Description
Tommy Jackson Navajo sterling and turquoise cobblestone ring. Size 9.5, clean<br>ring with no issues. 31 grams.Tommy Jackson was born in Phoenix, Arizona on<br>January20, 1958 but grew up in the heart of Navajo land in Chinle, Arizona. He<br>went to high school in Chinle, the town at the mouth of the legendary Canyon de<br>Chelly—a stronghold for 19th century Navajo, known then as the “Lords of the<br>Land”. Steeped in mythology, this landscape echoes the strength and beauty in<br>the Navajo bedrock of beliefs—foremost of those is responsibility to family and<br>clan. A husband, father, and grandfather, Tommy is also a world-renowned gold<br>and silversmith, his award-winning pieces on exhibit in museums and treasured in<br>collections around the world. As a premier Navajo Silversmith he counted amongst<br>those few known as “The Supersmiths.” Jackson started silversmithing in 1973,<br>learning at the bench of his parents, renowned silversmiths Gene and Martha<br>Jackson. (He is also the nephew of Dan Jackson, another well-known silversmith.)<br>However, it was his mother who urged him to pursue a degree, and he followed her<br>footsteps into education, eventually teaching elementary school at Wide Ruins on<br>the Reservation. But jewelry-making called to him in his spare time, in the<br>after-hours, in the late night, and by 1988 he was winning prestigious awards,<br>and has continued winning nearly every year since at the big shows, including<br>Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heard. He was also chosen as Navajo Tribal<br>representative for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.A striking example of<br>Tommy’s pieces is the motif of Navajo rug designs. He sometimes works these<br>patterns directly into the gold or silver; or he inlays stones in visually<br>stunning creations that reflect the complexity of Navajo tapestries. Other<br>pieces are a declaration of his passion for high-grade American turquoise. These<br>pieces are all about the great stone. He will use heavy-gauge silver, and in<br>keeping with the old style tradition then chisel or hand-stamp, all with an eye<br>of showcasing a great old American turquoise stone such as Bisbee, Morenci,<br>Lander Blue or Candelaria. He is known for integrating traditional Navajo<br>designs with a modern flair, working with gold and silver and a variety of<br>precious and semi-precious stones. He has won numerous awards for his beautiful<br>and unique jewelry from the Heard Museum Show in Phoenix, Santa Fe Indian Market<br>and The Museum of Northern Arizona, to name a few including First at Indian<br>Market, as recently as 2014. He and his wife, Marie, who does much of the<br>stone-cutting for his pieces, have pieces featured in national publications.
