Ray Tracey: Diné Jeweler and Actor November 11 2026

This month we’re featuring the eye-catching work of artist Ray Tracey! A Diné (Navajo) artist that has made a name for himself in various creative fields, we are so pleased to have a mini collection of Tracey’s work now listed for you to explore, just in time for gifting season.

Tracey was born in 1953 on the Navajo Nation in Arizona, and after telling his mother he was bored at the age of nine, began making jewelry. His mother, whom he cared for at the end of her life, enrolled Ray in the reservation school where he gravitated to the silversmithing bench provided in the art room. Jewelry making was already in his blood, as his grandfather Asa Tracey had shared many stories over the years of working in his uncle's jewelry studio. Asa was most notably responsible for pumping the goat bellows to melt silver into ingot, a job Tracey's grandfather stated he had a deep disdain for.

This did not dissuade Tracey from exploring his silversmithing creativity, and wasted no time making a ring that he gifted to his mother. His very next creation, he also gifted to his mother and has stated that he told his father:

“I want to make jewelry for the rest of my life.”

But jewelry would not be Tracey’s only creative love. In 1976, Tracey was cast in his first film, Joe Panther, which jumpstarted a detour into film and TV, spanning a half decade and included moving himself and his family to Los Angeles. Eventually jewelry did win his heart, and he returned to the bench. He was still semi involved in the entertainment industry, starring in the 2019 movie Shadow Wolves.

Over his illustrious career as a jeweler, Tracey had galleries in Santa Fe, Scottsdale, and Atlanta and employed 110 people. Tracey partnered regularly with Knifewing Segura, these designs are identifiable by the combined R and wing hallmark. Ray Tracey also found international acclaim, working with Piazza Trading & Co to bring his work to the Japanese market where he had a gallery in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, next to the Ralph Lauren store. Tracey’s work has been featured in shows at the Heard Museum, Autry Museum, Eiteljorg Museum and in Germany and Japan.

But for all his international acclaim, Tracey has always maintained a strong connection to his homelands, as reflected in his jewelry. He is inspired by the stories of his childhood, and the traditional motifs of Diné culture while putting his own spin on those ideas. His work is incredibly complex, detailed, modern, and occasionally very futuristic. He explores asymmetry in his work, and chooses beautiful stones to bring vision to life, masterfully utilizing contrast between textures, colors, and shapes. The work he produces is completely unique, bringing tradition into the modern world.

Tracey is a resident of Arizona now, and has spent years teaching jewelry making to the next generation while still creating new collections of his own work.