Ray & Dorothy Kyasyousie


 Please meet the silversmithing team of Ray and Dorothy Kyasyousie shown here in 2012. In their own words...

We are Raymond and Dorothy Kyasyousie and are from the village of Hotevilla. We both started Hopi Overlay jewelry at different times with slightly different styles.


Raymond started in 1975 while employed at the Hopi Craft Gallery under the instruction of Glen Lucas and for the past 37 years has devolved a unique style featuring Ko-ya–la (Hopi clown), wild life and full figure katsina scenes as well as the traditional geometric design in silver and gold.

 I, Dorothy started in 1994 with contemporary abstract designs using a variety of stones such as turquoise, lapis, amethyst, garnet, coral, and quartz crystals. Since becoming comfortable with cutting silver, I have expanded into overlay jewelry incorporating both styles. Both Raymond and I have had a great demand in doing clan related symbols and have since been creating a somewhat different type of contemporary Hopi overlay design.

There has been a resurgence by our young people to discover what Hopi really is and understand what place they and their clan have in building the oldest civilization in the Americas. Our legends "history" tell us of four worlds of the Hopi and how we have survived to this day. Doing Hopi overlay clan jewelry has hopefully helped in some way to educate our young people to identify who we are related to , to spark interest in there clan history and to realize the importance of Hopi life and survival. 

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