Hopi Jewelry Guide

Contemporary Hopi jewelry is best known for its intricate silver overlay technique that gives it a distinctive quality which distinguishes it from other styles of Native American jewelry. The silver overlay technique utilizes two flat layers of silver - the first silver layer is utilized as a base and left relatively untouched, while the second layer has intricate designs carved out by the artist. The two silver layers are then fused together to create the characteristic silver overlay style that distinguishes Hopi jewelry.

In general, Hopi jewelry tends to use a wide variety of designs mostly based upon sacred and secular cultural symbols, including animal, natural, and clan symbols. Some jewelry techniques date back to prehistoric times, such as the turquoise mosaic, and are still in use today. This type of design might be meant to express a particular historic association or symbolic quality. Although the Hopi developed their jewelry-making skills and style later than other tribes of the Southwest, such as the Navajo and the Pueblo, the tribe's unique silver overlay style has become synonymous with Native American jewelry.

Hopi Jewelry - Earliest History

The Hopi Indians, like most Native American tribes, developed a strong artistry heritage dating back to their earliest records. The Hopi were, and still are, one of the most remote and isolated tribes in the Americas, ultimately living high up on a series of relatively inaccessible mesas in northeastern Arizona. Whereas other Indian tribes traded frequently with each other and with non-Indians such as early European settlers, the Hopi remained relatively uninvolved with this exchange in commerce and culture, which in part allowed Hopi jewelry and art to develop its own distinct style.

Hopi Jewelry - Evolution through Trade

Hopi jewelry styles and techniques started to evolve through their exchange with the Zuni Pueblo Indians as the two tribes traded regularly and shared jewelry making techniques. When this exchange began the Hopi were already accomplished in their textile weaving, basketry creation, pottery skills, and kachina doll-crafting, but were relatively inexperienced in more contemporary jewelry-making techniques like the manipulation of metals. The Zuni were accomplished silversmiths, having learned the techniques from Spanish traders, and their exchange of crafts allowed the Hopi to build their own expertise in this metal that is now synonymous with Hopi jewelry. In the 1930s the Hopi further developed their silversmithing expertise, and soon thereafter developed the silver overlay technique for which Hopi jewelry is particularly renowned.