Dee Nez

Dee Nez
Diné (Navajo) Jeweler

Born in Winslow, Arizona, DeAnna Nez has been immersed in the fine craft of jewelry-making, first as the daughter of silversmiths Alice and David Lister. She is now a master in her own right of traditional cluster work, utilizing smooth, solid silver work to showcase her fine lapidary skills.

The second child in a family of seven resides on land surrounded by horses, cinder cone hills, and high desert vistas. Dee’s strong, efficient and focused energy enables her to tend to her ranch land when her husband must relocate for construction jobs throughout the United States.

This jeweler learned her meticulous lapidary skills from her mother, who has encouraged her to push herself to create her own style and designs. Dee has an innate sense for combining highly polished stones of gaspeite, turquoise, sugilite and coral to achieve a uniquely Navajo style of cluster work reminiscent of jewelry traded along ancient Silk Road trade routes.  

Dee plays an important role in her family of jewelers and silversmiths, encouraging new elements of designs,and creative use of particular, high quality stones. Her jewelry has been showcased in the magazine Cowboys and Indians.

Following her Mother’s advice to “use your God-given talent to do what you want to do...be creative,”  Dee has made her mark in the world of high-end Navajo jewelry.