The "Emergence Jewelry" Series by Phillip Honanie

Inspired by the Hopi creation story and brought to life in wearable form by master Hopi silversmith, Phillip Honanie.

In 1976, Hopi artist Phillip Honanie (1950–2017) created a landmark series of jewelry inspired by his own 1975 painting The Beginning. That painting (seen right), a vivid red and yellow acrylic composition, depicts the Hopi emergence story, where the first people rise from the Sipapuni and begin life in the Fourth World. Honanie translated the sacred narrative into a powerful series of sculptural works in silver, gold, and stone, collectively known as the Emergence Jewelry Series.

Each piece in the series mirrors figures from The Beginning, including Māasaw (the guardian of the Fourth World), First Man, First Woman, their children, and a Kwan: a priest of the One-Horn Society. The jewelry transforms these flat, symbolic figures into three-dimensional forms, maintaining their essential shapes and meanings while imbuing them with material weight and spiritual presence.

Honanie also created individual pendants and rings for First Man and First Woman, with additional figures representing their children. In this collection are several of these remarkable pieces including a 1977 First Woman pendant in coral, framed in gold over silver, with the iconic butterfly whorls hairstyle of a Hopi maiden lifted directly from the painting. In addition are multiple all-silver pendants and rings of First Man, First Woman, and their children—beautifully minimalist, yet full of meaning.

Emergence Jewelry series references a figure from The Beginning painting, which Honanie originally created to accompany an advertisement series in American Indian Art Magazine for Kopavi International. The jewelry was part of a larger collaborative effort led by Richard Mehagian, and the designs were featured in advertisements and articles from 1976 through the early 1980s. The project represented a rare intersection of Hopi visual storytelling, contemporary Native jewelry design, and collaborative creations.

As described in Hopi Gold: Hopi Silver, the Sipapu, or symbolic place of emergence, is “the point from which the creation of all life and forms issued and the point to which the breath bodies of the deceased travel to return to the spiritual realm.” Honanie’s Emergence Jewelry gives this spiritual concept physical form, preserving a sacred origin story in metal, stone, and silhouette.

Now nearly fifty years old, the Emergence series stands as a masterwork of modern Hopi jewelry: highly rare, deeply symbolic, and profoundly personal. We are honored to represent these pieces at Garland’s as part of the Kopavi Collection and to share Phillip Honanie’s vision with a new generation of collectors.

Browse Phillip Honanie's Emergence Jewelry Series