22" Strand of Graduated Silver Hogan Beads

Navajo

About The 22" Strand of Graduated Silver Hogan Beads

Ingot silver was hand crank mill rolled into sheet material.  This process takes several passes through to the the desired workable thickness.  Each time the metal has to be annealed before going through the mill process.  

From this sheet, the disks that are to become bead halves are cut and carefully stamped with a chosen pattern.  With these beads, there were two hand-cut stramps of matchingt design, but different in size to accommodate the planned graduation of bead sizes.  

Each round, stamped cutout was then hammered into a steel half-round depression to form the shallow dome that so resembles that of a traditional hogan roof.  

This necklace required the making of at least five (5) such scaled steel depressions, all of which had to be made by hand.  The center of each dome was then pierced, the two halvs of each bead were then solder joined and that seam was carefully filed, sanded and burnished before the final polishing.

A handsome treasure, it demonstrates meticulous craftsmanship coupled with a pleasing weight.  

 

 

About Navajo

"Dineh or Diné are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.  They are the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with over 300,000 enrolled tribal members as of 2015.  The Navajo reservation occupies over 27,000 square miles of land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.  Navajo language is spoken throughout the reservation with most Navajos speaking English as well." excerpted from Wikipedia

 

Other Works By Navajo:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Cultures

American Indian, Navajo

Medium

Jewelry

Subject

Keywords

Navajo pearls, silver bead necklace, hogan bead necklace