Richard Tsosie — Navajo Silversmith
Richard Tsosie builds texture into silver. Lois Essary Jacka's Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone writes: "He also combines overlay work with textured surfaces, accomplished by granulation, a process that involves fusing silver filings or dust onto a background without the use of solder. Richard is credited with being the first Native American jeweler to develop this technique" (Jacka 1995, p. 62). Jacka adds that he often fabricates hollowform, box-style jewelry, massive in appearance and light in the hand (Jacka 1995, p. 62).
Theda Bassman's The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry shows a bola tie and a matching belt buckle of his in silver shadow box and overlay, with beveled inlay of turquoise, oxblood coral and malachite (Bassman 1997, p. 55). Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks lists him as "Richard Tsosie (1953-; Navajo)," active since the 1970s, working in "Contemporary; cast work; fabricated; mosaic inlay; silver, gold" (Hougart 2022, p. 320).
His hallmark
Hougart gives his marks as "R (below a cloud); R Tsosie (stylized script)" (Hougart 2022, p. 320). Boyd Tsosie's mark is also a cloud, above a B (Hougart 2022, p. 319); the letter tells them apart.
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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.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders. 5th edition. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
- Schaaf, Gregory, with Angie Yan Schaaf. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, ca. 1800-present. American Indian Art Series, Vol. 5. Santa Fe: CIAC Press, 2003. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
- Dubin, Lois Sherr. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present. Original photography by Togashi, Paul Jones, and others. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1999.
From the Library: Schaaf, American Indian Jewelry I (2003)
2003 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2003, not today.
Schaaf (2003, p. 113) named Richard Tsosie as the teacher of Michael Anthony Cheatham, an Echota Cherokee jeweler who also trained at the Gemological Institute of America and who credited personal guidance from the noted Navajo jeweler. [4]
Schaaf (2003, p. 314) entered him as Richard J. Tsosie, stamping R. R. Tsosie, with a cloud hallmark. [4]
Schaaf (2003, p. 314) recorded Richard Tsosie as Navajo, active from about 1970 in contemporary gold and silver fabricated, reticulated, set stone and mosaic inlay jewelry and sculpture, a brother of Boyd Tsosie, taught by Kenneth Begay about 1970 at Navajo Community College in Many Farms, and showing at Indian Market from 1978. [4]
From the Library: Dubin, North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment (1999)
1999 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1999, not today.
Dubin (1999, p. 492) recorded him as influenced by his brother Boyd, who had taken classes with Kenneth Begay, and by the Navajo jeweler Lee Yazzie, and wrote that his designs and reticulated background textures drew on his Navajo heritage and the natural world; she pictured a tufa-cast buckle of the early 1990s. [5]
Field Notes by Mateo James
I notice Schaaf's 2003 register gives his birth year as 1956, where Hougart has 1953. Schaaf's year would make him younger than his brother Boyd, born in 1954, which does not fit this page's account, so I show Hougart's year and note Schaaf's.
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