Everybody's Bolos

In the fall of 2021, post-baccalaureate student Hannah Reynoso Toussaint approached me about making a series of bolo ties. They were the objects that her non-binary partner most enjoyed wearing. I suggested she do some research and when she was unable to locate much information, I went looking myself. I was surprised to find very little information on the subject. The best resource by far is an exhibition catalog by the Heard Museum written by Diana Pardue and Norman Sandfield entitled “Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry.”

But there was nothing out there about its adoption by the queer and non-binary communities. Respected museums with established fashion and jewelry collections had few bolo ties if they were located outside the southwestern United States. The field of art jewelry has put out books on chatelaines and tiaras, but no bolo ties.

This bothered me and bothered me until I decided that this gap needed to be addressed. I reached back out to Hannah and asked if she would be interested in working on a bolo tie project. She said she would. Then I reached out to Brian Fleetwood who teaches at the Institute for American Indian Arts and with whom I served on a committee for SNAG. He was interested. So the three of us got together on a video conference and formulated a plan to have an exhibition of bolo ties with accompanying catalog. We each invited ten artists and contributed bolo ties as well. The three of us provided essays on different aspects of the bolo tie.

I was fortunate to receive a University of North Texas (UNT) Institute for the Advancement of the Arts Fellowship which gave me a semester to focus on this project as well as funds for professional photography of the bolos and publication of a catalog. Additional funding has been supplied through the generosity of the UNT Libraries, The Bohlin Company and Deedie Rose. The UNT Art Gallery had an unanticipated availability this spring, which we were able to secure. We wanted the show to leave the Southwest and were able to make an agreement with the Fuller Craft Museum to have the show travel there in 2025. To help the participants sell their work, the final exhibtion will be at a commercial gallery, Hecho a Mano, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the summer of 2025.

With an exhibition and catalog, the next step in my mind was a symposium. This would provide an opportunity to bring in more voices and perspectives. I was able to secure a College of Visual Arts and Design Flagship Grant to support a one day symposium. Brian, Hannah and I brainstormed about speakers and put together a very diverse and interesting lineup. Eventually, the recordings will be loaded into the UNT Library Digital Collection.

This is the speaker lineup:

• Ana M. Lopez: Welcome and Introduction

• Norman Sandfield: Bola to Bolo

• Brian Fleetwood: Meaning Making

• Hannah Toussaint: Reimagining the Bolo

• Jessica Metcalfe: More than Just a Trend

• Sulo Bee: Coloring Outside the Lines: Queer Fashion and the Genderless Bolo

• Annette Becker: West Dressed - Fashion Inspired by the American Frontier

You can register for the symposium here.

Ana M. Lopez, 2023, Pneumatic Trailer Bolo with Seedpod Plumb Bobs

sterling silver, napa leather, 18 x 3.5 x .75”

photo credit: Dasha Wright

Monel Metal in Metalsmith Magazine (…say that five times fast! )

An article I wrote for Metalsmith magazine just came to my email inbox today and it looks great! Monel is not well known now, but it has been used in extraordinary ways and essentially created the market for stainless steel in the first half of the twentieth century. I was made aware of the alloy by Warren Holzman, who gave a presentation about its use in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, at a SNAG conference. Later, when I was invited to speak at the 2019 Looking Forward Iron Symposium, I decided to explore the history of this material. I am grateful to Warren, John Rais, and Mike Rossi for their initial support of the research. I am also indebted to Archivist Gregory A. Jackson and Historic Buildings Project Manager Drew Nehlig of Bryn Athyn for their help, as well as Carlier Makigawa, Simon Cottrell, Michael Bondi and Glenn Gilmore who took the time to speak with me about their experiences with the metal.

Forging Community… a year ago

Last March I had the privilege to attend the Austin Forging Competition at Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ Community First! Village. It was about a week before the world closed and life as I know it changed. I drove to a different town. I stayed in a hotel and ate in a restaurant. I think I even hugged people outside my family. Weird. The brief article about the competition that I wrote for Metalsmith Tech came out a few weeks ago. It’s a great reminder of what some seriously talented people can do with three hours.

Answers "Expert"

I was invited to participate as a regional expert in the Goldsmithing & Silversmithing categories at "Answers.com"

You can see my profile and answers to some public members' questions here.

Metalsmith Magazine Article

Volume 33 number 3 of Metalsmith magazine just arrived in my mailbox. It contains an article I wrote on the history of women blacksmiths in America, "Forging On." I am grateful to the following people for their help with the project:

Maria Cristalli,  Maegan Crowley, Lisa Elias, Roberta Elliot, April Franklin, Mindy Gardner, Lisa Geersten, Alice James, Shawn Lovell, Corrina Sephora Mensoff, Rachel Miller, Darryl Nelson, Lorelei Sims, Dorothy Stiegler, Marsha Trattner, Jill Turman, Andrea Lisch of the Northwest Blacksmithing Association, JoAnn Bentley at ABANA, and Stacy Cantrell for her image research.

SNAG Technical Article Published

I am pleased to announce that a technical article I wrote for the Society of North American Goldsmiths has been published to their website: http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/2013/01/technical-article/

The article summarizes the research I undertook to develop a large-scale, torch-fired enameling kiln. You will need to be a member to view it in its entirety, but I have made an excerpt available on my writing page. Thanks are due to Melissa Grady and Jeff McClung for their help with the research. Construction materials for Kilns 1-3 and all of the consumable materials were provided through the generous support of a University of North Texas Small Grant and the Studio Department of our College of Visual Arts and Design.