Internationally recognized award-winning jeweler Robin Waynee learned at an early age how creativity and hard work can lead to fulfillment. A member of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, Robin was born and raised in Mio, Michigan along with six siblings, and worked with her family in a variety of creative fields including jewelry, photography, custom furniture, and painting. Always eager to learn and to lend a hand, Robin would take on any project, from sweeping out a garage to sanding furniture.
Following her family to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1991, and continuing to work in the family business of custom furniture making, Robin began designing her own pieces and pursued woodworking for several years. After meeting local jeweler Ryan Roberts in 1997, Robin became inspired by his work and discovered a burning desire to create jewelry. She asked Ryan to “show (her) how to do that”. Having found her calling, Robin was soon off into an advancing career as a best-selling gallery artist, providing her clients with unique, innovative, one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry pieces. Her wide range of jewelry styles, creative choices of precious stone and metal combinations and anodizing schemes, along with her careful selection of quality materials and attention to detail make Robin’s jewelry highly sought after by the discriminating collector and devotee of exclusive fine jewelry.
Robin entered and won her first design competition in 2007 at the Southwest Indian Market (SWAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. She has since won numerous awards not only at SWAIA and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, but also internationally. In 2010 Robin entered her first large-scale award competition, the Saul Bell Design Awards, which is recognized by top designers around the world as the most prestigious international jewelry competition. She was awarded First Place in the silver category. Inspired, she entered Saul Bell again in 2011 and achieved First Place in the gold category. Entering once again 2012, Robin achieved an unprecedented third win in a row (the only jeweler to ever achieve this), with the Grand Prize for her stunning bracelet, “Corona and Halo”. In 2014 she won the Niche Award, which celebrates excellence in North American fine craft. She also received two separate MJSA Vision Awards. She is once again a Niche Awards finalist for 2015.
Robin currently works in her studio in Santa Fe and is married to her former mentor, Ryan Roberts. They have two boys, Aidan and Logan, who are already becoming jewelers themselves.