork: its jewelry was "especially well-made, with close attention paid to even sawing, careful filing, and fine polishing," and "the competition of Hopicrafts caused a general upgrading of the quality of all the Hopi jewelry." Rosnek & Stacey note one innovation — many Hopicrafts pieces were not crafted individually but by several smiths, each doing one job on a piece. Bedinger compares the shop's aims to the White Hogan in Scottsdale. After Wayne Sekaquaptewa's death in 1979 the shop remained in operation a few years, finally closing in 1983; Wright observes that many smiths trained there continued working, their influence visible in much of the overlay jewelry that followed.

Note: per Hougart and Wright, Hopicrafts was a private business and was not associated with the Hopi Silvercraft Guild — the two are easily confused.

The shop mark

"Mark: HC (conjoined, chopped; there are many variations)." — Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022), p. ~361.

Wayne Sekaquaptewa also shared a SEKAQUAPTEWA stamp with his brother Emory, used with a Hopicrafts logo, per Hougart.

Artists connected to Hopicrafts

Wright's craftsman roster records many smiths who "learned at Hopicrafts," among them Glenn Lucas, who also served as an instructor there, and Nathan Fred, Jr. Hougart adds Eldon James ("Worked with Hopicrafts in the 1960s. Marks: E J; rabbit"), Raymond Kyasyousie, Sharold Nutumya, Daniel Phillips and Lawrence Pooyouma as artists who may be marked for Hopicrafts.

References

Wright, Margaret. Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing. Northland Press editions consulted.
Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Shops section, p. ~361.
Rosnek, Carl, and Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver: The Collector's Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry. Prentice-Hall, 1976.
Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, 1973.