PAT PRUITT (Laguna and Chiricahua Apache, b. 1973)

Pat Pruitt is a contemporary jewelry artist of Laguna, Chiricahua Apache, and Anglo descent who lives in the village of Paguate in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico. Pruitt is an active community figure who serves on the Lugana Tribal Council. “Simple, clean, and a bit edgy” is how Pruitt describes his work.

Pruitt attributes his formative jewelry education, a turning point in his personal and professional life, to the time spent with Laguna jewelers Greg Lewis and Charlie Bird between 1988 and 1990 when he was just fifteen years old. During this apprenticeship, he developed a solid foundation in traditional materials like silver and techniques such as inlay, silver polishing, and southwestern repoussé.

 After graduating from high school, Pruitt went on to study mechanical engineering at Southern Methodist University, and then interned as a machinist at Texas Instruments. Equipped with the knowledge to make traditional jewelry, his newly acquired machine technology skills and his love of working in stainless steel led him to open Custom Steel Body Jewelry, creating stainless steel jewelry for adorning body piercings. 

 Pruitt has returned to making jewelry in his distinctive voice—deeply rooted in his Native American heritage yet with a uniquely industrial edge—that has opened the boundaries of imagining what Native American jewelry can be. Men’s jewelry, with its traditionally limited repertoire, has benefited from Pruitt’s work. He also partners with Native American women artists such as Jamie Okuma to design cuffs and earrings, which are available today at Mahnaz Collection.

Pruitt is a jewelry maker of recognized distinction, having repeatedly won all the most important Native American juried art competitions for his vessels and his jewelry. Most recently, in 2023, he won first place at the Heard Museum Indian Market, one of the two most important juried shows. He has also won a gold medal at the Couture Jewelry Awards and the American Craft Council. In 2011 to 2012, he presented his work at LOOT (now MAD About Jewelry) at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Pruitt’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the British Museum; Museum of Art and Design, New York, Museum Art, Plus (Germany), Heard Museum (USA), Albuquerque Museum (USA), The Newark Museum of Art (USA), Peabody Essex Museum (USA), The National Museum of Scotland (UK), and in numerous personal collections worldwide.

Pruitt is currently a college student again, studying for his BFA in studio arts at the renowned Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

Visit our Native American Collection page to see jewelry from our inventory of exquisite Native American jewelry and purchase the catalog, Material Beauty: Modern Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo Artist Jewelers, which accompanied our 2018 exhibition here.

To watch an Instagram Live hosted by NYC Jewelry Week founder Bella Neyman and Pat Pruitt click here.