Erma Arviso – Navajo Silversmith Profile & Hallmark Guide

About Erma Arviso

Erma Arviso was born in 1960 in Canoncito, New Mexico, a Navajo community also known as To'hajiilee. She learned silversmithing from her mother, Jolene Shorty, beginning in 1989 — another example of the direct mother-to-daughter transmission of jewelry-making skill that has kept Navajo silverworking traditions alive across generations of women artisans.

Identifying Erma Arviso's Work

Her hallmark reads EA.

Style & Family Tradition

Having learned directly from her mother rather than through a broader collective or workshop, Erma's work carries a close family lineage, reflecting techniques passed down specifically within the Shorty-Arviso household rather than absorbed more generally from the wider Canoncito jewelry-making community.

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