Maria Samora's three exquisite gold-and-silver bracelets adorning the 2009 Santa Fe Indian Market poster are not your mother's Native art.

And that's just how the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts wants it as Indian Market approaches its second century. SWAIA, which puts on Indian Market each summer in August, selected the 33-year-old Taos Pueblo jeweler's work for the poster in celebration of innovation, unveiling the choice Wednesday at Buffalo Thunder Casino and Resort in Pojoaque.

"It is such an honor to be chosen," Samora said. "Every time I go to market, I'm just blown away by the caliber of art that's there."

She first came to market as an artist five years ago, pregnant with her first child, and unsure of her welcome.

"I felt like I wasn't going to fit in," said Samora, who was afraid her contemporary take on jewelry would be too far out for collectors. "I had an overwhelming response."

So good, in fact, that Samora was able to quit her waitressing job and concentrate on her baby, Quentin, and her art. Her husband, Kevin Rebholtz, is a photographer who also helps her market her work.

Her mother, Chien, remembers that first market vividly. "We had all the jewelry packed up in the trunk," Chien said, and Samora's father, the late Frank Samora of Taos Pueblo, came out to see his daughter off. "I said, 'Come on Daddy, let's bless the jewelry.' It was quite a big blessing for her and her career."

Market, for Samora, became another extension of family and community, a way for people to make connections. Part of that community for Samora is the group of younger jewelers — the Gaussoin brothers, David and Wayne Nez, Pat Pruitt, Fritz Casuse, Cody Sanderson, Keri Ataumbi, to name a few — who are bumping against the boundaries of what Native art is and should be.

"There's a group of young artists pushing the limits," she said. "I feel like we all kind of feed off each other, which is great."

Back in 1976, SWAIA executive director Bruce Bernstein pointed out, "if you used gold, if you used any stone other than turquoise on your jewelry, you would not be allowed in market."

Fast-forward to 2009, where Samora's bracelets glisten on the official market poster.

On one, 75 gold, hand-hammered shells cover a wrist cuff, each shell the result of 100 beats with a hammer, creating a wave of moving gold. To perfect the bracelet, Samora estimates she probably created 150 of the shells. If one got a solder mark, she would melt it down and start over. "I'm surprised I don't have carpal tunnel," the artist said.

A second bracelet displays a blend of gold and silver, round gold dots fusing into a silver background, made with the Korean jewelry technique of Keum-boo that places gold on silver. To make the technique work, Samora must make the gold as thin as a strand of hair.

On the third poster bracelet, more gold and silver, with delicate gold shells forming a circle on a silver cuff. Samora created the design when she realized she couldn't cover the entire bracelet in her original circular pattern — innovation in action.

Together, these bracelets offer a firm reminder to all that Indian Market is where innovation happens.

And, Bernstein is happy to point out, Samora is only the third woman to win the honor of poster artist, as well as one of the youngest artists to be selected. (The other two are Roxanne Swentzell and Dyanne Strongbow, although Maria Martinez also was honored after her death with a poster.)

"She has brought new ideas into market," Bernstein said, including very definite ones about her pieces. When the poster was nearing its final design, "Maria called and said, 'that's not my favorite piece.' And that's the right thing to say."

The poster was reworked, and, as a result, Samora still hadn't seen the final version just before the unveiling Wednesday in the Santa Fe Indian Market Gallery at Buffalo Thunder. She stole a peek under the black velvet, but still had tears in her eyes when she saw the newest iconic market image.

There, floating on a field of black, were her bracelets — weightless in appearance, their gold and silver gleaming.

The poster announcement marks a journey that started when Samora signed up for a jewelry class at The University of New Mexico-Taos at the urging of a friend. She then studied with Taos jeweler G. Phil Poirier, becoming his apprentice. Today, the two still share a San Cristobal studio.

While Samora was still waiting tables, her customers began buying jewelry off her wrist or neck. One customer, Leroy Garcia, owner of Blue Rain Gallery, expressed interest, and Samora took the step from selling a piece at a time to a home in a gallery, and eventually, to Indian Market.

Now, her work represents Indian Market in 2009.

"Our main concern was getting something different," Bernstein said. "We wanted to make something that stood out."

UP NEXT FOR THE 88TH ANNUAL SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET

2009 Honoring Reception: Lifetime Achievement Awards, Povika Awards, SWAIA Fellowships, 5:30-9 p.m. June 4, Buffalo Thunder Resort. Call 983-5220 for more information.

Lifetime honorees this year are Sophia Medina (Zia Pueblo potter), Sam English (Ojibwe painter) and Oscar Howe (posthumous, Yanktonai Sioux painter)

Povika winners are the Museum of New Mexico, Kenneth Chapman (posthumous), Chuck Daily and Barbara Reber.

SWAIA Fellowship awards have not been announced.

2009 Best of Show Awards: 4:30 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, with preview following from 5:30-9:30 p.m.

2009 Santa Fe Indian Market: Aug. 22-23, on the Santa Fe Plaza