navajo bracelet

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Have you ever wondered where your necklace has been before you wore it? Ever thought about the ring from your grandma, where it may have been through, who has carried it before she carried it? Or what about that beautiful bracelet you inherited! Well to bad, because most of the time you will never find out!

I'm very intrested in this topic, I would have loved to be a arthistoricist. If it was not true that to become one, you have to read many big books. I won’t finish those books before I'm grey, okay maybe that's a lie, but I'm a very slow reader because of my dyslexie.

But to the point, I happen to be in possession of a very dear bracelet to me.. that I think I inherited, but I can’t remember it that well. And surprisingly enough it had an inscription that lead me to where it was made.. I will tell you where it all started;
I had been wondering for a while what the hell 'Joann Yazzie' meant (the inscription), as vague as it was. So I thought, maybe internet can tell me something about this 'brand'? To continue my search, I typt 'Joann Yassie' in on google. After trying different spellings a few times, I got it right and it gave me a result straight away!.. I got a hit at a jewelry site from the VS that was selling Indian handmade silver products and one of them made by 'Yazzie'. Yazzie seemed to be an Indian name, from an Indian silversmith off course. So by looking up more information I found out these Indian still live in New mexico in a resevat called 'Navajo'.

Around the year 1880 there was an Indian called 'Atsidi Sani ', Atsidi Sani played an important role in the history of Navajo silversmithing. He is known by many to be the first Navajo silversmith, although his main focus was in blacksmithing; working with iron. He learned blacksmithing around the year 1853. Once Sani became skilled enough in working silver, he passed on his knowledge of silversmithing to his four sons, Big Black, Red Smith, Little Smith, and Burnt Whiskers. In 1890, Atsidi Sani "became a paid teacher. He was the first Indian that started to teach silversmithing and that is where he is still known for.

Yazzie (maker of my bracelet) on the other hand, is one of many silversmithing indians that still sell handmade silverwork. I couldn't find much more work from her, except this one bracelet... the one that coincidently is exact the same as mine! This is it;

pretty cool ha!? handmade silverwork..

Found it for sale on ebay, if you ask me it's much more worthed than 170 dollar if you consider its background and I guess that price is not even close to what the Indian silversmith got for it. It's fun to think about and especially find out your in possession of stuff like this.

love & bugsss Liz