Dine' Concho Belt.history.




Navajo Leather Turquoise Concho Belt by J. Williams

 
This Navajo made belt is grand in its complex-simplicity. The basic design concerns a circular motif in the concho-style. The Dine' (Navajo) people have become world reknown as the master of silversmithing design, method and technique and this belt showcases such brilliance.

The Dine' have been creating concho belts since the earliest days of the initial introduction to metal work, and in its early creation the concho belt was purely Dine'. The major inspiration for them in the design of the belt was from their first views of the Spanish silver via the armor used on their person and their horses.

Unlike the Dine', the Spaniard conquistadors would ADORN their horses with silver-work on their bridles and body pieces.

As the Dine' became more skilled at the technique of making jewelry pieces the concho belt was born out of the arid desert lands. First, the belts were simple in silver, then would come the stamp designs and curves. Among the many oral histories of the Dine', it is said that the first group to actually add tuquoise to the belt was the neighboring Zuni people.

Whoever made it first, the conch belt ADORNED with turquoise continues to shine in the southwest and perpetuaally make a grand statement.

Blessings.