ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Navajo artisan Lawrence Delgarito (Two Dogs) is a traditional Navajo artist who couldn't escape the art of designing jewelry. Born & raised on the New Mexico Navajo reservation in 1969 to a family of artists, it wasn't however till the early 90's that he began designing & making jewelry. Being raised in a family where everyone designed jewelry,he & his sibling's have gone on & made a name for themselves, so much so that they made their way into the "who's who" of Native American Jewelry books. Lawrence learned like many young Navajo people do & that is by watching other family members, who in Lawrence's case, was mainly his sister.. His brothers happen to be with "VERDY JAKE,JEROME & JEREMY DELGARITO" who are all quite successful & are sought out for their traditional Navajo jewelry.

What you get with this artist is old school traditional Navajo jewelry, that's made just like his ancestors did from generations ago. You won't find his pieces all shiny & modern, like they stepped out of a Dept. store, but rather heavily oxidized with deep stamping & will always makes it a point to use the best turquoise available. It's a sure guarantee that if you have anything made by Lawrence, you're going to have jewelry that's made perfectly & with a look where there's no denying which tribe made it!

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THE CONCHO BELT:

The belt consists of 11 evenly matching in size & shape, heavy gauge sterling concho's,with each having the same stamp work, each have a scalloped perimeter & all are backed by leather that is sandwiched between the back of the concho & the leather belt. The difference however from one to the next, is that each has a different cut of turquoise & each has their own unique fingerprint identity. All the turquoise is from the Royston mine & I can see by looking at them that they are all excellent quality cuts of Royston. The Royston mine produces both blues & greens & Lawrence made sure to add just about every color the mine produces! The blue turquoise cuts have maintained their blue color after all these years, which tells me the turquoise is 'harder' (Which equates to quality) The rectangular shaped buckle is very traditional & is made with a repousse technique. It has a large teal blue color cut of turquoise.

The conchos have 2 copper backs & are threaded through a 1" black leather belt. Where the holes on the belt are punched, the belt can be worn from a 31" waist to a 37" waist. There is a excess left where you can punch another hole or 2 on either end. But remember, the smaller the waist,the closer the conchos will sit together & the closer you get to the end by going all the way to the last hole,the further the conchos will sit from one to the other. A lot of times, buyers adore the conchos,but if the belt itself is too small,they slide the conchos on a leather belt of their choice.

I personally like this type of concho belt where you put the hook in & then tuck the excess of the belt to where it runs parallel to the belt, up under it along the waist, as opposed to

'buckle' styles, where the excess is just hanging there with no place to go, but hanging down!

This can be worn by man or woman & would be a great belt to have to compliment either your vintage or newly made Native collection!