Vintage Hand Stamped Beads with Contemporary Cross Pendant
attributed to Keri Ataumbi, Shoshone, Arapaho and Kiowa Nations
Hand stamped vintage sterling silver Navajo beads, hand hammered and hand stamped sterling silver and 14K gold cross with set diamond
24" in length, pendant: 1 7/8” long x 1 1/4” wide
Born and raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, Ataumbi’s early years were filled with Shoshone, Arapaho and Kiowa aesthetics. She attended boarding school in Massachusetts and then Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Santa Fe in 1990. She then attended the Institute of American Indian Arts and eventually received a BFA in painting with a minor in art history from the College of Santa Fe.
She currently divides her time between New Mexico and traveling the globe. When Ataumbi is not in her studio located in the Cerrillos Hills outside Santa Fe, she travels several times a year to Oklahoma and Wyoming to participate in the communities and the ceremonials she grew up in.
In 2024, she collaborated with an American designer to create Lily Gladstone’s look for the Met Gala. Ataumbi releases a few collections a year, with most works being one of a kind. Her works are in many museum collections including the Heard Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and have been worn on the red carpet to the Emmys, Grammys and Oscars.
