It's Tskies birthday!

It’s Tskies birthday! That’s right, we’re growing, well not so much older as bigger and better. And we want to share our birthday with you. First, let’s tell you a bit about how Tskies came to be. In the beginning…

Turquoise Skies was the brain child of Mathew James. Mathew grew up next to the Navajo reservation. Living there, he knew some Navajo artists and admired their work. In 2007, Mathew was working as a nurse and decided to start a side business selling Native jewelry to collectors as art. He’d gotten into designing jewelry as well and soon wanted to make his own. So he turned to the Native artists he knew.

Over time he learned what was selling and what wasn’t. Sometimes the collectors he sold to were looking for something they couldn’t find. He thought he could fill that gap and provide income for the Native jewelers he knew by designing the pieces for them to create.

Learning the business meant learning something about making jewelry. As he puts it, “I had to learn how to make jewelry so that I learned how the process worked. That made me a better designer.” Mathew drew out his designs and the artists created the pieces, which were then sold to collectors.

With his side business growing, Mathew had to lay out a plan for the future. Although he was designing some of the jewelry, he wasn’t making it so he didn’t feel the company should go by his name the way other jewelry companies did. He wanted the business to be about everyone involved, not him alone. To do this, he felt a brand name would be a better fit for the company. So Turquoise Skies was born.

Turquoise Skies didn’t stay small long. Today the company hosts a wide variety of designers and creators along with six different collections (with more to come!). And there’s a beautiful new gallery to showcase the work of the artists. The company formed a co-op to support new Native artists and offers live shows about the process of making jewelry on social media. In 2013 the name was shortened to Tskies.

So help us celebrate! Check us out at tskies.com and watch for special birthday offerings this month.