Pope to use Zuni chalice

Carlton Jamon, a Zuni silversmith, describes the process he used to hammer out and form the top portion of a silver chalice for Diocese of Gallup and that is on its way to the Vatican in Rome.

Artist creates unique design
By Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer

ZUNI - A chalice created by Carlton Jamon's hands soon will be in Rome in the hands of Pope John Paul II.
     Jamon, a Zuni artist, made a silver chalice to give to the pope as a gift at the ceremony in which Katharine Drexel will be cannonized. The chalice is used to hold      the wine during Mass.
     Drexel was a nun who died in 1955; she founded St. Michael's School in the Window Rock area and some say she helped established the Diocese of Gallup.
     Drexel and the order of nuns she founded, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, worked to improve education for the American Indians and Blacks in        Philadelphia, Louisiana, Texas and in this area.
     The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Philadelphia wanted the two groups of people Drexel tried to help to have a part in the canonization. A black nun from    the order made a chasunle, a garment for the pope, from cloth with African prints on it.
     The nun asked the Navajo Nation if someone here could make a chalice, but they couldn't find a silver craftsperson to do it.
     The group then called Sister Consolata Beecher, the chancellor and secretary to the bishop of the Diosese of Gallup. Beecher's job was to find a Zuni to make    the chalice.
     "I told them, 'I'm sure going to try;'" Beecher said "I wasn't going to give up."
     Beecher said she said she wanted an American Indian to be involved because Drexel was an important figure to many people in this area.
     Beecher found Jamon in mid August and he agreed to get the chalice finished by Sept. 1. He spent a week working on nothing else. Beecher had looked at his other work and chose the style for the chalice.

Zuni Artist and silversmith Carlton Jamon completed this one-of-a-kind silver chalice witch is on its way to the Vatican.
     Jamon began by cutting out a design from a sheet of silver that would become the base of the chalice. He had drawn the pattern on a piece of cardboard, but most of the ideas came as he cut.
     Jamon's design included modern Zuni shapes, but the main cut was fashioned after a Mimbres design. Membris is the name of the ancient Native Americans who lived in this area.
     The first sheet was polished and soldered on to the second sheet which wasn't polished so that the cut out designs glittered against the outer smooth surface.
     The bowl of the chalice was the hardest piece to form, Jamon said. He said he has made long, deep silver goblets before, but the shallow, round shape of the chalice was difficult.
     He practiced on several pieces of copper before he began on the silver. Jamon pounded out the curve of the bowl halve an inch at a time, and heated the piece of silver fifteen times as he worked.
     It wasn't until friends heard about the chalice and came to congratulate him that he understood what it meant.
     "It's a big honor," Jamon said. "It didn't quite get to me until I was done."
 

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