Stamped & Tooled Navajo
JewelryClick
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One of the very first types of metal work the Navajo learned, just before and during their Ft. Sumner confinement (1864-1868) and from their Pueblo and colonial Spanish neighbors was the technique of striking with a tool to produce a depressed design or using a rounded tool to raise areas on the reverse side using a wooden or metal form with a corresponding depression . This work is known as repousse metal work, the more simple, struck tooled work is called stamped work. Various tools and techniques could be combined combined to create intricate patterns, and by learning how to make tools, their design choices became limitless! But the origin of their skill makes for an interesting story in itself..... ....the story, handed down, is that during their confinement, with livestock unable to survive and farming not possible in the dry, dustbowl conditions; the Navajo Nation became dependant upon the US Army, their overseers, for sustenance. The Army issued tooled brass meal and supplies tickets to properly distribute supplies, to each "headman" among the Navajo. It is not recorded who was the first to get the idea, but one of them secretly approached the Mexican metal and leather workers the Army had employed for tack and fabriation work, and learned from them how to tool and work metal. He then duplicated his food and supplies tickets, distributing them to other Navajo headmen. They all began to amass extra supplies and food, so that by the time the Army released them for the long march home in 1868 after the "experiemnt" was deemed a failure, they were much better equipped and well fed! They also carried with them, homeward, the seeds of their new knowledge and skill in metalworking. They had survived against unbelievable odds to find a way to return home richer for the experience. The first documented Navajo silversmith, began working iron and metal around 1853 in the Ft. Defiance, Arizona area. Most modern Navajo historians believe he did not begin to work silver until 1870 or so, using similar techniques. His Navajo name was Atsidi Sani, or "Old Maker of Silver", and most Southwestern Navajo metal jewlery making traditions can be traced to him or one of his students who later also taught the Zuni and Hopi. His Spanish "paper name" was recorded as "Herrero" which refers to an ironworker in Spanish. Another Navajo silversmith, known as "Atsidi Chon" , or "ugly smith" hung out his shingle in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1870, registering his business. The jewelry which survives in museums from this time, is remarkably like the work which we offer for sale, today. Navajo silversmiths still often prefer to make their own custom stamping tools, and special stamps are often passed throughout a family, or handed down. Kiva's tooled and stamped Navajo jewelry is still made, completely by hand in the traditional way. Because of this, no two pieces are ever duplicates, as slight variations in the tool positions yield unique results. This gives the collector an item which is truly unique, unlike any other in the whole world. |
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