A self taught contemporary silversmith, Cippy Crazy Horse is the son of Joe Quintana, who is considered one of the most innovative and versatile Native American silversmiths. The creative tradition lives on with his offspring, who has occupied Quintana's studio at New Mexico's Cochiti Pueblo since his father's death.
While learning basic silversmith techniques in high school, with his father to observe and critique, Crazy Horse did not take up jewelry making full time until 1974. By then he had studied anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University, served in the United States Navy, and returned home to work the family homestead at the pueblo, located southwest of Santa Fe. After a serious accident left him partially disabled, Crazy Horse started the journey to become an acclaimed master silversmith. Electing to make all his own tools, this jeweler casts his own silver ingots, then hammers them to the desired thickness. Methods of fabrication, which can best be described as unusual, include using the hollowed out hole of a log stump to dome out conchas and belt buckles.
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