Veronica Benally

Born 1972

Navajo (Arizona)

Medium: Jewelry

Veronica Benally was born and raised on the Navajo reservation in 

Northern Arizona. She has been actively making jewelry since 1993, when she started silversmithing at 21 years old. She is primarily self-taught, learning much of her techniques from her husband, award-winning inlay jeweler Ernest Benally. Together, they have won numerous awards for their jewelry, including First Place in Jewelry at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and First and Second Place in Jewelry at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

She is primarily known for her contemporary channel and mosaic inlay jewelry. She prefers the technique of corn-roll inlay, which requires each stone to be individually cut, domed and placed.