Gilbert “Dino” Garcia
Santo Domingo artist Dino Garcia, born in 1969, has been an active silversmith since the 1990’s. He learned the art of carving tufa molds and casting silver from his grandfather Leo Coriz (who learned the art from the renowned Hopi artist Charles Loloma).
Gilbert “Dino” Garcia is one of only a handful of working silversmiths at Santo Domingo Pueblo. He works with both silver and gold and specializes in casting his pieces in hand-carved tufa stone molds. Dino’s pieces, however, are different from those of most sandcast artists. Dino uses a soft tufa which he digs at a location in Arizona shown to him by his grandfather. This soft tufa allows Dino to carve particularly detailed designs in the stone, but the very softness of the stone means that each mold is only good for casting one piece. Dino’s two-piece molds are carved on each side so that his pieces show carved designs on both sides; on the outside and inside, or front and back.
Each piece of his is truly a one-of-a-kind work because the mold itself does not survive the casting process intact.
