BOLOOLO TIESIES

Contemporary Neckwear of the West

Diana F. Pardue

olo ties have held a place in popular culture through several decades. Jon Cryer wore one in the movie Pretty Bin Pink (1986), Tom Cruise wore a bolo tie in the final scene of Cocktail (1988) and more recently Chris Colfer wore a bolo tie on an episode of Glee. Bolo ties have been made by Native American artists since the late 1940s. For many contemporary artists, a bolo tie is a palette to express artistic individuality. Although some of the earliest bolo ties were simple shapes—isosceles trapezoids—artists began to distinguish their work from the onset. Around 1947-49, Willie Coin (Hopi) made a unique bolo tie for Dr. Harold Colton, director of the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. The key part of the bolo tie—the bolo ornament—is positioned at the collar line, where the knot of a cloth tie would rest. Strung on a leather cord or strap, which is often braided, the ornament serves as the focal point of the tie. Coin created this early bolo tie using the design of the museum’s logo in silver overlay, a process of cutting designs into a sheet of silver and placing that over another silver plate. At times, the silversmith leaves the lower plate smooth and at other times, textures the design with stamp marks. 32 ORNAMENT 35.4.2012 Many Native American artists have developed individual designs using specific jewelry techniques, making their work recognizable to collectors of Native American art.

Each end of the bolo strap is also covered in a silver NORBERT PESHLAKAI (Navajo), Pablo Picasso-inspired bolo tie of silver, or gold tip. At times the bolo tips are quite elaborate, coral; 11.4 centimeters, 2010. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. Right: MARIAN DENIPAH (Navajo/San Juan), frog bolo tie of tufa-cast silver, repeating the design of the ornament or elaborating various stones; 7.6 centimeters, 2009. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. upon the theme. This early bolo tie Coin made for Dr. Photographs by Craig Smith, except where noted. Colton was quite unusual for its time. Coin made tips Opposite page: MICHAEL KABOTIE/LOMAYWESA (Hopi), Awatovi distinctive to Colton’s background as an archaeologist. mural bolo tie of silver overlay; 7.6 centimeters, 2008. Norman L. One tip was shaped like a pick and the other was in the Sandfield Collection. (Border motif): MICHAEL KABOTIE/LOMAYWESA (Hopi), Awatovi Prayers of mixed media; 55.88 x 228.6 centimeters, shape of a shovel. 2003. Heard Museum Collection. Many unique bolo ties would be made by Native American artists in subsequent years. While some bolo ties emphasized only a central turquoise stone with silver tips, others were more elaborate and expressive of an artist’s work. Many Native American artists have developed individual designs using specific jewelry techniques, making their work recognizable to collectors of Native American art. One jeweler who has distinguished his work since he began making jewelry in the late 1970s is Jesse Monongye. He was one of several emerging artists who were included in a special issue of Arizona Highways that featured jewelers in the April 1979 issue. Monongye had learned jewelry techniques by watching his father Preston work and by watching some of the jewelers who did the stone inlay in his father’s jewelry. Jesse became adept at both metalwork and fine inlay. Some of his early inlay featured an expansive night sky with lapis lazuli for the sky and dolomite, turquoise or other stones for the stars. In the 1980s, Monongye began to create an inlaid-night sky design that featured Halley’s Comet as a central element. When creating an inlay design for a bolo tie, Monongye held the design in a silver framework. Monongye recalls a time in the early 1980s when he accompanied Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater to dinner at a local Scottsdale steakhouse. Pinnacle Peak Patio was known for its Western theme and for the restaurant staff’s practice of cutting off cloth ties worn by their customers. On this particular evening, Senator Goldwater wore a bolo tie and declared to the restaurant staff that it was Arizona’s neckwear. The staff must have considered it appropriate Western neckwear as the Senator and his bolo tie were allowed in the herding sheep or on soft pieces of coal we removed from the restaurant unscathed. ground.” Some of Monongye’s works reference nature. He Through the years, Monongye continued to hone his skills says, “I might look at a rosebush and see a spider on one side and his inlay became more detailed and complex. He also and a ladybug on the other. I will never stop designing.” expanded his repertoire of stones to include jet for the night Jewelers Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird have been making sky and opals to represent big, harvest moons and other jewelry since the early 1970s. Bolo ties are just one of the celestial features. In addition to the night sky, Monongye also jewelry forms they make that include a range of necklaces, began to depict the red rocks of Monument Valley, a familiar belts, earrings, and brooches. Their work is distinguished by scene from his childhood. Monongye has illustrated other the inclusion of unusual stones and by creative designs. mountain scenes such as the Grand Tetons from Wyoming Johnson and Bird are largely self-taught jewelers. Johnson took (see cover) as well as designs from his culture such as those of a two-week course in California in 1969 and an advanced Navajo textiles. He has also designed some bolo ties specifically jewelry course at Utah State, but learned many techniques by for individuals and friends incorporating images of cattle or reading John Adair’s book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths horses that pertain to an individual’s lifestyle or career. In and by experimentation. recent years, Monongye has used gold for bolo ties and more Initially, Johnson and Bird made their different jewelry recently he has selected eighteen karat gold. forms in silver, or they used red or yellow brass because they Monongye says of his bolo tie and other inlay designs, “My liked the way the brass looked when combined with jaspers, work is like [Navajo] weaving. I see the design in the pieces agates and other unusual stones they selected. Their earliest I make. During my childhood, I drew on soft sand while bolo ties were in silver and featured high-quality turquoise, but they also began to use stones such as chalcedony, petrified palmwood, Yowah opal, Mexican lace agate, or spectrolite. Their bolo ornaments generally feature one or two stones. When the artists use two stones, they often select stones of contrasting but complementary colors. At times, the artists will choose a stone with inclusions such as rutilated quartz. In those instances, the natural features of the stone as well as the quality and size of the stone allow it to stand alone. About 1980, Johnson and Bird began to use fourteen karat gold in one of their thematic belts for which they are so well known [see Ornament, Vol. 30, No. 3]. By the mid-1990s they began to use eighteen karat gold for their jewelry including bolo ties. At times, they position tufa-cast metal accents

NORBERT PESHLAKAI (Navajo), silver seed pot bolo tie of silver, coral, jade, shell, and other stones; 7.9 centimeters, 2008. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. Right: LONN PARKER (Navajo), bolo tie of tufa-cast silver and Chinese turquoise; 8.9 centimeters, 1990s. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. 34 ORNAMENT 35.4.2012 CHARLES LOLOMA (Hopi), ram’s-head bolo tie of tufa- cast silver; 4.4 centimeters, near the stones on the bolo circa 1960. Heard Museum ornaments. Tufa is a soft, volcanic Collection. BADGER-PAW rock that can be used as a casting BOLO TIE of tufa-cast silver; 8.9 centimeters, early 1960s. mold. Many Native American Heard Museum Collection, jewelers carve designs into the tufa Gift of Mareen Allen Nichols. that appear as relief elements in the cast metals. Historically, tufa- cast silver jewelry was polished smooth. Since the late 1950s, when Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma left some surfaces rough rather than polishing, other jewelers have preferred the rough surfaces. Like other Native American artists, Johnson and Bird have developed bolo tips of their own design. They create elegant tips that are tubular shaped in silver or gold and enhanced with designs of four-point stars that they design of a Yé’ii, a Navajo ceremonial figure, but in an cut out of the metal. Johnson and Bird make about three or abstracted form. Peshlakai recalls how pleased his father was four bolo ties annually. Noting that the bolo ties have a comfortable with the design and notes, “When my dad first saw this, he place in the West, Bird says, “For mainstream people it’s a didn’t say anything but he ran to show my mom.” costume, an oddity, but in the Southwest, it’s not.” Peshlakai is also one of the creators of silver seed pots. Based A contemporary of Johnson and Bird, Navajo artist Norbert on Ancestral Pueblo pottery vessels that were used for annual Peshlakai has also been making silver jewelry since the 1970s. seed storage, silver seed pots are a modern-day interpretation Peshlakai likes to tell a story about enrolling in a painting class of an ancient artform. Peshlakai and Comanche/Mexican artist at Haskell Junior College in Kansas only to learn that the Michael Perez, who works under the name of White Buffalo, class was for house painting rather than easel painting. As an each began to make silver seed pots around 1975. Traditionally, alternative, Peshlakai took a jewelry class where he found he silver seed pots are made similarly to silver beads. Two halves was adept at making jewelry. Peshlakai’s jewelry is known for are domed and soldered together. One “half” is generally the detailed stampwork he adds. He makes many of his own flattened to form a base and the other has an opening and at stamps and might use several to create a single design. times an elongated neck in a manner similar to a pottery jar. Peshlakai recalls seeing bolo ties in an issue of Arizona Peshlakai’s silver seed pots were featured in Old Traditions in Highways when he was in high school. He made his first bolo New Pots: Silver Seed Pots from the Norman L. Sandfield tie in the mid-1970s. He remembers making a bolo tie with a Collection, a 2007 exhibition at the Heard Museum and a companion catalog of the same name. Afterwards, Peshlakai tie ornament allowed him to express the design in a larger made a bolo tie in the shape of a silver seed pot for collector jewelry format. Norman L. Sandfield. Peshlakai added stone inlay to enhance Kabotie studied art as a small boy and was introduced to the bolo tie just as he had added inlay to one of the jars featured on jewelry techniques by Wally Sekayumptewa in 1958 while the cover of the catalog. Like Johnson and Bird, Peshlakai has Kabotie was still in high school. Additional guidance was chosen to enhance his bolo ties with tips fashioned as long, silver provided by Kabotie’s cousins. Kabotie’s father, Fred, was tubes. He began to make his own tips when he made a recognized for his beautiful paintings and for his instrumental bolo tie for his father. Rather than use the lightweight, silver work in teaching the Hopi silver overlay style for jewelry in the commercial tips that were available, Peshlakai chose to add 1940s. Michael Kabotie was a dedicated artist and a poet. He ones that he personally made. was a member of the painting cooperative Artist Hopid from In another instance, Peshlakai created an ornament based the late 1960s into the 1970s. The abstract designs Kabotie on a Picasso sculpture he saw while on a trip to Chicago. used in both painting and in jewelry became his trademark. Initially, Peshlakai planned this as a brooch, but its size and Another Hopi artist, Verma Nequatewa (Sonwai) creates subject matter made it a perfect bolo tie ornament. The complex patterns by aligning and positioning various stones. ornament has a stylized face depicted in layers of silver appliqué. Nequatewa learned jewelry techniques by apprenticing with The overall surface of the ornament was hammer-textured, her famous uncle Charles Loloma. Nequatewa and Loloma creating a fitting contrast between the background and the worked side by side at a studio in Hotevilla for more than twenty stylized face. years. By the early 1970s, Loloma had developed distinctive Hopi artist Michael Kabotie was well known for both bolo tips that flared at the base and give the appearance of a painting and jewelry. Kabotie’s designs in both artforms often flower opening its petals. Nequatewa adds a single turquoise referenced the ancestral kiva murals at Awatovi, an ancient bead to each tip when she creates her bolo ties. village in the Hopi mesas. Kabotie moved effortlessly between One area rarely seen by the viewer is the bolo back. A wide the two artforms. In 2005, his drawings took on a larger scale range of fittings have been used by Native American artists. while his jewelry became more intricate. Some of the drawings Many contemporary artists form a figure-eight out of a piece of were re-created as small silver plaques. Kabotie’s jewelry wire to fashion a bolo fitting. The size and weight of the included bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and bolo ties. The bolo ornament will determine the weight of the cord and the

PAT PRUITT (Laguna/Chiricahua Apache) AND CHRIS PRUITT (Laguna/Chiricahua Apache), bolo tie of stainless steel, twenty-four karat gold, eighteen karat gold, Mediterranean coral, industrial diamonds; 2010. Private Collection. Photograph courtesy of the artists.

Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry, upon which this article is based, shows through November 4, 2012 at the Heard Museum, 2301 Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85004; www.heard.org. The accompanying catalog is reviewed in this issue’s Publication Reviews. Left: VERMA NEQUATEWA/SONWAI (Hopi), bolo tie of silver, fourteen karat gold, fossilized ivory, coral, lapis lazuli, sugilite, wood, and turquoise; 6.4 centimeters, 2009. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. Middle: YAZZIE JOHNSON (Navajo) AND GAIL BIRD (Laguna/Santo Domingo), bolo tie of sterling silver, silver in nickel in quartz; early- mid 1980s. Norman L. Sandfield Collection. Right: YAZZIE JOHNSON (Navajo) AND GAIL BIRD (Laguna/Santo Domingo), bolo tie of eighteen karat gold, blue chalcedony; 2000. Private Collection.

thickness of the cord will determine the thickness of the wire Brothers Pat and Chris Pruitt have collaborated on some needed to hold the ornament in place so that it does not slide jewelry. Most recently, the two made a bolo tie out of stainless down on the straps. The opening in the figure-eight shape is steel, a material that Pat often uses for his contemporary made to accommodate different cord sizes. Braided cords can jewelry. The bolo ornament has industrial diamonds—a natural be thin or quite thick. Also, the positioning of the figure-eight addition to the steel. Coral inlay is added to the sides of the fitting can determine the ease with which the bolo tie ornament bolo ornament, a specialty of Chris. Their work exemplifies can be moved on the strap. Nequatewa continues to use a bolo some of the exciting changes in the artform. Bolo ties, like tie fitting that has been employed by Hopi silversmiths for other contemporary jewelry, continue to change and evolve as several decades. Two strips of sheet silver are cut and soldered artists develop new designs and as young artists begin to work to the back plate of the ornament in lateral lines. At times these in the artform. are crimped to further secure the ornament and keep it from sliding on the strap. For more images visit Web Exclusives at ornamentmagazine.com

Bolo tie artists might reference elements from the natural SUGGESTED READING world or choose simply to create abstract designs. Marian Cirillo, Dexter. Southwestern Indian Jewelry: Crafting New Traditions. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2008. Denipah is a young artist who has recently learned tufa-casting. Dubin, Lois Sherr. Jesse Monongya: Opal Bears and Lapis Skies. New York: Hudson For her first bolo tie (pictured on page 33) she referenced Hills Press, 2002. Osburn, Annie. Visions of Sonwai: Verma Nequatewa. Hotevilla, AZ: Sonwai, Inc., a design of a frog that she had seen on Zuni pottery. But she 2007. Pardue, Diana F., with Norman L. Sandfield. Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage depicted the head of the frog in a highly stylized form and the and Contemporary Artistry. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2011. appendages on the front legs are elongated like fingers on a hand Pardue, Diana F. Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2007. while those on the back feet are webbed. Denipah chose to inlay ——. Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith Publisher, colorful stones in the body. She also made the tips in the shapes 2007. Struever, Martha H. Loloma: Beauty Is His Name. Santa Fe: Wheelwright Museum of of tadpoles to complement the design of the ornament. the American Indian, 2005. 37 ORNAMENT 35.4.2012