Navajo silversmith

Series: Navajos film themselves

Duration: 11

Year Published: 1959

Creator: ACI

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: A professional Navajo silversmith, Tom Burnside, is shown as he buys silver, carves the stone mold, and hand polishes a silver buckle. Examples of the art are shown while the narrator provides historical and cultural background. (Captioned version available), A professional Navajo silver craftsman, Tom Burnside, is shown as he buys silver, carves the stone mold, pours and hand-polishes a silver buckle. Other fine specimens of the art are shown, as a narrator gives historical and cultural background. The wildness of their native countryside and the delicacy of their art have in common the theme of Navajo songs and prayers: "In beauty it is finished."

Complete Record: A professional Navajo silversmith, Tom Burnside, is shown as he buys silver, carves the stone mold, and hand polishes a silver buckle. Examples of the art are shown while the narrator provides historical and cultural background. (Captioned version available) , Navajo filmmaker John Nelson traces the creation of small Yebitchai figures from mining the silver to completion. The film is structured in similar fashion to A Navajo weaver and begins with a series of shots showing the silversmith completing the figure which has already been cast. The camera cuts away to recount the necessary stages required to complete the figure. The silversmith hunts for nuggets embedded in rock, collects the sandstone with which he makes the mold, and melts the silver. The artisan files and polishes the object which has been extracted from the mold. In this cyclical study, the last shot in the film is the shot with which it began. , A professional Navajo silver craftsman, Tom Burnside, is shown as he buys silver, carves the stone mold, pours and hand-polishes a silver buckle. Other fine specimens of the art are shown, as a narrator gives historical and cultural background. The wildness of their native countryside and the delicacy of their art have in common the theme of Navajo songs and prayers: "In beauty it is finished."NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.