Sunshine is the younger brother of renowned silversmith Gary Reeves and of David Reeves (now deceased), who was so instrumental in teaching the craft to both Gary and Sunshine, as well as their half-brothers Darrel and Andy Cadman. Sunshine's work, like that of his brother Gary, is present in the collections of the Heard Museum in Phoenix and he has won numerous awards for his work.

This is a wholly new concept of design and style among the body of work by Sunshine Reeves as a silversmith. The exterior decorative element is dominated by the use of round wire to create filigree work of spiraling scrolls which are the repeated unifying element of the design. While we've seen the use of such filigree scrollwork in the designs of silversmiths such as Calvin Martinez and Darrel Cadman, this is our first exposure to a contemporary Navajo silversmith using filigree as the principal and overriding decorative element. Upon closer inspection, so many of the traditional Navajo silverwork techniques are employed; minutely detailed, stamped sheet silver appliquées, carefully cut and filed sculpted edges--the inside of the ring is painstakingly deep-stamped with Sunshine's recognizable home-made stamps unique to his smithing. His gambit here, however, is to skew the priority of the design elements (in terms of Navajo smithing, at least) to favor a decorative element which is not commonly used in Navajo jewelry making. This preeminence of the filigree work may shock and deter some from closely inspecting what is going on here because they perceive the artist to be out of his element or, rather, attempting to inhabit a realm that is not his to occupy. Au contraire, this is the artist reminding you that he is not simply an Indian artist, but rather an artist who is Indian. And, in typical Sunshine Reeves fashion,the execution is flawless. Every bit of the scrollwork hugs the ring and is solidly soldered to the surface. The ring itself was highly oxidized and then the whole of the piece was buffed again to bring out the textured highlights of the design and smooth any rough spots. In closely inspecting this piece, from the exterior decoration to the perfect stampwork inside the ring, we can attest that every cent of the price is borne out by the labor invested in creating it.

Hallmarked "SUNSHINE REEVES" and stamped "Sterling" inside the shank.

Width in front: 3/4"

Width at back of shank: 5/16"

Size: 6 1/2