Turquoise jewelry, native american turquoise jewelry, turquoise beads, navajo jewelry, indian jewelry

Ricky's First Frog 1984

ricky laahty frog

"Big Bubba 1985"

ricky laahty

Ricky Frogs 1986

ricky laahty

"Full Bubba" 1991

ricky laahty

"Henry Hawk" 1994

ricky laahty

Turquoise Bird 1985

ricky laahty

Ricky also carves Corn Maidens and feathers from shell

ricky laahty

More shell feathers, very fine and detailed

ricky laahty

Henry Hawk with inlaid Coral 'Live Eyes'

We are proud to offer an everchanging variety of frog fetishes created by RICKY LAAHTY. Ricky is the son of Morris Laahty and Sadie Deyuse Laahty and a grand-nephew of Leekya Deyuse. He is very famous for his contemporary, whimsical frogs.
Ricky learned to carve fetishes from his father, Morris, when he was 22 years old. He is now 41 and has won many awards including 1st Place in the 'Diverse Art Forms Division' at the 1997 and 2000 SWAIA Indian Market in Santa Fe and the Marketing Award as well as 1st and 2nd Place Ribbons at the Prestigous Museum of Northern Arizona Heritage Museum Marketplace in 1998 and 2000. Most recently he was awarded a "First Place in Division Ribbon" at the Heard Museum 2001 Indian Art Fair held in March. In addition, there is a full page devoted to Ricky in Kent McManis' book: "A Guide to Zuni Fetishes and Carvings, Vol. II".
He mostly carves frogs, and is known for the ability to give each one an individual personality and expression. Frogs are symbols of Fertility and considered Lucky. His frogs Make You Smile!!
The Serpentine Frog below Ricky's picture is the First Frog Ricky ever carved. (This frog is in Harry's Son's Collection). The "Big Bubba Frog" next in line is another early Ricky Frog and done in the 'Old Leekya Style'. The next picture shows two frogs that he carved in 1986. "Full Bubba Frog" is a big frog he carved out of Natural Pilot Mountain Turquoise. There are also images of carvings to the left that he has done for 'fun' like the Corn Maiden, 'Leekya Feathers', and one of our personal favorites, our big Azurite "Henry Hawk". These were all gifts and are a treasured part of our personal collection and not for sale.
Besides being a very talented artist, Ricky is also a fine, good-hearted person. We feel fortunate to be receiving most of his carvings for the last three years. Nowadays, Ricky has to spend much of his time working on the family ranch; taking care of approximately 100 sheep and farming wheat and corn. This leaves little time for carving his frogs, which he really enjoys doing.
We have special pages on the site which show some of the Award-Winning Frogs that Ricky has carved in 2000:
Last year he won a Blue and a Red Ribbon at Santa Fe Indian Market:
Indian Market 2000 Pictures

A link to the Marketing Award Winner Pictures "Zuni Market at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona" held in September of 2000.
We've known Ricky (and his whole family) for over 25 years and regularly supply him with Natural Turquoise, Variscite, Sugilite, Lapis Lazuli, Amber, Opal and other exotic materials from which to carve his unique and wonderful frogs. In fact, Harry bought all of the frogs that Ricky carved the first year he was carving and as you can see, we still have a few of them.
We hope you enjoy looking at the newest creations by Ricky on his Website page . In addition, we have a special page that showcases some of the special Ricky Frogs and Zuni Fetishes we've carried over the past year or two. These are shown for your viewing enjoyment on our Private Collections Gallery .
To see other Zuni Fetishes by other carvers, just click on the
Other Fetishes button above.