THE STORY OF BRIAN YATSATTIE
Stone, Silver & Soul
How a painter from a family of jewelers taught himself to carve stone — and spent three decades turning the earth's rarest materials into objects that outlast everything else we make.
Origin Zuni Pueblo tradition, New Mexico
Practice Stone carving & handcrafted jewelry
Since 1989 — over 35 years
Method Entirely self-taught. No molds, no reproductions. Every cut permanent.
THE BEGINNING
A painter who picked up a piece of stone and never looked back
Brian Yatsattie was a painter first. In 1989, he watched another carver at work and picked up some stone. Self-taught from the start — no formal training, no master. Just instinct and material.
He does not carve shapes into rock. He reads the stone — its grain, its color, its hidden patterns — and finds the animal already waiting inside.
"It looked like fun — so I picked up some stone and started carving."
— BRIAN YATSATTIE, 1989
In 1992 he moved to San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico, where he has lived and worked ever since.
THE ARTIST TODAY
Brian's work is collected worldwide. What sets him apart is material obsession — Yooperlite that glows under UV light, Fordite layered with automotive history, mammoth tooth ivory carrying 40,000 years of prehistory. The stone is never incidental. It is half the artwork.
He works in both carving and jewelry — a natural inheritance from his mother Janta, whose petit-point silverwork was celebrated throughout the Pueblo community.
Today he teaches his brother and his son. The tradition does not end with his hands.
And now, for the first time, Brian sells directly through this website — no gallery markup, no middleman. Every purchase goes straight to the artist and his family. It is the most direct way to own his work, and to be part of the story he has spent thirty-five years building.
FAMILY & LEGACY
Art runs through the Yatsattie family like a vein of turquoise through stone
MOTHER
Janta Yatsattie
Renowned for her intricate petit-point silverwork and jewelry — celebrated throughout the Pueblo community for her patience, precision, and artistry. The original spark of the family's creative fire.
THE ARTIST
Brian Yatsattie
Self-taught carver and jeweler. Began in 1989, moved to San Felipe Pueblo in 1992. Now one of the most collected Zuni fetish artists in the world, working in stone, silver, and rare geological materials.
NEXT GENERATION
Brian's Son & Brother
Brian has taught both his brother and his son the art of fetish carving — ensuring this tradition continues. The knowledge that began with Janta flows forward, unbroken, into the next generation.
HIS PHILOSOPHY
"The animal is already in the stone. I just help it out."
This is not merely a poetic idea. Brian Yatsattie genuinely begins with the stone — its natural color, its inclusions, its weight in his hand — before he decides what it will become. The material leads. The artist follows, refines, and ultimately reveals.
It is a philosophy rooted in deep respect: for the earth that produced the material over millions of years, for the Zuni tradition that first understood animals as spiritual guardians and intermediaries, and for the collector who will one day hold this object and feel that something true lives inside it.
Every piece Brian makes carries this intention. Not decoration. Not product. A living object, shaped by time and by hands that understood what they were doing.
THE WORK
Two disciplines, one vision
Fetish carvings — stone animals in the Zuni tradition. Bears, wolves, eagles, frogs, mountain lions, badgers. Shaped from turquoise, Yooperlite, jet, agate, fossilized ivory. Each one a guardian with spiritual meaning.
Jewelry — pendants, rings, earrings, necklaces in stone and silver. The same rare materials as his fetishes, worn on the body. Wearable art, not accessories.
In both forms: the material leads. The artist follows.
HIS PROCESS
✔ STONE SELECTION
Brian sources unusual, rare materials globally — Yooperlite from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Fordite from automotive plants, picture jasper, motor agate, mammoth tooth. The stone comes first. Always.
✔ STONE SELECTION
Brian sources unusual, rare materials globally — Yooperlite from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Fordite from automotive plants, picture jasper, motor agate, mammoth tooth. The stone comes first. Always.
✔ HAND CARVING
Using rotary tools and hand instruments, Brian carves entirely by hand. No molds, no reproduction. Every surface, every detail, every decision is made in real time.
✔ FINISHING & OFFERING BUNDLES
Many fetishes receive offering bundles — shell, coral, turquoise, and arrowheads tied to the back — following Zuni tradition, activating the piece's spiritual purpose.
✔ ONE PIECE, ONE HOME
When a piece is complete, there is only one. It moves to a single collector and that is where it lives. Brian does not reproduce. He does not repeat. He moves forward.
Ready to own a piece of this story?
Every carving and jewelry piece Brian makes is available until it finds one home — and then it is gone.