HARRY H. BEGAY Rare Blue Gem Turquoise Bracelet

Hand Hammered Ingot Bracelet

Harry H. Begay has been smithing silver for over 35 years. His work is "ingot" work, meaning that it is hand wrought in the traditional style. His bracelets have always been relatively rare and they will remain so because of the amount of work involved in creating them and their extreme collectibility based also on the rare turquoise stones he employs in his craft. While most modern smiths use Sterling products purchased from a jewelry supply house--sheet silver, triangle wire, twist wire, etc.--Harry fashions his own after melting his silver in a crucible, pouring it out and hammering it into the desired shapes. Such work requires multiple annealings (heating the metal to 1200° F to re-establish the original crystalline structure of the molecules) between hammering and is practiced by few Navajo smiths today. Harry has set 4 Rare Blue Gem Turquoise stones into this Heavy Hand Made Cuff.

 Biographical information and photographic examples of Harry's work can be found on page 74 of Greg Schaaf's book "American Indian Jewelry I 1,200 Artist Biographies"