Adorning and beautifying one’s self is an innate nature of man. Ever since the prehistoric times, beaded jewelries like necklaces called heishe (refers to a shell in Santo Domingo’s language) have been around for ages. In the southwest, shells such as clam, conch, spiky oyster shell, abalone, and mother of pearl, have been utilized in bead making and were regarded as valuable items of trade for over thousand of years.
The use of metal like silver is not an old concept even with the Native Americans. Silver has been used since early 1850’s, when Mexican silversmiths traded their silver trinkets in exchange for cattles in Navajo. The Navajo blacksmiths on the other hand exchanged their silver-making skills for livestock of the Zuni Indians. In 1890’s, the Hopi tribe then learnt from the Zunis the skills of silver making. Although it is important mention that the Native Americans are by no means connected with the mining of the silver.
The styles of Native American jewelry varied from tribe to tribe. Each and every Native American Indian tribe has developed its own separate style. The Zuni Indian jewelries involve techniques and styles like that of channel inlay, mosaic, cluster, petit and needlepoint. Various kinds of shells and stones are employed in these techniques.
The Navajo Indian jewelers are renowned for their famous squash blossom necklaces. Pieces of coral, turquoise and other semiprecious stones are used by these creative jewelry artists. They then enclosed these materials with beads, leaf and scroll patterns set in sterling silver. Majority of the Native American jewelries are made by the Navajos. The use of stones like turquoise and coral, plus the use of sterling silver made the Navajo jewelry the most famous compared to the others.
The Hopi Indian Silversmiths are distinct because of their use of the overlay technique. This technique involves setting of stones when making the jewelries. A design is etched out on one sheet of silver and after that it is overlaid on top of a second sheet. A darker touch is given to the background by means of oxidizing, and then the top layer needs to be polished.
On the other hand, bead jewelry is prevalent amongst the Indians of Santo Domingo. For centuries now, bead jewelries have been made by them. Jet and coral stones, seashells, and turquoise are some of the commonly used materials in creating their jewelry. As said before, they make their jewelries with sterling silver, which is on the average a mixture of 7.5% copper and 92.5% silver. Copper is added to the mix because pure silver is very ductile. This is done so to give it more strength for use in jewelry making.
You can find terrific Native American jewelry especially in Southwest America. Arizona is home to the Navajo and the Hopi tribes while New Mexico has the largest concentration of the Zuni Pueblo and Santo Domingo Indians. The arts and skills of the Native American jewelry making were handed down from generations to generations. In fact, nowadays, there are institutions and schools that teach their skills to those people who like to learn their craft. GP
