Native American jewelry, including Hopi Indian Jewelry, is certainly the treasure of the Southwest. Silversmithing started in the American Southwest before 1880. Native Americans produced silver and turquoise jewelry both for personal use and tourist trade. The expert artisans were members of the Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni tribes, each featuring its own unique particular design and style. So, these variations can provide direction (in most instances) to determining the tribe.
Navajo jewelry
Navajo Indian jewelry was first to appear and concentrated on silver tooling, frequently accented with turquoise and other varying gemstones. There was probably (this is debatable) no indigenous silver industry till the Spaniards’ contact, which influenced Navajo decorative projects. Early silversmiths melted silver currency, utensils, and candles down to produce their jewelry. While the easiest currency to work with was Mexican, silver dies were modified from the ones used in tooling leather, and soldering was utilized to set stones and other ornamentations.
Hopi Jewelry
This category of Native American jewelry is known for its silver overlay and intricate cutouts. The style started during the late 1930s. The overlay technique comprises two silver layers. First, the topmost piece is cut-out with abstract symbols or realistic designs. Second, the layers get soldered together, producing a thick band that could be folded into another form or left flat. Frequently, with oxidation to the lower piece to produce a stunning design that you probably get when you order Hopi Indian jewelry online.
Zuni jewelry
This appeared at about 1872. It’s notable for putting emphasis on complicated lapidary work. Among the foremost techniques are inlaid (setting stones side by side), petit point, channel inlay (setting stones with silver channels in-between), and needlepoint work. Zuni artisans utilize traditional colors – red coral, jet, turquoise, and mother of pearl. There’s hardly any deviation from this traditional color scheme, while Navajo inlay jewelry might mix any colors or stones together. Additionally, a Zuni-made squash blossom necklace or bracelet will feature truly regular flat oval stones (that’s the petit point) or slim stone slivers (and that’s needlepoint).
Another subset of the Zuni jewelry is channel work, which is from the Dishta family, which features a feel and appearance that is all its own. Accordingly, this style comprises organic designs that are produced from tiny teardrop or round shaped stones which, are clustered to create a tiny mosaic. Uniquely, the stones are truly leveled to be completely flat within the silver channel work.
Navajo artisans
Navajo artisans were quite adept at creating decorative silverwork, even prior to including turquoise in their repertoire. Designs drawn from horse regalia was the basis of the majority of the older jewelry. This greatly influenced Hollywood between the 1950s and the 1960s. Highly prized, for instance, were elaborate belt buckles, concho belts, and squash blossom necklaces. Navajo jewelry seems to utilize Spanish leatherwork decorations, turquoise cluster work, abstract silver designs, or a single stunning stone that’s surrounded by silver embellishment.
These are the top ways for identifying authentic Native American jewelry including Hopi Indian jewelry. If you are out to buy yours, and you can’t identify them, then you can always get experts to help. They are always ready to do so for you.
