Larry Golsh

A trendsetter in fine, contemporary Native American jewelry, Larry Golsh was raised on the Pala Mission reservation near San Diego, CA. Although his jewelry-making career began in Arizona, Golsh credits the geometric designs on his jewelry to inspiration from patterns he saw on his grandmother’s Pala Mission baskets, as well as the prehistoric rock art he grew up around in Southern California.

Larry Golsh initially studied architecture at Arizona State University, and took up sculpture after being inspired by one of his professors. After winning awards for sculpture at the Arizona State Fair, he became an art major. While at ASU, Golsh worked at Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale helping Hopi artist Manfred Susunkewa to design and create silkscreens for fabrics. It was there that he met Charles Loloma - a meeting that would in turn launch Golsh’s jewelry career.

Charles Loloma already was a well-known Native American jeweler when he invited Golsh to visit him at his studio in the Hopi village of Hotevilla. Golsh was drawn to Loloma’s early jewelry designs emphasizing metalwork, and he learned the tufa casting technique from Loloma. As he became more and more interested in crafting jewelry, Golsh learned the lost wax process from another local jeweler and began experimenting with using different materials including stone, wood, charcoal, and cuttlefish bone to achieve unique textures in metal. It was this technique and experimentation that made Golsh a top contemporary Native American jeweler in the 1970s and earned him awards at the prestigious Heard Museum Indian Market.

To further elevate his jewelry, Golsh began using gem-quality turquoise, diamonds, and rare stones after studying under French jeweler Pierre Touraine at Gemological Institute of America.

Over the past several decades, Larry Golsh’s fine jewelry and sculpture have continued to win awards and acclaim across the country, even earning him a PBS documentary titled “Larry Golsh - American Indian Artist.” His classic, yet contemporary designs and the high-quality materials he uses in his jewelry make Larry Golsh’s works as collectible as they are beautiful.