ARTIST STUDIO BY GUSSIE FAUNTLEROY | PHOTOS BY SARA STATHAS
A silver bracelet with a double row of gently curved, inch-long triangular spikes is part of jewelry artist Cody Sanderson’s risky-looking line. “People say, ‘Is that jewelry or a weapon? Can I get on an airplane with that?’ My response is it may look dangerous, but it’s very comfortable to the wearer,” Sanderson explains, sitting in his Santa Fe studio alongside a bench of neatly organized metalsmithing tools.
Cody Sanderson inspects a rounded piece of silver sheet. In the foreground are two undulating steel stakes used to make Sanderson’s distinctive anticlastic bracelets, which alternate concave and convex curves.
Actually, “sitting” is imprecise; the 43-year-old artist rarely stops moving. He demonstrates making high domes in a copper sheet, using the antique silversmithing form of repoussé. He points out new pieces and photos of older works. “My theme this year for Indian Market is bugs, spikes, and stars,” he declares, opening a display box of silver bracelets whose repoussé designs form squiggly legged and legless elliptical shapes. “I call these my paramecium and amoebas.”
Sanderson, of Diné (Navajo) ancestry, is known for his imaginative, often playful style. His award-winning jewelry frequently involves hand-fabricating techniques such as bending, forging, casting, and stamping. Especially inventive works may incorporate ball bearings, multiple hinges, or internal springs. But the artist also has a more serious, yet still innovative side. This is expressed in pieces like a 22kt-gold necklace that uses exquisite, naturally branching red coral. The necklace comes with a Bisbee turquoise–accented crab with diamond eyes, which can be attached to the necklace or worn as a pin.
The artist grew up in Window Rock, Arizona, and as a young man worked as an EMT and a chiropractic therapist, and did a stint in the U.S. Navy. He also spent several years as a traveling jewelry rep. Looking at jewelry by various artists, he became convinced he could learn metalsmithing and create jewelry. “So I bought a workbench on sale and started asking questions,” he relates. Among his first teachers were metal fabrication instructors Sabra Sowell and David Gaussoin, for lost-wax casting. One of the lasting lessons Gaussoin passed on was something his own first teacher (his mother, Connie Tsosie Gaussoin) always said: Don’t sweat it if another artist borrows your ideas. “They can’t see the designs that are in your head,” Sanderson points out. “So it keeps pushing me to do something different.”
Left: Silver belt buckle backed with alligator leather. Middle: Round and square-sided silver rings. Right: Sterling-silver bracelets and money clip
Which is clearly what he loves doing. And inspiration can come from anywhere. Once, Sanderson was buying a pumpkin at a market when the woman selling it suddenly yanked off her hollow prosthetic leg and reached inside for change. From that came a silver-and-gold tea infuser in the shape of a ball and chain connected to a tiny hollow leg. The piece can also be worn as a bracelet or pendant.
Sanderson’s wife, fashion designer Pilar Agoyo of Ohkay Owingeh, occasionally works with film productions in the Santa Fe area and has enlisted Sanderson to create special jewelry items. One such piece was a large, spiked silver belt buckle for Wild Hogs—which unfortunately didn’t hit the big screen, because actor Ray Liotta wore his shirt untucked. Sanderson wasn’t fazed; he was on to the next idea. “I really enjoy waking up to know I’m going to create something,” he says. “A new day is a new piece.”
From the Summer 2007 issue
