Navajo silversmiths have created popular jewelry since the late 1800's. When the A. T. & Santa Fe railroads began running regular passenger service through the Southwestern states back in the 1920's, however, the artform really got it's first major exposure. Thousands of tourists from all over the world brought home souvenirs of their trip out West. Most of those souvenir collections contained at least one piece of simple tooled Navajo trade jewelry. Most of this jewelry was handcrafted by Navajo smiths in the employ of the Fred Harvey Company, a chain of travel stops and hotels, for sale in their locations and on the railroad.

Another common traditional style we refer to by the Spanish word, "Platero" for silversmith. It consists of many separate silver design elementsd, usually involving flower, leaf, feather or vine forms which are soldered together. This type of work requires great skill to create cleanly. The "squash blossom" style of necklace, for example, often contains individual elements of Platero style as well as handmade or bench made beads "and tooled silver surfaces. Some also contain "sandcast" elements.

"Sandcast" Navajo jewelry is the name given to all forms of traditional, low yield casting techniques. The most common, and one of the oldest involves cutting a negative image of a jewlery design into a flat block of tufa stone, which is compressed pumice ash. It is easily carved with woodworking gouges or a pocket knife. Another flat layer is bound to the first with bailing wire, and molten silver is poured into the resulting space between them, resulting in a rough, but usable duplicate of the design. The work is then cleaned up with filing and sanding, then finishing. In the case of a bracelet, cast flat; it is then bent to shape around a steel form, or mandrel.

Navajo silversmiths often set Platero work with multiple stones, in rows or large single specimen stones surrounded by smaller stones, coral or even animal claws to set off the entire design. In this way, it is often said of Navajo-made stone settings, that they build up their silver design around the stone, rather than working the stones into a silver setting design the way the Zuni silversmiths do. While other Indian Nations throughout the USA have their own metalworking and jewelry design traditions, it is most often the Navajo traditional styles which are considered generically as Indian Jewelry. Kiva's selection of these basic styles change regularly. We are picturing some very typical work, but for more details, or individual specific work, visit one of our shopping sites, listed below....