James Little — Navajo Silversmith

James Little likes wax for what it lets him build. "I like wax because I can make different shapes and designs that I couldn't make any other way," he told Lois Essary Jacka for Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone (Jacka 1995, p. 53). Jacka shows a Monument Valley scene he made in 18-karat gold, with a moon symbol against a lapis lazuli sky (Jacka 1995, p. 2), and a textured gold bracelet in which 3.96 carats of diamonds "represent a rainbow" (Jacka 1995, p. 116).

Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks lists him as Navajo, born in 1947, active since the 1970s, and working in a "Contemporary, modern style; lost wax casting; silver, gold." Hougart records that he learned the basics of silver work at the Many Farms School, worked at the Ranger Station at Canyon de Chelly, the Navajo Community College Workshop and Greenlaw Jewelers in Flagstaff before striking out on his own, and that "One of his teachers at the Navajo Community College was Kenneth Begay" (Hougart 2022, p. 188).

Philip Chambless and Mike Ryan II name him among "the next leaders in Native jewelry," alongside Jesse Monongya, Verma Nequatewa and Harvey Begay (Chambless and Ryan 2021, p. 180).

His hallmark

Hougart gives his marks as four parallel bars; "J L (inside a triangular shape with scalloped inside liner; earliest mark on silver)"; and "J L (inside a fluted arrowhead, often applied on the outer surface of jewelry)" (Hougart 2022, p. 188).