Michael Bird Romero

Michael Bird Romero is a jeweler/silversmith of San Juan and Taos Pueblo descent. He is a graduate of Sandia High School in Albuquerque and was enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps serving in Vietnam during 1966 and 1967.

Romero began making jewelry about 1970 and credits three men as his mentors. Mark Chee, Julian Lovato and Tony Duran all lived at San Juan Pueblo when he was a boy. He would take every opportunity to watch them work. “By observing them and their individual styles and approaches to this medium, I picked up techniques I later experimented with and adapted for my own use.” Michael is well known for his petroglyph pins depicting shamanistic figures found on rock art in northern New Mexico. He is also known for his non-wearable pieces.

Michael plans to work on a pair of sterling silver spurs decorated with his own stamps and with turquoise. “These spurs are in the style of the work done by Navajo and Pueblo smiths in the 1930’s and I feel that making these would allow me to leave something unusual for younger jewelers to study.”

Michael has works in the following: American Craft Museum in New York, the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, the School for Advanced Research collection in Santa Fe, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, the Museum of Man in San Diego and the Museum of Mankind-British Museum in London.