Description
Arnold BlackGoat Navajo Sterling Egyptian turquoise pendant. 3.5" x 2.75" x 32<br>grams, no damage or detectable wear.<br><br>Arnold Blackgoat<br><br>Arnold Blackgoat’s great grandfather was Moses Blackgoat. He was the first<br>silversmith in the Blackgoat family. Moses was from the Lupton area and started<br>making jewelry in the early 1900s. The art of jewelry making has been passed<br>down generation to generation. My great-grandfather passed on the trade to my<br>grandparents, Ben & Helen Blackgoat. They taught my father Harrison, and my<br>mother Jennie also picked up the trade. Now I am the fourth generation in my<br>family to make silver.<br><br>He started to silversmith at the age of eight, by helping his grandmother, Helen<br>Blackgoat, his mother Jenny Blackgoat, and his well-known uncle, Carson<br>Blackgoat.<br>He is known for his precise free hand stamping, using only the highest grade<br>stones and heavy gauge silver.<br><br>Arnold talks about making jewelry: “I was with my grandma at the Shiprock Fair.<br>I wanted some money for something at the fair. She tossed me a piece of nickel<br>and told me to make something. That is how I could earn the money to buy what I<br>wanted. I made a stamped buckle and bolo that I sold at the fair. My grandma<br>taught me the value of making my own money and that is what I did.”<br><br>“My mother’s work as always has been my inspiration. She always used lots of<br>stamp work and would make each piece a little different. That was my foundation<br>and I just made small changes to the work. I would add extra beads, wire work,<br>homemade bezel, and use better turquoise. Concentrating on making one of a kind<br>pieces.”
