The Bolo Tie in Navajo and Pueblo Silversmithing

The bolo tie is a braided leather cord worn as neckwear, cinched by a decorative silver slide and finished with metal tips at each cord end. In Navajo and Pueblo silversmithing, the centerpiece is the art object — cast or fabricated silver, set with turquoise, coral, or shell, or worked into figures, crescents, and abstract Southwest geometries. Arizona and New Mexico have both recognized the bolo as their official state neckwear.

Mateo's Field Notes

The bolo tie post-dates Adair's 1944 fieldwork; it does not appear in his documentation of the Navajo and Pueblo silversmithing tradition. The corpus available to this field guide is similarly limited on the bolo's origin. What is documented is the silversmithing tradition that shaped the centerpiece: the same hands making squash blossom najas, cast ketoh plaques, and tufa-cast buckles turned those skills to bolo slides as the form found its market.

Rosnek, writing in 1976, documents the commercial reality of the bolo in the Southwest market clearly. Traders offered both handmade and machine-made bolo tips: "They take the machine-made bolo tip, put it on the handmade bolo tie that they have made, and away they go." The distinction between a handmade cast centerpiece and a machine-stamped slide matters to collectors; it is one of the first things to assess on any bolo acquisition.

The origin of the bolo as a form — who invented it, which patent claim is valid — is disputed among collectors and scholars, and the corpus available to this guide does not resolve it. What is not disputed is the Navajo and Pueblo artistic tradition of the centerpiece. Rosnek documents the range of figures used: Navajo Yei, butterfly, eagle kachina, Apache Ghan dancer. Dixon Shebola, a Zuni craftsman, is documented for the "detail he carves into the stones and shells he uses." Large turquoise slab centerpieces — difficult to work and relatively rare — appear in Rosnek's documentation of contemporary bolo forms.

The construction of a traditional Southwest bolo is straightforward: a braided leather or rawhide cord, typically black, threaded through the back of the centerpiece slide; two metal-tipped cord ends (aglets) finished in silver or silver plate. The centerpiece slide may be cast (tufa cast, sand cast, or lost-wax cast), fabricated from sheet and wire, or a combination. Turquoise settings range from a single dominant stone to multi-stone cluster work. Shell inlay, channel work, and overlay are all documented on bolo centerpieces from Navajo and Pueblo makers.

The bolo's wearability is a genuine strength. It accommodates every stone size, every technique, and every level of formality — from a simple cast oval on a plain cord to a massive turquoise slab slide on a silver-tipped braid. That flexibility made it one of the most technically varied forms in the tradition, and one of the most widely collected.

Makers Known for This Form

• Darryl Dean Begay — Dine (Navajo); cast and fabricated forms
• Floyd Namingha Lomakuyvaya — Hopi; overlay technique applied to bolo centerpieces
• Edward King — Dine (Navajo)

Related Links

• Southwest Jewelry Field Guide — hub
• Tufa Casting in Navajo Silversmithing
• Hopi Overlay Silversmithing
• Glossary of Silversmithing Terms

Browse bolo ties at T.Skies.

References

• Rosnek, Carl, and Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver. 1976, pp. 270–271.

By Mateo James | T.Skies Co-Op Field Guide