Necklace before 1900

This necklace was made by a Navajo artist, using silver. The silver has been skillfully worked to create a series of spherical beads and delicate ‘squash blossom’ pendants, which are strung together to form this beautiful piece. The process of silversmithing involves melting, shaping, and soldering the metal. Silver is relatively soft, but here it's been hardened through hammering and the application of heat. These techniques demand significant expertise and labor. The resulting forms have a visual language connected to the Navajo and wider Southwestern Indigenous experience. The squash blossom motif is thought to derive from the najahe symbols seen on Spanish colonial horse ornaments. The beads are intended to echo seeds, so the necklace as a whole is tied to notions of growth, sustenance, and cultural identity. The necklace becomes a beautiful, wearable statement of resilience, and the continuation of cultural practices.