There are as many different traditional materials used in
making jewelry by hand as there are traditional American Indian
Nations, so the assortment is immense. We have gathered images of
some of the most common materials.
Metals
Among the most commomly
used metals are Sterling Silver, Copper, Brass, and Nickle
Silver. Sterling is an allow of silver which contains
92.5% of
pure silver, the rest made up of copper and sometimes rhodium to resist
tarnish. Pure silver is much too soft to use in wearable items,
but a type of coin silver, taken from old Mexican Pesos were melted and
used to create jewelry by Navajo silversmiths. Some of these items
contained as much as 96% pure silver, but Sterling is the most typical
alloy in use. Copper and Brass work pre-dates the Navajos work in silver, and are still used, often to create patterns for repeating designs in overlay jewelry, and as a metal for student silversmiths to learn the craft with. Some Copper jewelry is made to be worn. We are fortunate to often carry the work of Douglas Etcitty, a Navajo silversmith who overlays copper with designs cut from silver, then tooled for a beautiful effect.
Nickle silver, sometimes used for findings, such as belt buckle hasps and pins, or other high-wear items, contains no silver at all, but is an alloy of nickle and copper or tin. It is much stiffer and stronger than Sterling silver. It is difficult to maintain a polish on Nickle silver, and it often shows corrosion in green oxidizing in small crevices where solder flux traces remain. We generally stay away from items that use this metal as the finish surface, but do not object to its use as a backing or strengthening material, particularly for high-wear/strain items like belt buckles and money clips.
Many accomplished American Indian jewelers work in gold. We've seen cast work as well as assembled or tooled work in 14KT and higher karat gold. Some artists like to assemble items in gold using different alloys to create a range of color from pink gold, through the yeelow and oranges to even green-tinted and white gold.
We utilize a proprietary blend of salts and Nitric acid, called Scherzer's Salts Solution to test our metals. With this checmical test, you can determine not just the presence of a selection of metals, but also the alloy percentage, if the solution is freshly made. It is a much better test than simply using Nitric acid.
Shells American Indian artists
and
craftsmen have been using the beauty of shell in their work for more
than a thousand years. Since most of these tribes and
Pueblos
have lived in land-locked areas, far from the sea, it seems an odd
material to use, but where thereis a will, there's a way, and also
someone to find a market!
The above is the inside of a shell from the Abalone -- a single shelled mollusk, similar to the Limpet. The shiny nacre material inside it's shell protects it from abrasion against the hard shell covering, but it makes a beautiful item of decoration, and pieces of it are easy ot cut and finish very well.
The swirling color shifts and aptterns can create beautiful items, but where did the artists get the shells? The answer is simple: commerce! For thousands of years, a regular trade route existed between the Mayan and other cultures far to the South in Mexico and the Pueblos North of the Rio Bravo in New Mexico and Arizona. The travel was very difficult, but it was worth it for the traders to bring up a variety of shells and live parrots, and to take back turquoise and pottery to sell back home. The bright shells made jewelry for the most wealthy to wear, as these materials were quite expensive to obtain. The parrots and their feathers were used ceremonially, often kept living in the kivas for regular harvest of their feathers.
Other shells still used, are Green Snail Shell, Spondylous Shell, or Spiney Oyster Shell, and Gold-LIp Mother of Pearl, from salt water pearl oysters. Freshwater shells, too are used. The one below, in shimmering pink mother of pearl, comes from the lowly river mussel, often found clinging to marina pilings in the Mississippi River and it's Southern tributaries.
It is not good to eat, but its beautiful shell makes beautiful jewelry. It was used traditionally by the Natchee, the Cherokee, the Creek and other Southeastern Nations, and is a relative newcomer to the Southwestern Nations' jewelry making that has become very popular.
Today
The
arts of the Southwestern American Indian jewelers continue to expand,
utilizing new techniques, refined processes and new materials.
As
tools and equipment continue to improve, there seems to be no limit to
what these gifted artists can create! Some of the newest stones used
include opals, both mined and lab-created; goldstone, jaspers, onyx and
some imported stones such as Lapis Lazuli -- the best is from Iran and
Afghanistan -- Sugalite and Charoite, from Eastern Europe and Russia,
and even fossilized tree sap -- Amber, from the Baltic States, Poland
and Russia. Even diamonds, topaz, colored sapphires, from Ceylon
and emeralds are being set in
unique ways by the descendants of the earliest Southwestern
Jewelers. Their best work today, stands up alongside the best
jewelry produced anywhere in the world, and should be worn with pride,
always. Stones Probably the most
typical stone
associated with Southwestern American Indian jewelry is turquoise.
This
stone has been set in jewelry in the Southwestern USA since long before
European contact. It is found associated with copper deposits and
other metals, and has been mined in several locations in AZ and NM for
more than 100 years. The most famous of these ancient mines is
found about 25 miles Southwest of Santa Fe, NM near the small town of
Cerrillos, where stone is still being recovered today.
The stones in the image below are both from Arizona's Kingman turquoise
mine, which is an ancillary operation to the copper mining found in
that area. This is a very productive mine which still produces a large
amount of stone. The stone on the left, has been stabilized, or
hardened, using plasticizers and penetrating resins, which darken the
color slightly, as you can see around the edges of a broken off
portion. This image clearly shows how far the resins
penetrate. Almost all of the turquoise used in intricate inlay
and needlepoint setting is stabilized, otherwise, the stones would
shatter during cutting, as turquoise is very brittle. These are
relatively thick nuggets, as most turquoise is vein deposited through
the action of water seeping between rocks in the ground. As a result,
it is most often mined in very thin lines within matrix rock, then cut
to minimize the matrix and show off the best color.
The image
below, shows an example of very high-grade domestic turquoise nuggets
from the Lone Mountain Mine in Nevada, which is not longer
producing. These nuggets show a distinctive "bubble" surface
texture which is also found in stones which are cut to show off
"spiderwebbing" patterns in the matrix. Some of the most
beautiful stones with this type of pattern were found in Nevada and
mined near Lander at the Lander mine, and the Number Eight mine. Now,
very littel is being produced from these three mines.
Another stone used for millennia
for jewelry is jet, another name for Lignite Coal, of which there is a
great deal in both NM and AZ.
The image below shows an example of two rough lumps of NM lignite. It
is a very lightweight stone, by comparison with turquoise, so larger
pieces can comfortably be worn. In addition, it is very easy to cut and
finish to a high mirror-like luster with hand tools. It can also be
used to make black pigment for a variety of uses.
Below, is an example of azurite, which is one of many copper ores found
in the Southwest. Another stone of high copper content is
malachite. These stone are often beautifully colored and marked
and an added plus is that they are relatively soft and easy to work and
finish, but a drawback which is now responsible for a decline in their
use in the Southwest, especially for figure carving, is that their dust
is toxic. Stone cutters who work in these stones must wear
respirators to protect their health.
Organics
Many
of the stones used in Southwestern jewelry
making are not stones at all, but are organics -- the work of marine
animals. Below is an example of rough, natural
Mediterranean
branch coral, or Precious Coral. Its coloring is natural.
It is found in the warm waters of the Mediteranean, especially near
Corsica, Sicily and off Northern Morocco. Extremes in the
harvesting of this reef coral, in the past has reduced its range
greatly. Now, most of the former areas are off-limits to coral recovery
-- a moratorium on the harvest has been enacted by several
Mediterranean nations to preserve what is left.
The remaining reefs are also under attack by water pollution,
which is decimating the reefs even faster than over-harvesting.
Coral that is killed by algae blooms and toxins displays a bleaching
effect which reduces the red coloring all the way to white in extreme
cases. The relatively scarcity of good quality, deep, oxblood red
coral has made it's price skyrocket, but generally speaking, the
quality of the best now available is quite a bit lower than even the
mid-grades of the past. As color fades, so does price, so coral is now
often dyed. Apple coral is dyed red. It does not display
the hardness or finish that fine Precious Coral does. Sadly, now
even bleached reef coral is being dyed in an atttempt to create a
market to replace the market for natural Precisou Coral. The
buyer must be very wary when buying an item of red coral jewelry these
days, especially if the price seems very low.
