Jan Loco — Fort Sill Apache Silversmith

Jan Loco textures silver against stone. Paula A. Baxter's Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry lists her as "Loco, Jan (4/13/55– , Fort Sill Apache)" and records that she began making jewelry in 1988, self-taught, drawing inspiration from the Apache sculptor Allan Houser, among others (Baxter 2000, p. 100).

The method is the signature. She lays sheet silver over a rock and hammers it until the rock's surface is in the metal; Pardue writes that she sometimes looks for an hour or more before she finds the surface she wants. She finishes the hammered surfaces with several grades of steel wool and white diamond compound, and works with hand tools only: shears, hammers, files (Pardue 2007, p. 81; Baxter 2000, p. 100).

Diana F. Pardue's Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry records her as "Apache, b. 1955," texturing her silver to resemble the rough rocks around her home in New Mexico. The four-point morning star recurs in her earrings and necklaces, and her brooches draw on the rabbits, turtles, coyotes and butterflies she sees there and on southwestern petroglyphs. Pardue shows her "Morningstar Necklace" of textured silver and obsidian, 1990, and a hammer-textured silver spiral pin, 2000 (Pardue 2007, pp. 81–82). Baxter adds carnelian, obsidian and onyx among her stones and notes that her necklaces are particularly prized (Baxter 2000, p. 100).

Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks lists her as "Jan Loco (1949-; Apache)," working in shaped silver, cast gold and copper, with hand-hammered silver "created by pounding ingot with a rock," and calls her a "Student of Allan Houser" (Hougart 2022, p. 190). The birth year differs: Baxter and Pardue print 1955, Hougart 1949.

Her hallmark

Hougart gives her marks as Jan Loco (Apache handmade, etched), J. LOCO (script) and J. Loco (etched, with "Spirit of the Rock" or "Human Spirit"), along with a cross mark (Hougart 2022, p. 190).