Leander Nez is a Navajo artist from Arizona. He lived in Vancouver for 7 years before moving back to the United States. The Urban Aboriginal Fair Trade Gallery is currently the only gallery in Vancouver carrying his work. He has been learning and working alongside his grandmother since the age of 11. He has been creating jewelry for about 25 years now. All the stones Leander uses are cut and shaped by him.
The black stone is hematite. The shiny stone is blue goldstone. The light blue, pink, and green stones are catseye. The solid blue stone is turquoise. The red stone in the pair of earrings is coral. The green stone used to make the San Domingo style inlay earrings is made on gaspeite. The black earrings are made of jet stone. On both earrings, the black triangles are jet stone with triangular abalone shells. The bottom shell is a spiny oyster shell. All the silver beads are made with liquid silver. The green circular earrings are made with malachite. The red circular earrings are made with coral. On the last pair of earrings, the pink stone is pink coral, surrounded by a mother of pearl. The yellow and purple shell earrings are spiny oyster shells with inlays. The brown and orange earrings are made with clam shells and inlays.