Description
Dan Jackson Navajo rug tufa cast bracelet with Ajax turquoise Fits up to a 6<br>7/8" wrist including the 1" gap. 117.2 grams.<br><br><br>Dan Jackson (1944-2022) was an award winning Navajo silversmith who is best<br>known for his meticulous “rug pattern” etchings in silver and gold.<br><br>Living true to the culture and traditions of the Navajo way of life, Dan keeps<br>horses and sheep, but creates silver and gold jewelry that typically<br>incorporates rug patterns in brilliantly executed overlay designs. With a<br>variety of finishes – textured, polished, matte, darkened – and meticulous<br>workmanship, these intricate designs take on a very contemporary, urban allure.<br><br>Dan says, “I learned silverwork from my father, who worked with silver until he<br>was 95. The rug designs on my (jewelry)…come from my mother’s weavings….I<br>continue the heavy silverwork of my father.” His hallmark signature on his<br>jewelry is the Hogan, the traditional home of the Navajo—“a gift to the Dine by<br>First Man. This round structure of earth and wood embodies the framework of<br>Navajo life: the circular nature of life. All things are alive and composed of<br>two parts–it is the joining of these two parts which make the whole and thus<br>create balance and harmony.” Dan brings this notion of balance and tradition to<br>the meticulous silver of his jewelry.<br><br>Dan learned silversmithing from his father, John Nez Begay, who made jewelry for<br>over 80 years, and lived to be 106 years old. His mother, Bernice Charlie, was a<br>weaver and is the source of Dan’s inspirations. He tells of his mother visiting<br>him in a dream, where she stirred him to create his now famous triple overlay<br>rug design jewelry.<br><br>Dan’s formal education is in engineering. He worked for the Bureau of Indian<br>Affairs for 20 years. After being injured in 1985, Dan needed another way to<br>support his family (4 daughters). Being an accomplished silversmith, it only<br>made sense to him to devote his time to making jewelry.<br><br>Dan consistently collects awards and accolades at juried art shows, such as<br>Santa Fe Indian Market. He has won numerous awards and ribbons at Gallup<br>Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, Window Rock, Arizona Tribal Fair, the New Mexico and<br>Arizona State Fair and the Shiprock, NM Fair.<br><br>All precious metals are tested and guaranteed, any Native American jewelry<br>referred to as Silver or Sterling is guaranteed to be a minimum of 90% (coin)<br>silver and possibly higher content. Anything marked is guaranteed to be what<br>it's marked, most bracelets are photographed on a 6" wrist (non hairy), rings<br>photographed on the appropriate sized finger when possible. With bracelets if<br>the measurement is not given in the description then inside circumference is<br>shown where the metal meets the number on the the cloth tape measure.
