Martha Jackson — Navajo/Diné Silversmith
Navajo (Diné) silversmith. Profiled in Mark Bahti’s Silver + Stone (2007).
Martha Jackson, a Navajo silversmith, was profiled with her husband, Gene Jackson, in Mark Bahti's Silver + Stone (2007).
The Mark
Recorded mark: JACKSON (sometimes inside a hogan), a stamp shared with her husband, Gene Jackson (Hougart (2022)).
From the Library: Bahti, Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers (2007)
A 2007 profile, reviewed and corrected by the artists themselves before publication. Anything described as current describes 2006-2007, not today.
According to Bahti (2007, p. 57), Martha Jackson was born in 1936, born to the Folding Arms clan and born for Red Bottom; a daughter of Janette Nez and John Scott, she was the only one of her siblings to work silver. [1]
Bahti (2007, p. 58) reported that she learned silversmithing from Gene after they married. [1]
According to Bahti (2007, p. 59), Martha and Gene were best known for hollowware and shadowbox styles, with bracelet surfaces decorated with stampwork or chiseled lines around stones from top-quality turquoise to lapis lazuli, coral and meteorite. [1]
Bahti (2007, p. 59) noted that they sometimes set a stone on the inside of a bracelet, a style some call hidden beauty. [1]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Bahti (2007, p. 57) gives Martha's birth year as 1936, noting that her records disagree; Hougart's hallmark reference gives 1933 and records her death in 2019. We show Bahti's date, from her own reviewed profile, and keep Hougart's here.
Family in the directory: Gene Jackson · Tommy Jackson
Sources
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Cited for the recorded hallmark.
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