A new twist on jewelry
Tol-pi-yiné Simbola reimagines wearable art
Dragon skins, kinetic cubes — the dramatic jewelry of Tol-pi-yiné Simbola has caught the eye of collectors and his fellow jewelers alike. Simbola is a member of Picuris Pueblo and lives in the heart of Native American art: Santa Fe. He crafts unique wearable art that makes nearly everyone stop and take notice. He showcases his latest designs at Santa Fe Indian Market.
A highly sought-after emerging artist, Simbola started making jewelry as a preteen, making things he thought were “cool” and that anyone could wear. His mother was his first metalsmithing teacher. He watched her work late nights making jewelry to help support the family. When he was 12, his mother began teaching him what she knew, and he was able to hone his skills. He recalls, “I felt freer to experiment with different styles and techniques. I always wanted to make jewelry that people looked at and liked because it was quality jewelry and not just Native American jewelry.”
In 2004, a few months into his lessons, his mother encouraged him to enter Indian Market. Continuing on that path, Simbola won the market’s Youth Fellowship Award at age 18. Then, as most 18-year-olds do, he pursued other interests, creating jewelry only off and on for the next seven years.
For the last four years, jewelry has been Simbola’s full-time focus. He makes prototypes in copper. His preferred metal for finished pieces is sterling silver, but he increasingly enjoys working with high-karat gold. He explains, “It is soft, but that’s what makes it so elegant in a way. You’re able to move and sculpt it more, unlike silver or even 14-karat gold.” He also notes that gold held ceremonial importance throughout the pre-Columbian Americas and is often associated with the sun.
His Twisted Cube series grew from his fascination with sharp lines and smoothly flowing lines that work in unison — in art, architecture and even food. While working for his grandfather as a general contractor, he was inspired by blacksmithing techniques and designs he saw at steel shops, including spiral railings, handles, staircases and other architectural features. He thought they would translate well into silver or gold.
Over time, the Twisted Cube series has evolved “in many ways . . . . I not only realized the number
of variations I could do in the forms of stamping, the twists, the amount and direction of the twists, the size of the cubes and the crazy number of different things I could make but also how much the difficulty increased when I reduced the size and increased the cubes. So that is what I did. I will continue to keep elevating and evolving this design into something that can’t be duplicated or copied and will retain its unique value.”
In his new Tessellation series, inspired in part by Dutch illustrator M.C. Escher, Simbola experiments with different stamps, meticulously lays out patterns and then hand stamps each section to create a larger pattern with no overlapping or intersecting lines.
He says his jewelry is “a mix between all-day wear, which I strive for, and nightlife. I have always tried to remember my mother’s advice on keeping earrings light, but don’t hesitate to make a 2-ounce cuff.”
He used to think, “the bigger the better,” but “now I feel and see how that is not always the case. Elegant, small, fabricated jewelry is a great example of how beauty is in the details. At this point in my career, I like my work to be more impressive up close than to be seen across the room.”
While he is diving deep and trying to learn more about what makes him say “wow” when he sees it, he continues to expand his skill set. His inspirations are everywhere, from the patterns on a ballroom floor or tile in a bathroom to the way the curve on a building affects the layout of the bricks. His admiration for symmetry shows as well. His muses come and go. Even adversity drives and inspires him.
He is most productive at night, working with just his little bench light on. He explains, “After the sun goes down, everything around me starts to slow down a little and I can concentrate better.” But he also enjoys working outside with natural light or with his bench facing a big open window with the flowers, trees and sounds of Mother Nature.
He finds nothing more satisfying than holding in his hand something that was only an idea the day before. He aims to fabricate unique pieces that people are drawn to, love and cannot live without, and that fellow artists and the art community can also appreciate. He also plans to work with more gold and faceted gemstones.
When asked if he does commissions or special orders, Simbola responded enthusiastically, “Absolutely! They are sometimes my favorite to work on, as most of the time they inspire new ideas or designs that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of.” He enjoys the challenges of special requests and the opportunity to devise new solutions.
“I pride myself on having good ideas and executing them well through good old-fashioned fabrication and failure . . . . The failures . . . make the successes that much sweeter.”
At Santa Fe Indian Market Simbola displays his one-of-a-kind jewelry at Booth 758 LIN W, which he shares with Cochiti painter Mateo Romero. He showcases his Twisted Cube, Dragon Skinn and Tessellation series, as well as new pieces highlighting recently acquired, time-intensive technical skills. His work is also available year-round through his website: redsunjewelry.com.