Bracelet c. 1930s

This Navajo bracelet, made with silver and turquoise, sits here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, humming with stories. The way the silversmith has coaxed the metal into these twisted ropes and delicate curls speaks to a deep understanding of the material, a kind of call and response between the artist's hand and the metal's potential. And those little turquoise stones, each one a slightly different shade of sky blue, are like tiny windows into another world. I'm drawn to the way the turquoise is set against the cool silver. It's not a smooth, seamless fit, you know? You can see the individual marks, the little imperfections that tell you this was made by a human, not a machine. It’s this tension between precision and spontaneity, control and accident, that makes the piece so alive. It reminds me of Eva Hesse, another artist who wasn't afraid to let the materials speak for themselves. Like her work, this bracelet is a testament to the power of process, of letting the making be visible.