Badger bolo tie

The bolo tie (bola tie, or shoestring tie) is a crazy, wonderful invention from the American Southwest: a braided leather cord with decorative metal tips, threaded through a slide-tension lock with an ornate bit of metal or stonework on the front.

I’ve seen both men and women wearing them. I’m biased because I grew up in what seemed to be Bolo Tie Central (the Four Corners), but I think they are hot.

They can be simple or grandiose, of humble materials or staggeringly expensive gems and metals. I love how they evoke ancient ceremonial jewels in a form that may be less than a century old (historians are divided.)

Bolo ties are so iconic of the Southwest that the Phoenix Convention center even had a public art display of bronze sculptures inspired by them. When the Center was renovated, those sculptures were saved and many of them moved to a place of honor near the city’s Symphony Hall.

I’ve made a few bolo ties over the years. That seems to happen, when you are a silversmith in the Southwest.

When a friend needed something more daring than a bow tie, we decided to riff on his (trademarked) stylized badger company logo, and make him a bolo of his own.

The oval is approximately 1.25″ high by 1.75″ wide. The badger design is worked in sterling wire hard-soldered on a sterling oval backplate, and the black finish is a sulfur patina. The black leather cord ends are finished with sterling silver cones, also oxidized and highlighted with polish.

This will do until I can make him a bigger sandcast version, or his ultimate goal of platinum with black onyx channel inlay. At least now he can properly attend Southwestern Black Tie events.