Cats
While pets have not been a staple of Zuni traditional animal carving, given the popularity of pets, many modern carvers have taken up the theme. Carvers such as Kenny Chavez, Verla Lasiloo Jim, and Yancy Robert Halusewa are Sunshine Studio's most regular carvers of domestic cats. Kenny likes to carve in onyx, picture jasper, Picasso marble and the striking rhyolite, and employs the natural colors, patterns and striations of these stones to suggest the stripes and mottled patterns of a cat's fur. Kenny's cats capture the sleek, self contentment of a feline, an attitude highlighted by sterling silver eyes and collars, Chavez' signature touch. Frequently his felines are carved in pairs, and their curled, communicative tails express the height of feline self-regard. Verla Lasiloo Jim, who likes to carve animals with their offspring riding atop the mother, also takes her whimsical style to her cats. Her cats are angular and stylized, and the mother and baby are often carved in highly contrasting stones, jet and turquoise, for example. Yancy Robert Halusewa's cats are fluid and portrayed in unusual poses, and Halusewa likes white and lighter colored, decorative stones such as Mother-of-Pearl.