With the popularity of hand-crafted jewelry in New Mexico, we here at Albuquerque City Lifestyle keep an eye out for talented silversmiths. Recently, we encountered some ladies who have been doing it for generations. Dee Devine, who works with her mother and husband, told us, “I'm a fourth-generation silversmith and my mom is the third. We all work together hand-making fine sterling silver and gemstone jewelry. Our stones come from all around the world, but we do all our silver work here in New Mexico, primarily in Albuquerque where we have our main marketplace and workshops, but then we do lots of arts and craft shows and renaissance festivals. We work together, but each of us is a little bit different in style, so you get a nice variety.”
“My husband and I do the leather working and then all three of us do the silver work. My mom usually does more of the filigree, a very whimsical kind of lacey jewelry. I like working with the big stones and some more traditional New Mexican jewelry, but I put my own twist on it. I get a lot of my inspiration and ideas from both our Celtic and Norse heritage and then mix it in with that southwest flair for a really fun style. My husband does the chain mail and the leather work, and he also does our big stone stuff. He makes sure that we have ring sizes going all the way up to 15 so that both men and women can shop with us and find pieces that will fit their style and sizing”.
Dee’s mom, Christy Hales, told us, “I’ve been doing this for about 40 years. My grandmother was a stone cutter, and my mother was a silversmith. I was partners with my mother for about 20 years until she retired and then I partnered with my daughter and carried on the tradition.”
Dee elaborated on the family’s heritage as craftspeople, “My great grandma moved to New Mexico with her six daughters while they were still very young and became a stone cutter and then my great-aunt became the first master silversmith in the family. My great-aunt trained my grandma and a number of that generation. She trained my mom, my aunt, and my cousins. I did my apprenticeship with my mom for about 20 years, but then I went to college for business and explored the world's opportunities before coming home. It was not just coming home physically but coming home to my roots which is the silver jewelry. I grew up at the foot of a workbench. I was selling at shows ever since I could stand.”
Dee and her husband, Curtis Clary are currently building an off-grid home. She told us, “We've got a nice little piece of property out in the mountains, and we've been working on getting our system set up. We've got chickens, dogs, rainwater collection, and we’re getting the garden going. The first building that we built on the property was our workshop because that's where our priorities are but we're hoping to start working on building our actual home here this year which is very exciting.”
Dee summed up their business and artistic approach, “Our philosophy isn't that we're just there to sell jewelry. It's that we produce jewelry to create an experience for them. Our work should bring joy to people. Since the dawn of time, humans have been trying to figure out how to adorn their bodies with shiny things. It’s just a continuation of the oldest hobby around.”
Each member of the family has a business name: Dee is Dee Divine Boutique, mom is CH Star, and Dee’s husband, Curtis Clary, is Jarl Gray Wolf Forge. You can contact them all at: https://deedevineboutique.myshopify.com/
"I grew up at the foot of a workbench."