"Don't Be Lame" - A Dual Credit Student's Challenges

Tavian Nutlouis

Navajo Cultural Arts Certificate, Dual Credit Student, Silversmith

My name is Tavian and I am a student at Navajo Pine High School. I am also a silversmithing student at Diné College as part of the Dual Credit Program. That means that I take college credit courses while completing my high school degree. This is my 4th silversmithing class here at the Diné College and my 3rd class with my instructor, Teddy Draper, Jr. This semester was very challenging, informative, and fun! I learned so much and am excited for this coming summer because I’m thinking of all the projects I’ll make.

But enough of my general thoughts - let's take a look at my CA408: Intermediate Silversmithing projects - all done online - all done while I was trying to stay a top of my high school work - all done during a pandemic :) 

The first project was a tufa cast ring with a stone and handmade bezel. I wanted to go with a spider web design with a stone in the middle of the web to represent a spider’s back. Originally, I heated up some scraps to create a ball for the spider’s head. Then I shaped wires into 6 legs and solder it to the bezel. This was what I was going with, but it was time consuming because I kept messing up on the crucible pour and soldering the bezel onto the curved ring. It also took many attempts to pour the ring. At first, I carved too deep making the ring pretty thick. It bent well in the front, but the sides just wouldn’t budge, instead it cracked. When I restarted the process, I made the ring thinner, shaped it, and soldered it.  The designs came out on their own and I learned- sometimes the silver makes the final decisions!
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The second project was nothing new or strange to me - shadow box ring with stone. We had done one of these in the fall class, but I did want to make something different and unique. The design on my shadow box ring was pretty cool, it’s the first time I’ve done an overlay design like that. It happened by accident… I had a different method of soldering the design onto the back plate but when I was sawing it, I sawed off the whole middle design. I kind of freaked out but I saw an opportunity. First, I soldered the oval border onto the back plate, then matched the middle design hole with the hole that I already cut out, soldered that baby on very carefully, and it came out nice! I liked it, especially because it happened on accident!
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The third project reminded me of the first overlay bracelet I made in a previous class with Teddy. I get compliments from my elders and asked where I got it because it came out nice. So now it was time to take those skills and make a storytelling pendant. The storytelling design was inspired by a memory of my dad talking to a horse my grandpa gave him on Christmas. My dad was talking, comforting, and feeding it grain in the design. The rocks and hogan in the background were the scenery I saw while hauling hay for the horses one day.

The fourth project I had issues - actually major issues - it was a tufa cast project. After heating up the silver, pouring it continuously. The silver would either fill up and overflow or it would pour but still not fill the design to the bottom. After carving the design again, creating more vents - the tufa cracked. I researched and reached out to Teddy, we figured it out, so I carved the design again. But I guess this project was just not meant to be for now....I accidentally bumped it off the table and it broke in half. This was so infuriating; I couldn’t finish the project as the situation worsened. Like I said before - sometimes the silver makes the final decisions and sometimes, you don't like silver's decisions.

But silver not pouring the way I wanted was not a waste- it was pouring the way I needed. I needed to self reflect. Being a high school student and a college student is exciting but it is a challenge and you have to be willing to put in the extra work. Typically, I’m really good at managing my responsibilities: sports (football, basketball, and baseball), high school assignments, and silversmithing. But this semester was particularly rough and I started falling behind what when I lost three relatives in one week - it was almost impossible for me to forget that we were in a pandemic, even sitting behind my silversmithing desk. I decided to make my family a priority. I knew I was going to fall behind but family comes first. I am not the type of person to make excuses, I like to be held accountable, and I held myself accountable for my late work. 

The NCAP team did hold me accountable - but in a family way. They found me! They pulled me back into activities like the Spring Navajo Cultural Arts Virtual Exhibit hosted by the Native American Arts Magazine Online. Can you believe it?  My work featured online! They pushed me to get back into contact with my instructor and they got me to catch up the best I could. 

I remember when I first started silversmithing, Teddy told me, “Move at your own pace, put in a lot of effort, and don’t be LAME. Make something nice you’ll be proud of”. I’ve always kept that in mind and did my best this semester to not be lame and to be proud of myself. I’m glad I participated in silversmithing classes, it helped me in many ways. I appreciate the art and can’t wait for summer to make more awesome jewelry!