Native American smithing

[Dave Porter]

Living in the heart of native American culture its hard not to develop an appreciation of their jewelry.
This is a new "hobby" for me and I hope to get semi-proficient some day.
This is a bear claw motif belt bucket. Hope you like it.. dave

[themanmonkey]

Good going. I grew up in a town near Sherman Alexie, so if you read his books you know the area. I'm more partial to NW coastal stuff, but the SW silver stuff is really cool too.

So it looks like you're dirt casting, is that correct?

[Dave Porter]

No, it's overlay.. I'll have to get his book(s) and see what it's all about up there.. Thanks for the tip!

[Zimmermanbicycle]

Nice work Dave!
reminds me of home,I'm from just up the road in Taos.
-Eric Z

[Dave Porter]

Thanks Eric,
It's really interesting to see the different interpretations from each of the different Pueblos. The Indian Cultural Center (all 19 NM Tribes) is a great place to see it all at once..
dp

[Zimmermanbicycle]

Thanks Dave,maybe I'll check that out next time I'm home.
-EZ

[conorb]

Very cool Dave; nice work.

Keep it going.

Conor

[ron l edmiston]

kingman?

ronnie

[messyparrot]

I love it!

[Dave Porter]

No, Kingman is generally much greener. This is pretty cheap ( ~30 carat ) and no clue what continent its from... Hey, but a good guess
dp

[Dave Porter]

Here's a new one from this week.. Big Bear fetish. I could get into this if I had unlimited "supplies" money to burn. I already have some good ideas for the next one. Hope you all like this one too.

[Chauncey Matthews]

That one is my favorite so far..you're getting pretty good at the picture taking thing too!

[Dave Porter]

Ahh shucks... Love it when you sweet talk like that..

[Dave Porter]

OK, OK.. last one for a while. This has been a fun excursion into another creative area for me.
This buckle depicts turtles emerging from the underworld.
This is stabilized Kingman turquoise and White Buffalo stone.
Enjoy.
Dave

[Dave Porter]

I'd been really down with the flu for what seemed like forever... Anyway, a friend, whose wife's maiden name was Wolf, asked me to do a wolf buckle. Well, it's really hard to make a wolf, coyote or dog look like one in silver. This one is not too much to my liking (or his wife-sigh) and being sick didn't help my creative juices much. Nevertheless, here it is. I want to try again on this and try to keep the stylized moon in the scene. Any ideas welcomed.
Dave