Bracelet c. 1950

This bracelet was made by a Navajo artist with silver and turquoise, and just look at the patient labor involved! I imagine the maker carefully hammering the silver, line by line, adding these precise, controlled triangles, always in parallel. I remember making a mistake on a grid once, and I had to start all over again. It’s so easy to slip. What a testament to care and precision this is. Then there’s the turquoise – that splash of brilliant blue-green - dropped into the silver setting like an egg yolk. Did the turquoise come first, or the setting? Which came to hand first? I wonder how the artist decided what to do? There are so many decisions to make. It makes you realize that this bracelet is the result of a conversation with materials across time. What a testament to human ingenuity.