The Art of Silver

The art of silver smithing has been a form of expression of Native American Indian tribes of the southwest. The art can be traced back to the late 1800's. What is the art of silver smithing? The art of silver smithing is taking silver metal pieces and working those pieces into a buckle, button, earrings, and other various goods. Native American Indians became more familiar with silver they start making bolder variations of art where they affixed semi-precious stones such as turquoise. The art became a source of income for the Navajo American Indian artisans.

The Early Years

Native American Indian artisans in the late 1800's and early 1900's had no access to better tools. The silversmith would place pieces of silver over a charcoal and use a hand bellows to raise the temperature of the charcoal to melt solder to other pieces. The tools that a Native American Indian artisan had were made from scrap pieces of iron from old wagons. Silver was only available in the form of American or Mexican coins. The solder that was used was made from silver and brass from bullets casings.

The Expansion

The economy picked up and gas stations started to spread across the southwest. The Native American Indian artisans now had access to gasoline. The charcoal heating method was replaced with gasoline torches. Along with gasoline torches, new tools became available such as metal rolling mills, wire dies, and ingot molds. Silver could be bought as bars and melted in the ingot molds. The ingots of silver could be used to create silver sheet or wire with the use of metal rolling mill or wire dies. Additional tools that became available tin snips, hacksaws, jeweler's saws, and sharp nose pliers.

As the art form grew, new tools became available such as acetylene torches. Better hand tools became available such as hammers, anvils, pliers, and saws. The most important thing also became available was that silver was sold in sheets and wires of various sizes.

Today

The art of silver smithing is now showcased across the world in the forms of jewelry and other goods. The most famous form of art would be the Navajo Squash Blossom necklace or the Navajo Concho belt. Today various people wear Native American Indian jewelry from actors on television to the school teacher at the local school.