Apache Primitive Hand Forged Hammered Silver Wide Bracelet by Jan Loco [SOLD]

This silver bracelet was fashioned in what has become Apache artist Jan Loco’s individualistic style, having been made only a year after she began silversmithing.  It was hand cut with shears and textured by hammering with rocks having different surfaces. On one side of the bracelet is a cut-out of her Spider Woman’s cross that has become associated with her work.

This heavy hand-forged silver cuff has several notations stamped on the inside—”spirit of the rocks” © 89, primitive hand forged, J. Loco; and sterling. 

Jan Loco (b.1949-) began making jewelry in 1988. She developed a unique method of creating jewelry without the use of any power tools.  Using only heavy-duty shears, she cut and fashioned her piece to the desired shape, after which she hammered it with a specially selected rock until she achieved the desired texture.  This is a laborious task, but she felt it honored her ancestry to use items of nature rather than power tools.

Jan Loco became interested in Apache symbolism and legend when, as a young adult, she discovered her Apache ancestry. Her work is inspired by the stories of her ancestors, incorporating designs reflecting the heavens, Apache legends as well as plants and animals of the Apache homeland.  She did not learn of her Warm Springs Apache heritage from her adoptive parents until she was an adult. It was then that she learned she was the great granddaughter of Chief Loco, one of the last of the Apache chiefs, who had been imprisoned in Florida in 1886 by the U. S. government.

Jan Loco no longer is making jewelry.  She moved from New Mexico some years ago and her whereabouts are unknown.

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: this Apache Primitive Hand Forged Hammered Silver Wide Bracelet by Jan Loco from the collection of a resident of Santa Fe

Recommended Reading: American Indian Jewelry II: A-L, 1,800 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf