Butterflies and bears are two of Riley's most commonly used design motifs. This, in fact, is a butterfly design which is unmistakably Riley's. He has for years used this portrait sideview design of the butterfly and a bracelet which resembles this, though narrower in width, is pictured in Greg Schaaf's book (page 259) illustrating Riley's work. This cuff has a soft undulating shape to its edges and three butterflies carefully set between grooved bordering along the edges. This is an archetypal example of a fine, experienced Hopi silversmith's craft.
Hallmarked with Riley's bear paw hallmark and stamped "Sterling" inside.
Uniform width of softly-curved cuff: 1 1/4"
Terminal to terminal: 5 7/8" Gap: 1 1/8"
Total inside circumference (including gap): 7"
**Important Note** Silver polish is the enemy of Hopi jewelry. It will get into the grooves of the textured layer and be hard to remove (you can use a toothbrush under running water to get it out). Also, don't use a cloth impregnated with jeweler's rouge to polish it. In most cases, the best polishing rag is a 100% cotton t-shirt that has been softened by repeated washing. After all, you only want to polish the top layer.
Hopi overlay jewelry consists of two layers of silverwork. The overlayer consists of a separate layer of sheet silver which has cut out designs made with a jeweler's jigsaw. The designs may be geometric, figurative or realistic. These designs almost always incorporate themes or symbols of Hopi religion since the Hopi perceive no separation in their lives between the secular and the religious. The underlayer of Hopi silverwork consists of a layer which is carefully hammered to create texture for that part of the design which will show through the top layer of "cut out" design. After creating this texture on the underlayer, it is oxidized to make it dark grey to black in color. Then the two layers are soldered together to create the full effect of a precisely cut out design brought to life by the dark textured underlayer. Precision of the "cut out" of the overlayer and intricacy of the texturing of the underlayer are the main criteria for judging the quality of the piece. Some Hopi jewelry is finished with a brushed surface and some is buffed to a high polish.
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