Southwestern arts and designs
A little about …
The Adakai family has crafted traditional silver jewelry for over 30 years; we are from the Navajo Nation located in Arizona and New Mexico.
The products on our website are crafted with fine detail and special attention is given to each of our products to ensure our customers will have quality silver jewelry. The artwork/images provided are all copyrighted to Adakai Silver and Arts and each piece of Ray Adakai Jewelry is trademarked with the artist name. Other jewelry such as beadwork is made by myself, I am a novice jeweler, my collections are truly beginner level. I am aspiring to be a better jeweler.
Thank you for browsing and we hope you will fall in love with the life of silver and turquoise and the southwestern inspired art.
A bit of our family history: our mother grew up on the Navajo Nation and still lives there. She is truly a matriarch of our family instilling culture and language in our lives and was also a self taught silversmith before she was married to our father, Jack Adakai. He was a renowned silversmith in the later half of his life - he took up his craft after fighting in the European-African Campaign during WWII.
There are some inaccurate information shown on southwestern jewelry stores about Jack Adakai - who was Navajo - included with his silver work. He was born in the 1920s and lived until the mid 1980s. He was a WW2 Veteran, a U.S. Army Combat Soldier. Jack Adakai was truly a survivor and a patriot for his country-he fought in some of the most grueling battles throughout Normandy, the Rhineland and the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge.
When he returned home from the Army he worked the rails roads, drove trucks and also began refining his silversmithing skills. He became well known for his old school traditional style silver and heavy gauge jewelry.
Jack Adakai was able to pass on his silversmithing skills to his son Ray Adakai. Ray’s traditional Navajo Jewelry reflects designs echoing from the old school Navajo silversmithing. All silver work sold here created by Ray Adakai is made of .925 Sterling Silver and some accented with a variety of turquoise stones. My father’s jewelry hallmark is catalog as J.A.
Lastly our Mom has been a constant reminder to stay culturally connected to our Navajo ways and has also given her children a different perspective on arts and silversmithing. She became well rounded in silversmithing and her hallmark is catalog as M.A. She is self taught on being a seamstress and making her own dress and clothes for herself and daughters, she has made a collection of yarn works that still baffles me as how she was able to learn theses skills without any formal education - she only speaks Navajo to this day and that is how some of the elders have passed on their language from one generation to the next. My mother has also sketched small drawings throughout our lives and I will feature a couple on this site as a tribute to her artistic contributions to our family.
Silver and turquoise jewelry – will differ from one piece to the next and may tarnish over time. Please let us know if you would like to know more about after purchase care.
Packaging will be shipped from USPS, shipping rates vary.
We are currently only accepting purchases with a U.S. address. All sales are final.
Our artwork provides an avenue to highlight the ruggedness and traditional jewelry from yesteryear. We hope it captures our commitment and enthusiasm in honoring professional Navajo silversmiths.
Thank you again.
Mattie Adakai
U.S. Army Retired
“We want to capture the ruggedness of the American Southwest through traditional Navajo Silver jewelry.”
Mattie Adakai, owner - Adakai Silver and Arts