Charles Loloma: Breaking Barriers with Beauty
“What I’d like to be known for is beauty.” – Charles Loloma
Artist and designer Charles Loloma was born on January 7, 1921, “near Hotevilla, Hopi Third Mesa [in Arizona], to Rex Loloma and Rachel Kuyiyesva Loloma, to the Badger clan” (1). He was not only the most influential of native American jewelers, but one of the most influential jewelers of the Twentieth Century. Best known for his use of unconventional and exotic materials in his work, Loloma, however, did not start his career in jewelry; as early as high schoolhe showed exceptional talent as a painter and muralist. (1)
Portrait of Hopi Jeweler Charles Loloma. Image source.
Growing up on the Hopi Reservation, Loloma was exposed to its rich culture which greatly influenced him throughout his career. (2) In high school, Loloma spoke very little English and was befriended by a young teacher Lloyd Kiva New whose mother was Cherokee. The two would be life-long friends. “He introduced Loloma to classical music and Frank Lloyd Wright” (3). Later in life Loloma would make a connection with Mrs. Olgivanna Wright.
A big break for Loloma happened in 1939, at the age of eighteen he was one of three Native American Artists “to be invited to paint installations for the [Golden Gate International Exposition in] the Indian Court of the Federal Building on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay” (2). The trip was a great adventure for the young man and he remained in San Francisco for three months. In 1941, Loloma worked on another important Native America art exhibition, this time it was for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (2) There along with other Native American artists he studied advanced mural painting techniques under Olle Nordmark. (3) in 1942, Loloma married Otellie Pasivaya, a potter from a nearby Hopi village. (4)
Charles Loloma, Glazed Ceramic Bowl, (c. 1950). Image source.
At the age of twenty-one Loloma was now an experienced muralist having participated in two prestigious shows, but World War II would have a profound influence on the trajectory of his career. “He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 with the 331st Army Engineers, … stationed in the Aleutian Islands.” After the war Loloma and Otellie settled in Shipaulovi on the Second Mesa. At that time he did illustrations and murals for the Verde Valley School” (4).
In 1946, the “GI Bill and a scholarship enabled Loloma and his wife to continue their education… [at] the School for American Craftsmen (SAC) [now Alfred University] in western New York State, where they studied ceramics from 1947-1949. Embarrassed that they had never used a potter’s wheel, they went in early before school to practice their skills. Embarrassed that they had never used a potter’s wheel, they went in early before school to practice their skills” (3). The Lolomas were exposed to modernist design ideals. Charles began thinking “thinking about the possibilities of form and material in art” (2) and the possibilities of combining these modernist concepts with his traditional Hopi heritage. (2)
During this time the couple often traveled to New York City to experience the art scene. There they “met Philip Morton, an instructor in metal design and proponent of the wearable art movement”. (3) Morton’s work was featured in a “1946 exhibition of Modern Handmade Jewelry” (3) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Loloma’s subsequent work would be influenced by Morton’s use of silver and ebony. (3)
A photograph from 1949 shows Loloma making jewelry as early as that time; but “he and his wife remained focused on their pottery into the early 1950s” (3). The pair received attention from the art world on their use of “new techniques, materials and designs which they incorporated into traditional Hopi pottery” (3), but they were harshly criticized by the Hopi for their departure from traditional methods. (3)
Exterior of Kiva Craft Center, (c. 1950). Image source and © Scottsdale Historical Society.
“In 1954 [Loloma and Otellie] opened a pottery shop in Scottsdale, becoming the first tenants of the successful Kiva Craft Center, founded by [Charles’s old friend] Lloyd Kiva New” (4). The Lolomas developed and sold a successful pottery line that they marketed as “Lolomaware.” During the six years that the shop was in operation, Loloma also taught “at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe” (2) and “at the University of Arizona, Tucson and at Arizona State University at Tempe (4).
Loloma Turns to Silversmithing and Encounters Mrs. Olgivanna Wright
During his time in Scottsdale, Loloma became interested in silversmithing. He “followed the traditional Navajo method of tufa-casting, … [a] method of silversmithing produced a textured surface on the metal. Loloma would then work in Hopi overlap designs” (3).
Around 1956 Loloma met the wife of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Mrs. Olgivanna Wright was an important early client. Bracelets designed for Mrs. Wright “set with turquoise and coral, give a glimpse of the iconic cuff bracelets for which Loloma would become famous” (3). A fortuitous accident resulted in one of Loloma’s signature pieces. “When a bracelet…cast for Mrs. Wright accidentally formed a hole in the metal, she insisted he just insert a stone rather than recast the piece. This resulted in a colorful hidden inlay of various hardstones like turquoise, lapiz and coral set beneath a silver tufa-cast ‘accident’ (3).” Another of Loloma’s techniques was that “of including ‘inner gems’ on the interior surfaces of his pieces expressed his belief that ‘people have inner gems’” (1).
Charles Loloma, Silver Tufa Cast Cuff Bracelet with Turquoise and Gold (c. 1955). Image source.
Like his pottery, Loloma’s stunning jewelry creations also “encountered resistance and hostility” from the Hopi Community. His work was “denied entry by the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial” (3). In 1959, however, his work was included in the Rockefeller Foundation-funded “Directions in Indian Art: A Conference on Arizona’s Position on Southwest Indian Art Education” at the University of Arizona (3).
Loloma’s Jewelry Becomes Haute Couture
In 1963 Loloma finally got his wish to visit Paris. His benefactors paid for travel and included letters of introduction to the leading fashion houses. Soon Loloma bracelets and earrings could be seen on Paris runways. He had arrived as an international jewelry designer. (3)
Charles Loloma, Bracelet with silver alloy, stone, and ivory, (1960). Collection of the Smithsonian Museum of Art. Image source.
The following year Loloma “built a home and studio close to his childhood home in Hotevilla” (3). He stopped teaching to concentrate on his jewelry, but his wife did not make the move from Sante Fe with him; the couple divorced shortly thereafter. (3).
In 1968, Loloma met Eveli Sabatie, a Sorbonne educated young woman of French-Spanish descent who came to Arizona work with him. Ms. Sabatie’s limited resources resulted in her use of “bleached bones and ivory to highlight the silver in her designs” (3). Loloma in turn was influenced by the used of dark and light in Sabatie’s work. “It was at this point he became fascinated with stacking stones, a now iconic Loloma design” (3). Loloma and Sabatie collaborated until 1972 when she struck out on her own. (3)
Loloma’s Work Reaches its Peak in the 1970s
During the 1970s Native American silver and turquoise jewelry was all the rage, and Loloma was its most famous designer. “In June 1973, he was the keynote speaker for the American Craftsmen Council convention in Fort Collins, Colorado. Later that year, his work was exhibited in Houston, Texas and the following January through March, at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York [now the Museum of Art and Design]” (4). In 1978, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, held an exhibition of his work. Loloma “ he held shows across 9 states and in Germany in 1979” (3).
Charles Loloma, Gold and Multi-stone Inlay Cuff, (c. 1975). Image source.
Loloma Remains Faithful to His Hopi Heritage
Athough Loloma had achieved much success and celebrity for his work, he “continued to have a deep reverence for Hopi beliefs and the ceremonies, which express them. In the midst of his successful 1971 Paris show, he flew home so that he might take part in the Bean Dance” (4). He lived by “the Hopi calendar, its cycles of birth, death, and regeneration. There is a seeming disparity between this way of life and the sophisticated world in which he moved” (4). He constantly struggled to remain rooted in the Hopi traditions while continuing to evolve as an artist. (3)
Charles Loloma, Bracelet with badger paw in Gold, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, (1985). Image source.
At a show in Denver in 1979, Loloma met Georgia Voisard, a teacher who was studying Native America. The couple fell in love, Georgia moved to Hotevilla and became Lolma’s his partner and manager “and they later married. Georgia encouraged Loloma to invest in finer quality materials” (3). Loloma’s work from the 1980s is his most colorful, bold, and dramatic of his career.
Tragedy Strikes Charles Loloma
In 1986 Charles Loloma was injured in a serious automobile accident which left him unable to work. “He still attended his exhibitions, but his mind would wander. In 1988, the Loloma Studio was closed. In 1991, the Wheelwright Museum presented ‘Jewelry of the Southwest: Pueblo Tradition and Innovation’, which highlighted the work of Loloma and another artist” (3). Unfortunately, he did not live to see this show, it opened a few weeks after his death on June 9, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. (5)
Charles Loloma's personal silver belt buckle, (c. 1970). Image source.
Charles Loloma’s Influence Lives On
Through his teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts and at the University of Arizona and “through his...experimental use of diverse stones, unusual materials, and modernist forms” (3), Charles Loloma influenced a new generation of Native American designers. (3) Verma Nequatewa, Loloma’s niece and apprentice is an highly esteemed jeweler whose own work, like her uncle’s , “is inspired by her culture and the rich environment and landscapes she sees from her studio at Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona”(6).
Perhaps Charles Loloma’s most important contribution was elevating the world’s perception of Native American silversmithing from craftwork to fine art. His influence however, “extended beyond jewelry. He demonstrated that Native American artists could work within …global art movements while maintaining a distinct cultural identity” (2).
Wikipedia, (2 February, 2026). Charles Loloma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Loloma
The Rogue Art Historian (18 November, 2024). Charles Loloma. https://roguearthistorian.substack.com/p/charles-loloma
William Doyle Galleries, (2026). Charles Loloma: Native American Visions. https://www.doyle.com/story/charles-loloma-native-american-visions/
AmericanMastersofStone.com, (24 July 2008). Charles Loloma. https://web.archive.org/web/20080724101608/http://www.americanmastersofstone.com/Biographies/Charles%20Loloma.htm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, (2026). Charles Loloma. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/charles-loloma-33638
The Eddie Basha Collection, (2024). Verma Nequatewa. https://eddiebashacollection.com/collection/verma-nequatewa