Jake Livingston — Navajo Silversmith
Jake Livingston works in gold inlay and in pieces that move. Lois Essary Jacka's Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone shows a gold inlay bracelet whose "reversible pendant in the center of the bracelet rotates; one side has a sun-face design; the other, a blue jay" (Jacka 1995, p. 96). When the jewelry market slowed, he told Jacka, "I began making custom silver-mounted show saddles, 'carving' the leather and hand engraving all the silver" (Jacka 1995, pp. 37–38).
Theda Bassman's The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry shows necklaces of his in "traditional Navajo stampwork" and a box in silver repoussé (Bassman 1997, p. 9). Mark Bahti heads his profile "JAKE LIVINGSTON NAVAJO" and records that he was born in 1946 (Bahti 2007, p. 93).
Bille Hougart lists him as Navajo/Zuni, born in 1946 (Hougart 2022, p. 189), and Bassman's index gives the same (Bassman 1997, p. 74).
His hallmark
Hougart gives his marks as "J L" and "JAKE L. (since 1976)" (Hougart 2022, p. 189).
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References
- Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997.
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders. 5th edition. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
This profile is maintained in support of Native American silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.