In the summer of 1987, the Marie Walsh Sharp Summer Art Institute at Colorado College recognized his work and he was selected to study at the institute. But it wasn’t until 1991, that he discovered the artist in him. And it happened by chance.

“He chose metalsmithing because he grew up on a ranch where he use to fix fences at times and he thought he’d get an easy ‘A.’” Under the guidance of Lane Coulter, who recently resigned as director for the Southwest Association of Indian Arts, Hendren learned unique metalsmithing techniques. He learned a technique called the marriage of metals and the ancient Japanese metal work called Mokume gane. He was so fascinated with the design; he continued making jewelry. He got an A in the class.

A few years later, in 1997, he would graduate with a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico. But he continued his art work, even expanding into other art forms, such as: sculpting, making seed pottery, and painting.

He also got a job with Intel corporation in Albuquerque, but left the job in 2003. Hendren declined an $80,000 offer to move to their plant in Chandler, Ariz., because he couldn’t bring along his horses.

The Intel job was a critical decision in their life, they said. Eagle Feather remembers they had a long talk about their future and their family. “Prior to that (job) he was working and he was not able to produce enough jewelry,” she said. “We decided as a team to move forward with his career in art and that would be our focus.

Once we knew what our goals were professionally, we had to figure out what was going to be my role in this venture.” They were just starting to get a lot of inquiries, too, she said. “Shane and I have the same goals. Family comes first. That is the force behind everything we do. We want to be able to provide for them everything they need,” Eagle Feather said.

Under their arrangement, she handles all the direct marketing for Shane Hendren Enterprises. This includes managing the Shane Hendren website www.shanehendren.com, overseeing their catalogue, marketing, publicity, consultation, and even modeling.

Yeah, about the modeling. “I don’t model for anyone else and Shane takes all the photos,” she said. “He also provides feedback and advice about fashion,” Eagle Feather said. With a background in art and museum studies, Shane is also a consultant. “I do art consultation and help select artwork and create designs for casinos around the country,” he said. One of his recent clients is the Sycaun Band in California. He served as their art consultant, specifically in their purchases for the casino. He also did some ironwork for a golf course and is currently working with two California tribes.

Despite both being committed to their goals —it hasn’t been without its challenges. One problem they quickly discovered was that some tribes were reluctant to do business with Native Americans because Native were unreliable. “Some people ruined it for others.

So, a lot of times they go with non-Indian contractors and consultants,” Hendren said. Perhaps that’s why they manage their business with care. “We handle Shane’s art career like a business. That means we set goals and figure out how we’re going to accomplish it,” said Eagle Feather.

“It takes focus, determination, honesty, being open and having good, effective open communication for a business venture to become successful. It’s taken roughly three years for Shane Hendren Enterprises to really take off.” And because of their growing family, many interests and business ventures they’re involved in, being organized is a key to their success.

“Shane gets up around 4 a.m. and I’m usually up by 5 p.m. Then between 6 to 7 a.m. we eat breakfast together as a family because it allows us to be together and we get a chance to fill everyone in on what to expect for the day.” Then from 7 a.m. to lunch they’re working,” she said about their typical day.

A 9 a.m. meeting in which they discuss “their goals for the day” is part of their flow of work. “In order to be successful and to accomplish our goals, we must be structured,” she said. “For Santa Fe Indian Market, for example, we plan to make $100,000 and bring in 20 new collectors,” she said. “Now to accomplish that we need to determine how we’re going to do that so we work backwards. [This means] I usually do a lot of the research.”

Then from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Shane is usually doing “ground work” with the horses, she said.