Tchin. Narragansett and Blackfeet. Metalsmith, flutemaker, and storyteller — a maker who works silver in layers.
Tchin is not only a metalsmith — he is a flutemaker and a storyteller too, and the same instinct runs through all of it: building something in layers until it reads as one thing. In silver, that instinct shows up as overlay — two sheets of silver, one pierced and soldered over another, so the design sits in relief and shadow.
We don't have a documented hallmark for Tchin on record, so we won't invent one. His work is identified by its overlay and by provenance. (A marked piece with first-hand detail is exactly what this directory is built to add.)
He is Narragansett and Blackfeet, born in Norfolk, Virginia. He trained formally — a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and study at the Institute of American Indian Arts — an academic foundation not every traditional maker shares, and it shows in the precision of his overlay. Alongside the metalwork he is a working flutemaker and folklorist; the craft is one part of a broader life in Native art and story.
Tchin's signature is silver overlay. His Teepee Pin is the clearest example — a two-layer piece where the top sheet is pierced and soldered to replicate a laid-flat teepee cover, the cut design opening onto the darkened layer beneath. It's overlay used representationally: the technique doesn't just decorate the silver, it draws the picture. The result is graphic and clean, the pierced line doing the work.
His work has been shown by institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum, and the Museum of Man — a real exhibition record. (We've seen wider claims circulated online about his career; we're listing only what we could source directly, and leaving the rest until we can confirm it — that's the standard this directory holds.)
Meet Tchin in his own words, in our footage:
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