Desert Hearts

The art and visions of two extraordinary jewelers, Eveli Sabatie and Charles Loloma, shine through an exclusive exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe.

There is still time until January 15, 2017 to see the exhibition Eveli: Energy and Significance at the Wheelwright Museum’s Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry. The exhibition revolves around the work of Eveli Sabatie, one of only two jewelers (the other is Verma Nequatewa) whom the legendary master jeweler Charles Loloma recognized as protégés.

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Born in eastern Algeria, raised in Morocco, and educated in Paris, Eveli joined Charles Loloma’s studio as his focus was shifting away from cast metal and toward an interest in mosaic inlay. Powered by his passion for traditional Hopi stone and shell work, abalone-encrusted Northwest Coast masks, and ancient Egyptian jewelry, Loloma’s work went through a remarkable change to which Eveli Sabatie made a significant contribution. She presented him with Moroccan mosaic—“the turquoise blues, the blue-greens, the lapis blues of tiles laid into the walls of mosques and fountains”— and possessed an insatiable curiosity that made her a willing pupil and an able assistant.

The Significance: tufa-cast and fabricated silver and gold book with turquoise, lapis lazuli, fossilized ivory, wood, coral, and other stones, ca. 1980. Height 4 inches. Private collection. Photograph by Addison Doty.

After leaving the Loloma studio in 1972, Eveli moved to Santa Fe and embarked on her own career, creating a jewelry legacy marked by originality, enthusiasm, and soul. Favoring exotic materials including carved bone, fossil ivory, and richly colored stone, her work features lavish, organic shapes, crystal cabochons in open back settings, and heavily textured and stamped metal. Eveli’s jewelry is known for its luxury and wit, and for the fact that she does not repeat herself: “Every moment is of every day is different!” she says, “So how can you repeat? The moment you repeat you kill something. You’re not really in what’s happening right now. Every material is different, every hour is different, my mood is different every day.”

The Return: Fossilized ivory, turquoise, coral, wood, jet, lapis lazuli, malachite, ca. 1990. Length of pendant 6 inches; length of necklace 13.25 inches. Anonymous gift. Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Photograph by Addison Doty.

https://wheelwright.org/exhibitions/eveli/