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Greg Lewis making jewelry, Paguate Village, Laguna Pueblo, NM, c. 1976
Photo by Lee Marmon. Photo source and © Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico
Greg Lewis, at left, and his son Dyaami Lewis, at right, c. 2008. Greg is still wearing the same bracelet as he was thirty-two years earlier in the photo at left.
Photo source and © marthastruever.com
An extremely large-sized copper “Revival”
style cuff bracelet by Acoma/Laguna Pueblo silversmith, Greg Lewis, c. 2015
Before there was Native silver jewelry made in the American Southwest there was Native copper and brass jewelry.
Navajo and Pueblo metalsmiths fashioned bracelets, rings, buckles and conchos from cast-off copper kettles, brass
pots and scavenged old copper telegraph wire. The primary use of copper and brass for Native American jewelry died
out around 1900-1910 as silver became more readily and inexpensively available except in the more remote areas of
the reservation such as the rugged Navajo Mountain/Monument Valley region where silver was still quite scarce and difficult to come by until a decade or so later.
Starting around the late 1950’s and through the 1960’s and 1970’s, a number of talented Pueblo and Navajo silversmiths began a “Revival” of sorts bringing back the occasional use of copper and brass for jewelry. Pueblo
smiths like Alvin Concho Lewis at Acoma and Leo Coriz and Tony Aguilar at Santo Domingo and the young Navajo silversmith, Mckee Platero all worked at various times in copper and brass during those years.
This bracelet is dramatically sized for the very large wrist; it measures a sizable 1 9/16" in continuous width all the
way around. The inner circumference end-to-end is 7 3/8" and the gap between the terminals is 1 5/8" for a total interior circumference of 8 15/16". The copper shank is just slightly less than 1/8" thick. The bracelet weighs a very substantial 124 grams or 4 3/8 ounces. The bracelet features several parallel bands of beautifully-executed decorative stampwork and chisel worked designs. The bracelet is in excellent, “as-new” original condition and it is properly signed with
Greg Lewis’ customary arrowhead insignia which he inherited from his beloved Grandfather. This bracelet was acquired
by a colleague of ours directly from Greg Lewis around 2015.
This is a “back to the future” sort of piece if you will, which while being essentially brand-new could for all intents
and purposes have been made well over a Century ago. It’s a new/old classic, timeless and enduring in its beauty and appeal. It’s a large one to be sure and even if you can’t or don’t wear it as a bracelet, it would serve most wonderfully
as a beautiful Southwestern-style metal sculptural object or as a fabulous and completely unique paperweight.
Price $1,125
This wonderful, very large-sized, old-style copper cuff bracelet by the renowned Acoma/Laguna Pueblo silversmith
Greg Lewis (1952-2021) is a perfect example. Greg was a talented third-generation Acoma/Laguna Pueblo silversmith,
the grandson of the great Acoma Pueblo smith, Alvin Concho Lewis and he began apprenticing for him at age 15 learning to make things in the old fashioned, painstaking completely traditional way; working in heavy, cast-ingot silver or copper
with a simple set of handmade tools. Greg’s work is refreshingly old-style, direct and always beautifully-crafted.
“I enjoy showing people my methods because they reflect the traditional ways my grandfather taught me. It is very important that these time-honored skills be kept in the family and passed on to future generations.”
-Greg Lewis
This bracelet is BIG! Here it is pictured on a size 6 3/4" wrist.
