Benson Manygoats
Benson Manygoats was born and raised in Tohatchi, New Mexico. Manygoats is a self-taught silversmith and the first in his family to learn the trade.
During his high school years he learned basic silver-smithing, which lead to his professional career in silver and gold-smithing. For the past fifteen years, his specialty has been the intricate inlay. He worked for Tracy Ltd. for fourteen years, perfecting his inlays. In January 2002, he started his own business, designing, building, and inlaying his own jewelry from start to finish.
All of his jewelry is hand-crafted, including the clasps, silver beads and inlaid geometric shapes. He uses a variety of color, and there is a nice, heavy feel to each piece. The jewelry Benson presents is very unusual, highly contemporary, very geometric. Yet it is based on traditional design. He works mainly in heavy-grade silver inlaid cut stones shaped in ovals, squares, diamonds and triangles.
Manygoats has won numerous awards at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, the Totah Festival in Farmington, the Red Earth Show in Oklahoma City, the Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup, and many others.
