Frank & Charlene Reano
Santo Domingo/San Felipe
Charlene Sanchez Reano is from San Felipe and married into Santo Domingo Pueblo. Her husband Frank and she collaborate on most of their jewelry. Charlene studied at Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and later cut and set stones for gold and silver inlay at a jewelry manufacturing company in Albuquerque. She learned jewelry-making from her sister-in-law Angie Reano, who is credited with reviving mosaic inlay among Santo Domingo jewelers. Frank comes from a tradition of jewelers. His grandfather and his parents Clara and Lovato Reano produced jewelry for many years and taught the art to several of the younger generation, including Frank who began helping his mother when he was 10 years old. In the early 1980s, Charlene and Frank began making mosaic inlay jewelry with finely crafted, colorful patterns of shell, turquoise, and other stones. They have since become known as masterful, innovative jewelers. Charlene is known for her distinctive style of two-sided necklaces. Each side is laid with mosaic in differing stones and colors. Pictured: Charlene and daughter Janalee