Leonard Nez

We met through my sister. At first we became good friends, and then a couple of years later we married.

We have four children, two boys and two girls. The boys are the oldest, the oldest being 30 years old. They have a framing company and stay busy doing construction work. The girls the youngest, our baby is 13 years old. Our oldest daughter is a Pre-School Director for the Eastern Navajo Agency.

No, they all have their careers and are happy doing what they do.

My wife introduced me to jewelry. She was the one who taught me how to silversmith. Before that I did other types of work.

I worked for the cable company in Albuquerque laying cable for televisions. That job I had for six years, they moved me to Phoenix. Then they wanted to move me to Oregon, but knew that I couldn’t take my children that far away. After that I operated heavy equipment for about 5 years.

When I was 13 years old my late Uncle, James Begay Sr., taught me how to team rope. I couldn’t do this when I was working these other jobs because I would have to work on the weekends. Now I can do my team roping and make jewelry.

I am a healer. My fastest time is 5.3 seconds. I have a 13 year old quarter horse named Slash, and he is a good one. It also allows me to make trophy buckles for competitions, like the one I have on. I made this for a guy who never paid me, so I wear it. Traded a buckle with my cousin Gibson Nez for some stones once.

I played basketball, football, baseball, and wrestled at Holbrook High School. In wrestling I went undefeated until the last match in the state final.

When I first started making jewelry I made traditional style pieces. About seven years ago I started making more contemporary pieces. I combine both traditional designs with contemporary designs, this is how I wanted to make my jewelry.

Yes, I have won best of show awards and show my jewelry in correspondence with the Indian Market. I get a good response from customers and am always staying busy.