Navajo Jewelry Village Blog

You may admire Navajo Jewelry, but you wonder: how can I tell the difference between Navajo jewelry and Hopi, Pueblo, Zuni, or other types? How can I identify what is Navajo, or find that style of southwestern jewelry I love?

Here it’s probably best to start with the style you enjoy the look of, and work from there. One fact that may help you is that, beginning in the 1890’s, the Navajo and Zuni took different directions in the design of jewelry. For the Navajo, the silver was the thing, and they focused on ornamenting the silver with stones in an attempt to bring out its beauty.

But for the Zuni, the stones increasingly became their medium. The Zuni developed more and more techniques for working with turquoise and different types of stones, until they became quite accomplished lapidaries, or stone-workers. This led to stone-to-stone inlay, channel inlay, and most recently, needlepoint, a technique using small pieces of stone in tiny bezel, arranged in intricate patterns. If you like the look of chunky silver, with larger stones soldered into the metal, then Navajo jewelry probably best fits your style.

Of course, that is not to say that Navajo designs are clunky or oversized. Rather, their focus on silverwork can make these pieces quite intricate, such as the delicate silver flowers of a squash blossom necklace. The Navajo also use retroussé, an ancient method of hammering metal from behind to make smooth, natural-looking shapes. They may borrow overlaying, a technique developed by the Hopi in the 1940’s using a raised shape of silver overlaid on a sheet of silver. Since the Dinétah (Navajo homeland), has deposits of tufa, or ash-rock, some Navajo use the difficult method called sand-casting, in which a mold is carved into the tufa, sandstone, or even wood.

Another clue that jewelry may be Navajo is the use of grooves chiseled or filed into the silver as decorative patterns. Bumps, zigzag patterns, and rope patterns all seem to be more predominant in Navajo work. You may also notice flowers, leaves, feathers, and other designs taken from nature and worked into the silver border; the concho, a design taken from the Mexican vaquero, is a particularly good example of the type of silverwork detail Navajo jewelry often shows.

However, if in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask about the history of the piece or about the artist’s bio or background. Many authentic Native American artists borrow methods from one another, and this has been done for hundreds of years, both as a mode of expression for the artists, and as a true expression of the culture. So finally, the best way to determine Navajo jewelry is to ask good questions!

Now that you know more about identifying Navajo jewelry, you may want to start your own collection. A good place to start is navajo jewelry Village”>Navajo Jewelry Village where you can view and purchase beautiful, distinctive Navajo jewelry pieces.