Rolling Mill Workshop? Right On!

Irvina Chee

NCAC Emerging Artisan 2018/19 (Silversmith) 

Brass pieces from my participants...not too bad, huh?!

 Ya’ateeh! It's me again - Irvina Chee - from the 2018/19 Navajo Cultural Arts Certificate silversmithing cohort - one semester later and all the more wiser in the world of offering silversmithing workshops! Coming into the Spring semester, I knew that I would be faced with the challenge of offering a workshop in April as part of the Navajo Cultural Arts Week workshop series. As the weeks were passing, my practicum II instructor informed me that I would be leading a rolled earring workshop. Only one problem... I never had made earrings before and I definitely had never had used the rolling mill before. All that changed one Monday when the NCAP staff Sheryl and Crystal joined me for a mock workshop where

I could become familiar with the tools, materials, and time that it would take to make these earrings.While that was a pretty cool learning experience - it was the workshop itself that took place on April 17th that truly made this experience worthwhile.

​I truly believe if you are an artist, almost everything you put emotion into is your art. For my first workshop ever in the cohort, I greeted 5 eager participants. In the group, I had the honor of instructing a mother and daughter who spent their most of their lives weaving. I only found out later that Emily  Malone and Larissa Blake were not strangers to the NCAP programming. As a matter of fact, they themselves had offered weaving workshops for the NCAP and even given the 2nd Navajo Cultural Arts Week Key Lecture in 2017: "The Spider Rock Girls: Three Generations of Family Tradition and Innovation in Navajo Weaving." 

Introducing the Mother / Daughter duo to a new media - metal work

​We had a tremendous amount of fun getting to know each other. After introductions were given and the “Ayes” were had, the safety gear went on. With their natural talent for designing, we got to do some stamp work and rolling plate designs on 24 gauge brass and 20 gauge silver. The end results were spectacular pairs of earrings they got to take home with them! They were both very inspiring to get to know and demonstrated that the student can sure teach the teacher. They revealed to me that everything an artist touches is art even if the materials are different. Although I am sure it was a transition for them - working with the rough destruction process of metal work instead of with gentle spinning of wool - swapping metal tools for their cedar tools they were used to. 

Rolling Mill

Final Silver Pieces

It took a little bit of elbow grease and teamwork to complete the rolled earring. Very much well worth the sweat though. We had a lot of laughs and fun with the rolling plates. The biggest challenge we found was getting the perfect amount of pressure for the end result we wanted. My goal was to convey to the participants that the first thing silversmithing asks of you is the ability to channel your passion for creation. I hope that message came through!

I had a ton of fun connecting and encouraging! I hope to visit this mother and daughter duo in from Spider Rock sometime this summer. Ahe’hee for this experience!