Just A Weaver Giving Silverwork A Try

Mazie Willie

NCAC Emerging Artisan 2018/19 (Weaver)

Here I am weaving at the Heard Museum.

Hello, My name is Mazie Willie. I am of the Naasht’ezhi Dine’e – Tachii’ nii clan. Born for Tse ni ji kini, Naakaii Dine’e and Bilagaana. My cheii’s are the Ta’neegzahnii Dine’e, Chishi and the Comanche. My nali's are the Naakaii Dine’e and Bilagaana. This is how I am a Native American woman. My parents are the late Kirklie Phillip Atakai and the late Lucy Jimmy Atakai. We originate in the area between Gum Point and a place called Big Ham Dam of Low Mountain. These areas were a part of the Navajo and Hopi Joint use area at one time. We were relocated to the Sanders area - sometimes it is called Newlands (for obvious relocation reasons). But it was never new at all. The old inhabitants were cattle and the cowboys or ranchers as we call them.

I am a weaver in this year Navajo Cultural Arts Certificate Program. My cohort member is Tamerra Martin and our instructor is Ilene Naegle. We weave together at the Window Rock Diné College Branch on Wednesday afternoons. It has been great working with these ladies - but through the NCAP, I was able to learn a little more about the cultural arts - specifically silversmithing. Therefore, I would say that my favorite NCAP activity during the Fall 2018 semester (besides going to weave at the Heard Museum) was working with silver and natural stones in our NIS129 Materials and Resource Class.

Most of the people that I know who do silverwork, work in their homes whenever they can. Their homes usually have electricity where the buffering is done with electricity. At one time every thing was done by manual labor. Up to now, it seemed like silversmithing was a costly hobby with a costly initial investment. It takes time, money, and labor to produce quality art pieces. That's why I was excited when one of our workshops was on silver bead making.

In the workshop, Dr. Christine Ami presented on types of metal (copper, brass, silver, gold), different gauges, and variations of the natural stones. She even mentioned how coins were originally used by Navajos for silversmithing. Dr. Ami had some high quality handmade- jewelry pieces that her husband had made. She gave us tips about buying materials and selling the art pieces. I don't think such advice is clearly given to new artists so freely.

At the end of the Dr. Ami's presentation, the former 2017/2018 Miss Navajo, Crystal Littleben did a hands on workshop. Miss Littleben was very helpful and attentive. She worked with us on cutting, stamping, soldering, and buffing of the silver beads. We started with copper and then moved into silver once we got an understanding of the process. I know everyone had a memorable day at this workshop because it was fun and interacting.  At the end of the day,  we produced an art piece. Thank you both, Dr. Ami and Miss Littleben, for your time, skill, knowledge, patience and everything else too 😄. Now, these two ladies not only know the art work but both are very smart, supportive when working with people.

I would like to do some silverwork in the Spring semester, but it will be crunch time for me as I focus on my weaving in preparations for the 2019 NCAP Exhibit. However, classes like NIS129 sure make silversmithing, and the other emphasis areas like basketry and moccasin making, more approachable than I used to think.