Silver Apache Dancer Jewelry Pin with Brass Medallion by Jan Loco [SOLD]

Using only simple hand tools, Apache artist Jan Loco forged an extraordinary likeness of a silver Mountain Spirit dancer pin with a brass sun medallion on its chest. The Apache believe that the Mountain Spirits, or Gaan Dancers, were sent to them by Usen, the Creator, to teach them to live in harmony. 

In the Crown Dance, a ceremony for healing and peace, there are five Gaan, including four masked dancers who personify the four Mountain Spirits, supporters of the four corners of the earth providing for world balance. The fifth dancer is the clown who protects the other four. 

A member of the Warm Springs Apache tribe, Jan Loco (b.1949 ) began making jewelry in 1988. She developed a unique process of making jewelry without the use of hand tools. After cutting the silver to the desired shape (with heavy-duty poultry scissors or something similar), she hammerd it with a specially selected rock until she achieved the texture she desired. This is a laborious task, but she felt it honored her ancestry to use items of nature rather than power tools.

On this pin, Jan Loco set a brass sunburst medallion on a hand-forged image of a dancer that she textured by using only a stone. The labor intensive method brings a subtle vitality to the piece. Jan Loco has not made jewelry for many years and it is always a joy when we receive one of her pieces. The pin is signed with the artist’s name, Jan Loco and with the name of the piece, “Dancer.”

Condition: this Silver Apache Dancer Jewelry Pin with Brass Medallion by Jan Loco is in  is in excellent condition. 

Provenance: from a Southwest Indian Jewelry collection in Colorado

Recommended Reading: Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry by Diana Pardue

Relative Links: jewelry, Apache, Jan Loco