Traditional Western with a Refined Touch

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Stuart Kerty Filed Under Cowboy, Handmade, Luxury | Leave a Comment

Clint Orms Engravers & Silversmiths aren’t your usual belt buckle makers. Clint has elevated the craftsmanship of belt buckles beyond traditional rodeo trophies to heirloom-quality jewelry, without losing touch with the true Western heritage.

Clint’s learned much of his trade from his father, who retired from rodeo competition in the 1950s and went on to design western clothing for the landmark cowboy shop, The Cow Lot, in Wichita Falls, Texas, which closed recently after an amazing 54 year run.

Clint started polishing belt buckles at 12 years old for his father’s company and went on to hand-tooling belts and eventually designing his own buckles by 15. Mix into this his saddle-making and silversmith skills and you can see the influences that guide his work.

While many of Clint’s creations follow traditional Western imagery, his artistry has led him into much more elegant and ornate designs. He now crafts his designs using sterling silver, 14 and 18 carat gold in different colors. While some of his designs cost a few hundred dollars, others feature diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies and can sell for many thousands of dollars.

But the gold and the jewels are not the only reason for the lofty prices. Some of his more complex designs are made from hundreds of individual pieces, all meticulously soldered together, engraved and polished, taking up to 200 hours of painstaking labor. This effort goes deeper than just producing a nice product or cool fashion trend. He sees his buckles as heirloom quality that would be passed down from generation to generation.

Slip into the Turquoise

Posted on July 20, 2008 by Stuart Kerty Filed Under Abstract, Handmade, Native American, Silver | Leave a Comment

Ric Charlie is an accomplished Navajo artist and jewelry designer of the Tsi’naajínii (Black-Streaked-Wood People) and Tábaahá (Edgewater) clans of Arizona. Ric’s mastery as a silversmith adds a level of jewelry-like quality to his belt buckles and he has taken the craft of Tufa stone casting to a whole new level.

Tufa is compressed rock made of porous volcanic ash used to make high quality cast jewelry. The Tufa stone is sliced in half and the intricate design is carved into one side and the two halves are then joined back together and molten sterling silver is pored through the sprue hole into the casting cavity. This technique enables very detailed designs and imparts a unique texture from the coarse rock.

Sedona Indian Jewelry offers some beautiful examples of Ric’s work that exemplify what a master can produce from this technique. High quality Royston Turquoise, Blue Diamond Turquoise, and Lapis stones are inlaid in polished silver framing that makes them stand out from the color and texture of the traditional Navajo geometric shapes beneath them.

And a rarity in belt buckles, Ric has cast a design on the reverse depicting the sun, clouds, and buttes of the Arizona desert. While only a very few people will ever know what is on the back of your belt buckle, this extra measure of detail demonstrates the true artistry of this Ric Charlie’s work.

Buckle of Shards

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Stuart Kerty Filed Under Abstract, Artistic, Handmade, Special Buckles, Video | Leave a Comment

Paul Pearman boasts a wide variety of creative talents, including graphic design, sculpture, stained glass, painting and mosaics. He even made a living for a while knocking off the work of Van Gogh. Inspired by art nouveau and impressionist styles, he carefully places the glass in his mosaics to emulate the movement and direction of brush strokes. In addition to cut glass, he embellishes his work with semi-precious stones and exotic materials including coral, opals, turquoise, emeralds, jasper, ancient shark’s teeth, and the occasional carved skull.

Just as the impressionist masters before him, before art, Pearman started out as a kick boxer and a skateboarder. He captured the 1989 Guinness World Record for the jumping his skateboard over 26 barrels, snatching the record away from the previous title holders, Renoir and Monet, who purportedly turned to painting to console themselves over their loss.

Anyway, back to belt buckles. Paul was caught off guard by the success of his custom-designed mosaic belt buckles, which have garnered placement in high-end boutiques and galleries and attracting celebrity clients who pay from $500 to $3500 for his work. The response has created an endless workload for him, trapping him in self-described “belt buckle purgatory” in his basement studio, as he scrambles to keep up with demand. What the video below for the back story.

So visit New School Mosaics if you would like to own one of these unique creations or simply because you think it would be cool to keep Paul toiling away in his basement a little longer.

Hopi Traditions in Silver

Posted on June 22, 2008 by Stuart Kerty Filed Under Artistic, Handmade, Native American, Silver | Leave a Comment

Hopi and Navajo silversmith Ramon Dalangyawma produces sterling overlay jewelry and belt buckles that reflect his Hopi culture and feature traditional symbols of their clan, including wolves, bears, and antelope. In an arid high mountain community that grows their own food, their iconography also pays respect to clouds, lightning, and rain as an vital part of their lives.

These gleaming mirror-finished buckles are crafted from silver, considered by the Hopi to be a sacred element of Mother Earth. The traditional tribal technique called sterling overlay is made from two layers of silver where the intricate designs are cut through the top layer which is soldered onto the lower layer which has been tooled for texture and darkened through oxidation to add depth and contrast to the relief. Each piece is stamped with the artisan’s hallmark DALANGYAWMA representing the Hopi Greasewood clan.

These are beautiful original designs that you can wear proudly in homage to the deeply spiritual Hopi who still follow ancient ways of living, farming their native land, and producing works of art that reflect their traditions. Or simply because these belt buckles look great!