Ray Lovato

Ray Lovato is an award-winning Santo Domingo (Kewa) artist known for making beautiful heishi necklaces and jaclas from natural turquoise. He began making jewelry at the age of eleven, learning from his parents, Ike and Tonita Lovato. Ike was a trader and traveled to the Navajo Reservation to sell Santo Domingo jewelry and helped create a market for natural turquoise jewelry. 

His four boys, three girls, and Peggy his wife, all live in the Santa Domingo Pueblo, which is located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque along the Rio Grande River. Most of Ray’s children take an active part in helping him with his jewelry, learning the trade as they go, and may one day be artists as established as their father.

Ray is recognized for his corn necklaces, in which the turquoise “tabs” are roughly shaped like the corn kernels they symbolize. Corn - of paramount significance to all the Southwestern cultures as a food product - symbolizes life and is central to many ceremonies.  He is pictured above with his daughter Melissa. Ray’s son Andrew is making beautiful natural stone hand rolled beads with his father now also.