The stones in the RISD Museum example could be blue gem turquoise from Nevada or another turquoise mine in the Southwest. This necklace is most likely entirely handmade, created in either an outdoor studio [Fig. 3] or inside a hogan (a traditional Diné home). The maker hammered the spherical silver beads, also called Navajo pearls, from sheet silver. The squash blossom beads in this necklace differ slightly from the original First-Phase squash blossom bead shapes made entirely of silver, instead comprising of a flat piece of silver set with a hand-cut turquoise stone and three blossom petals facing outwards. Originally, Diné smiths chased silver with an awl to create decorative patterns. Eventually, smiths used files and cold chisels for these details.¹⁷ During the 1880s, when smiths began creating and utilizing small iron or steel die stamps, creativity in design soared.¹⁸ Die stamps have designs filed into one end that is hammered into the work to reproduce the designs.¹⁹ Stamp work is central to Diné silverwork and smiths form a myriad of patterns from curvilinear to geometric. Some Diné smiths pass stamps down from generation to generation, creating family designs.²⁰ For this necklace, a triangular stamp with six serrated lines and a liner stamp were used to hammer the designs into the silver [Fig. 7]. The flat silver of the squash blossom bead has a clam design on each side of the turquoise stone. The triangular stamp was used to border the clam form and the liner stamp was used five or six times within the clam shape. Furthermore, the triangle stamp borders the turquoise. The maker strung the stamped squash blossom beads and Navajo pearls together with cotton twine. In the middle of the necklace is a hand-crafted názhah pendant, also made from sheet silver, with two bands of horizontal and vertical set turquoise. The triangular stamp was used on the silver crescent lines above each band of turquoise of the názhah. Finally, a hand-crafted silver j-clasp secures the work to the wearer’s neck.

I think that this piece was made in the 1930s, before World War II. We know that it was made before 1955, because that was the year it was donated to the museum. Additionally, scratches from a hand file are clearly seen on the turquoise stones [Figs. 7 and 8]. After World War II, Diné silversmiths used machinery to evenly polish the stones. Next, the stones are roughly the same size, but still unique in shape. This indicates that they were hand-cut stones and not the commercially calibrated examples Diné silversmiths used later in the twentieth century. The bezels, or silver settings at the base of the stones, look serrated by a handsaw or file. By the late 1950s, most Diné silversmiths were buying commercially made serrated bezels.²¹ Lastly, the heavy use of turquoise stones is more closely associated with the 1930s than any earlier decade. Unfortunately, there is no stamp or hallmark attributing a maker or makers, which is common for this era of Diné silversmithing. “PUZU” is scratched into the back of the názhah, which is not a typical Diné name but could be the original buyer’s name [Fig. 2].

I imagine that an intricate necklace like this was a showpiece displayed in the window at a trading post on the Navajo Reservation or in a border town near the reservation, enticing tourists to purchase this work and take it back to wherever they called home. In the 1930s, trading-post owners would supply Diné silversmiths with materials such as sheet silver and wire, then buy the jewelry for resale. Individual artists did not make fair profits for their work and were not properly credited within the trading-post system.²² Trading-post owners also suggested design ideas, pressuring Indigenous makers to create works that looked “Indian.” Squash-blossom necklaces in particular became popular tourist souvenirs.²³ During this era, many Diné makers sold their work to the trading posts as a means of survival.