Meet Darryl Dean Begay Navajo Jeweler

Darryl Dean Begay is a Navajo jeweler from Gallup New Mexico. This is an intro video to Darryl as he presents three of his favorite top grade Turquoise stones and a little about his style. Please subscribe and stay tuned to more videos in the future.

My name is Darryl Dean Begay. I am a Navajo jeweler residing with my wife and kids and today I am gonna talk about turquoise. And you know I brought some samples. Some of these turquoises are top five percent or even one percent. Out of lot of – you know there is lot of lower grade chalk and then gets into medium grade and then high grade and then top grade. Some of these top grades my friends and I call them sick grade because you know they are so rare and so classy and silicated that you know it’s a rare specimen and many people across the globe they love turquoise and it’s a passion and once turquoise gets into your veins it becomes something so you gotta have another one you gotta have you know its indicting. It’s like people who are on drugs I guess. So I think you know across the border I have lots of favorites but I brought three of my favorites-lone mountain turquoise. It is torn apart of Adam. It is very good turquoise, very hard and it takes really good -. Next one is Panther blue turquoise. It’s a new one of mine in the same place to it in the- area Nevada. And as of now you know I have seen the very top grade and it’s so classy as well and there is one more which is brenzy, turquoise from Arizona and brenzy is really really nice. It’s always been one of my favorite since the beginning. It has it has pyrite it is very sought after as well. My style is basically refined to the point that you know it’s so meticulously put together, it’s not you know even as simple as pendant. You know every little is symmetrical and every scratch is saddened – you know I take my time on my work and I want to last I want to last you know forever really. So I guess that’s what separates me from the others. Yeah.
They are cutting corners?

Yes they are cutting corners.

What does that mean?

That’s the most important thing that he just touched on. You know some of my work takes you to fourteen to seventeen steps from start to finish. And compared to some other jewelers, they can finish in several hours. I don’t want my piece to come back and stones falling out and you know any other stuff. Majority of my work now you know even as high as ninety five percent will be set with high grade quality stuff so that’s what I want the world to know. My name is Darryl Dean Begay and I support -Native American art and just want to say keep it real.