Small Wonders

The exhibition Small Wonders provides the opportunity to see a range of intricately made small-format works including jewelry (rings, brooches, earrings and buckles) and specialty items such as silver seed pots, fetishes or stone carvings, and silver items in miniature. Each is shaped in silver, gold or from a variety of gemstones, and all are from the Heard Museum’s permanent collection.

Some examples of the little treasures in the exhibition are the miniatures fabricated in silver. Some of the miniatures made by jeweler Shawn Bluejacket (Shawnee) include a treehouse with a removable roof that is fully equipped with a slide and a miniature table with two chairs. The table is also hinged and transforms into a small container. When opened, it reveals a bundle of carrots that Bluejacket painted on the interior. Other miniatures include a silver yo-yo by Daniel Sunshine Reeves (Navajo), a silver teapot with coral inlay by Darrell Jumbo (Navajo), and silver spoons by Kenneth Begay (Navajo) and Awa Tsireh (San Ildefonso Pueblo).

For those who enjoy jewelry, there is an assortment of brooches, many in animal or insect shapes, as well as complex figurative works by Denise Wallace (Aleut) and more traditional shapes in silver with inset turquoise.