It’s common in Sedona to walk into a gallery or shop and find Hopi or Navajo kachina dolls carved from cottonwood. But there’s only one location in all of Sedona – and, reportedly, the world – where you will find glittering kachinas carved out of precious and semiprecious stones. That’s Blue Elk Designs, tucked away in a narrow alley in Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. The kachinas, along with almost all of the jewelry in the gallery, are the work of Pedro Jimenez III, who can often be found at the location. (During our conversation, it had been 86 days since Pedro had taken a day off.) Pedro was born in Peru. Just like his father and grandfather, he served in the Peruvian Air Force. His mom was a painter and sculptor. Pedro likes to say he’s had at least 30 different careers in his lifetime, including working in oil, advertising, television, restaurants, hotels, fishing and mining.
He moved to the U.S. in 1989 and eventually settled in Santa Fe for 23 years. He has been designing gemstone kachinas and animal sculptures as well as jewelry for 18 years. He relocated to Sedona and opened Blue Elk Designs, his first gallery, in 2012. Though Pedro carved tikis in wood when he was a child, he says he’s completely self-taught. His studio is in Lima (he travels to his native country several times a year), and most of his stones come from Peru and South America. Pedro works with dozens of types of stones including turquoise, spiny oyster, chrysocolla, jasper, carnelian, mother of pearl, malachite, lapis, marble and opal. It takes three to four months to create each kachina.
“I love what I do,” says Pedro, whose wife, Edith, and 5-year-old son, Pedrito, can often be found in the gallery with him. “I only use the best of the best stones – gem quality. These are not commercial pieces. Everything I do is handmade and one of a kind.”
The Jicarilla Apache people gave Pedro the moniker Blue Elk when he was living in Santa Fe. He has a close relationship with the Apache, Zuni, Hopi and Navajo. He says it’s their spirituality and petroglyphs, along with the traditions of the Incan and Pre-Incan civilizations, that inspire his work. “He knows a lot of history,” says Edith. – Erika Ayn Finch. Photo by Deb Weinkauff.
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