Ellouise Padilla, the designer & artist of Sunrise Jewelers was born and raised in the Santo Domingo Pueblo of New Mexico.  Ellouise’s parents, Don & Nancy Crespin, taught their five children the painstaking process of making heishi as was passed down through the generations to them. 

For centuries, Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians have been known to be the most proficient in the heishi making process, the oldest form of jewelry in New Mexico.

Heishi (hee-shee) is a term referring to hand-made beads, usually as necklaces, created from any natural materials such as turquoise, coral, abalone, serpentine, lapis, black jet, etc.  Traders would bring such raw materials to the Santo Domingo Pueblo from California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, and surrounding New Mexico mines.

Heishi is produced with the hands of patient and gifted craftspeople.  First, the raw materials are sliced into strips.  Next small squares are made by sniping off pieces with tools called “nippers”.  Small holes are then drilled into the center of the square, one by one. The square pieces are strung on a wire and the time-consuming process of grinding and sanding, originally with a stone wheel, more recently with electric grinders, begins to bring each square to a bead shape.  This process loses much of the original raw material. Many of the stone materials lose up to 70% of its original content.  Some pieces will chip, crack or completely break, rendering them unusable.  The size and shape of each bead is determined by the person doing the grinding and sanding, usually by hand touch. Once the desired size has been reached, the sanding begins. To bring each bead to a smooth finish, the sanding process is done in cycles, each cycle using a finer grade of sand paper.  The glossy end finish is achieved with a turning leather belt.  Depending on the raw material used, it can take from two days to two weeks to hand-produce one single string of heishi beads.