Dina Huntinghorse · Wichita
Dina Huntinghorse is a Wichita jeweler raised in southwestern Oklahoma. She works in sterling silver and gold, setting high-grade turquoise, coral, and sugilite into pieces built around the animals of the Plains: horses, wolves, bears, and buffalo.
She began as a painter, then learned beadwork from her aunt. Her beaded deerskin purses are in the permanent collection of the Heard Museum. In 1989, she married Navajo silversmith Herbert Taylor, who taught her inlay, lapidary, and overlay. After his death in 1996, she carried his techniques forward and developed a style all her own.
Today she designs and builds each piece by hand, working in silver, 14k and 18k gold, and diamonds. She exhibits at the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, and her work belongs to private collections across the Southwest.