Adakai, Sylvia
Sylia Adakai (also known as Sylvia Adakai Hornbek) is a Navajo artist who specializes in making necklaces and earrings with spiny oyster. She is married to John Hornbek who has been instrumental in the revived use of spiny oyster in traditional native jewelry. Though this material was used a thousand years ago during Anasazi times (according to archaelogical finds at Chaco Canyon), the turmoil which followed the European invasion of North America effectively cut the availability of the shell to Southwestern tribes. John Hornbek re-introduced the material to the artists in the mid-seventies after diving for the shell in the Gulf of Baja to secure an initial supply. He remains a large supplier of the shell to today's Indian jewelry market. John's wife Sylvia and her mother, Alyse Shay, both work extensively with spiny oyster shell in their jewelry making.
Sylia Adakai (also known as Sylvia Adakai Hornbek) is a Navajo artist who specializes in making necklaces and earrings with spiny oyster. She is married to John Hornbek who has been instrumental in the revived use of spiny oyster in traditional native jewelry. Though this material was used a thousand years ago during Anasazi times (according to archaelogical finds at Chaco Canyon), the turmoil which followed the European invasion of North America effectively cut the availability of the shell to Southwestern tribes. John Hornbek re-introduced the material to the artists in the mid-seventies after diving for the shell in the Gulf of Baja to secure an initial supply. He remains a large supplier of the shell to today's Indian jewelry market. John's wife Sylvia and her mother, Alyse Shay, both work extensively with spiny oyster shell in their jewelry making.
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