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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
Showing posts with label Hopi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hopi. Show all posts
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Charles Loloma: Pendant
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Charles Loloma: His Name Means "Beauty"
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
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| Charles Loloma |
Gold and pearls -- works for me!
Charles Loloma maintained a deep reverence for Hopi beliefs and the ceremonies. He lived by the Hopi calendar, its cycles of birth, death, and regeneration. In Autumn, the fields behind his studio were filled with ripening squash and melon, and on the crest behind it, he was found with relatives roasting corn to provide for the winter ahead.
There is a seeming disparity between this way of life and the sophisticated world in which he moved. His answer to this was -- “We are a very serious people and have tried hard to elevate ourselves, but in order to create valid art, you have to be true to yourself and your heritage”. He also said: -- “I felt a strong kinship to stones, not just the precious and semi-precious stones I use in my jewelry, but the humble stones I pick up at random while on a hike through the hills or a walk along the beach. I feel the stone and think, not to conquer it, but to help it express itself."
Friday, April 6, 2018
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Hopi Dance Wand (Manayawi)
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| Hopi dance wand |
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| Hopi dance wand |
Dance wands are customarily carried by the Hopi women during some dances. They are flat wood panels with a handle at the end. Decorations may be of any variety of subjects.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Sonwai Tribute to Charles Loloma: Height Bracelet
Pictured here is an extraordinarily large 18K gold “Height Bracelet," inlaid with over 200 exotic stones and precious woods by Verma (Sonwai) Nequatewa, circa 2005
Verma Nequatewa (Hopi, b. 1949), also known by her professional name (along with her sister) “Sonwai”, is Charles Loloma's niece, his former studio apprentice, and the inheritor of his business and artistic legacy after his death in 1991.
This astounding stacked-stone Height Bracelet might very possibly be Verma's finest effort to date in her long career and it took her over a year to complete. Verma made it on commission as a modern-day tribute to Loloma based on one of his most extraordinary designs, a design she took even further with this piece.
The bracelet features approximately 200 individually set, hand-cut exotic stones and precious woods, including spiderweb and clear Lone Mountain, Nevada turquoise.
This bracelet has been featured in a number of prominent books and articles on contemporary Native American jewelry. It measures 1 5/8 inches wide, with a 7/8-inch maximum height, and weighs a hefty 186 grams or 6.56 ounces.
The piece is signed "Sonwai", marked "18K", and is stamped with the Sonwai Hummingbird hallmark on its interior.
"My life and my jewelry have been greatly influenced by two things. The first is by my good fortune to have grown up and to continue to live on the Hopi Reservation. This enables me to witness the grandeur of the landscape on a daily basis and to be involved constantly in the ceremonial activities that are taking place here. The second major influence is that of my uncle, Charles Loloma.
When Charles came back to Hotevilla, I was still in high school. As I watched and listened to him I became interested in helping him and learning art. I was most fortunate to be able to work with him, listen to him, and listen to his conversations with other artists of various kinds for those years of apprenticeship. His insight is a major factor in my work.
Charles taught that beauty is all around us on Hopi; in the environment, in the culture, in ceremony. By combining elements from what is a part of my everyday life, the finest of ideas, with the finest of materials, I can interpret a part of Hopi for people to see and wear.
Charles spoiled us by purchasing and using only the finest of stones. I continue to enjoy inlaying with only the finest of materials, looking for the inner secrets of each. Sometimes the idea for a piece comes from a stone -- the way it is shaped or the feeling it gives. From the stones comes the shape and structure of the inlay. My role is to allow the stones to become what they can, in the way that they need to be. When a piece is completed, it can then go on its own to create joy and happiness in others.” -- Verma "Sonwai" Nequatewa
Monday, August 11, 2014
Chase These Blues Away: Yei Rugs
From the Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery Inc. website:
Yei pattern rugs feature images of the Holy People drawn from ceremonial sand paintings but do not recreate an entire painting. The closely related Yeibechai rugs show Navajo dancers in the act of portraying Yeis in ceremonies.
Typically, the Yeis are highly stylized figures with elongated bodies, short straight legs, and heads facing the viewer. Yebechais have somewhat more human proportions, usually face sideways, and often have legs bent in a dancing motion. The earliest Yei rugs usually included one or two large Yei figures oriented vertically, e. g. parallel with the warp. In some cases, small Yei images were included in rugs with geometric patterns or other pictorial elements.
Though quite rare, these early types were made over a period of nearly four decades, falling out of favor by the 1930s.
In the 1910s, a very small number of weavers made single figure type rugs which portrayed not the Navajo Yei, but rather Hopi Katsina figures with characteristic tableta headdresses.
The more common types of Yei and Yeibechai rugs feature multiple figures oriented parallel with the weft threads so that the rug appears wider than long when the figures are upright.
Two distinct styles emerged in the 1920s. Those made in the area of Shiprock, New Mexico tend to have light colored backgrounds with no border, and often use brightly colored commercial yarns. Yeis and Yeibechais made in the central part of the reservation, in northeastern Arizona, tend to have dark backgrounds with simple borders. They are more likely to incorporate natural wool colors and more subdued chemical shades.
Yeis continue to be very popular with collectors and are now being made in nearly all parts of the reservation.
Typically, the Yeis are highly stylized figures with elongated bodies, short straight legs, and heads facing the viewer. Yebechais have somewhat more human proportions, usually face sideways, and often have legs bent in a dancing motion. The earliest Yei rugs usually included one or two large Yei figures oriented vertically, e. g. parallel with the warp. In some cases, small Yei images were included in rugs with geometric patterns or other pictorial elements.
Though quite rare, these early types were made over a period of nearly four decades, falling out of favor by the 1930s.
In the 1910s, a very small number of weavers made single figure type rugs which portrayed not the Navajo Yei, but rather Hopi Katsina figures with characteristic tableta headdresses.
The more common types of Yei and Yeibechai rugs feature multiple figures oriented parallel with the weft threads so that the rug appears wider than long when the figures are upright.
Two distinct styles emerged in the 1920s. Those made in the area of Shiprock, New Mexico tend to have light colored backgrounds with no border, and often use brightly colored commercial yarns. Yeis and Yeibechais made in the central part of the reservation, in northeastern Arizona, tend to have dark backgrounds with simple borders. They are more likely to incorporate natural wool colors and more subdued chemical shades.
Yeis continue to be very popular with collectors and are now being made in nearly all parts of the reservation.
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