The latest addition to our collection of Native American Jewelry is a beautiful sugilite necklace and earring set. This set was made by Navajo silversmith Curtis Pete. Sugilite is a gem stone that comes from only one place on earth, a deep molybdenum mine in South Africa. It always amazes me to discover how many of the gem stones that we use in jewelry making are the result of a completely different mining operation. I guess that's what happens when you dig a lot in mother earth!
The settings on this piece feature a flat stamping detail, as do the flat links that make up the chain. The set includes a matching set of earrings. For a larger more detailed picture, click on the link in the text above.
Filed under Native American Necklace by on Apr 8th, 2010. Comment. 
This Navajo necklace and earring set was recently added to our collection. It is blue topaz and fresh water pearls set in sterling silver with lots of detail work around the settings. We'll have a video of it up soon. For pricing and more information, click on the link above.
| View a Short Video on This Piece below! |
Filed under Native American Necklace by on Apr 6th, 2010. Comment.
I truly enjoy living in New Mexico. There is a unique combination of deserts, mountains, geology, and culture found nowhere else. It's also interesting how many misconceptions there are about the area and the people who have lived here for thousands of years. An example would be good.
As someone who came here over 20 years ago from the eastern part of the country, I had just assumed that the Native Americans had a long tradition of metal working. From a very early age I had seen beautiful examples of Native American Jewelry fashioned from silver and turquoise. And while my knowledge of the Native American culture was very limited, I just assumed that they had been crafting such works for many hundreds of years. Not so! It turns out that although the Native Americans had been making beaded jewelry for a very long time, the skill of metal working was not learned until the 1860's!
Silversmithing by Native Americans can be traced back to one individual Navajo, Atsidi Sani, who was working as a blacksmith and learned his metal working skills while interned at Ft. Sumner around the year 1863. As the story goes, he adapted his blacksmith skills and combined them with what he learned about working with silver from a Mexican, who in turn had learned from the Spanish. After wards he taught his sons the trade and it blossomed from there.
From time to time I'll toss a few historical tid bits your way regarding the history of turquoise and jewelry making. It is truly a colorful past we have inherited here in the great southwest!
Filed under Hstory of Turquoise and Silversmithing in the Southwest by on Mar 29th, 2010. Comment.
Turquoise rings are beautiful on any woman’s fingers. While most people wear turquoise rings for fashion purposes, some people wear it because turquoise is their birthstone. Turquoise is a very rare stone with a bluish green tint to it. It is an integral part of Egyptian, Aztec, and Japanese jewelry forms. One of the biggest attractions of turquoise rings is that even after years, it looks new. This is because turquoise does not wear easily.
There are lots of people who wear turquoise rings because it is their birthstone. There is another section of people who wear these rings because of some of the 
qualities this stone is known to possess. It is believed that turquoise rings bring immense luck and wisdom to the individuals who wear it. Turquoise rings are also considered to bring good health for those people who wear it. Turquoise is popular because it can be set in any metal. It can also be worn in pair with another gemstone. When turquoise is set in a ring with another gemstone, then usually the turquoise is the dominant stone of the ring.
Most often than not, the turquoise rings available in stores are made of synthetic materials which is why the price is less. Natural turquoise is not expensive at all! According to jewelry experts, if the color of the turquoise is bluer in color than green, then the price of the turquoise ring shoots up. Another price factor is the purity of the stone. Obviously a stone with higher purity costs more. The price of a turquoise ring is also dependent on the metal in which it is set.
A very rare and unique combination is that of turquoise and diamonds set in a turquoise ring together. This ring normally is in the high-price bracket in any jewelry store. The clarity, carat, and the cut of the diamonds used in the turquoise ring also count and add to the value of the turquoise ring.
However, with turquoise rings made of synthetic turquoise flooding the market, it becomes extremely difficult for a layman to distinguish between a synthetic turquoise ring and a real turquoise ring. Since the features of the turquoise are not really visible to the naked eye, this task of differentiating between the two kinds of rings is made almost impossible. Only an expert can tell the difference between a real turquoise ring and a synthetic turquoise ring.
One thing for sure is that any turquoise bought on our native American jewelry site will definitely not be synthetic, all of our jewelry comes with a Certificate of Authenticity!
Filed under Native American Jewelry by on Feb 15th, 2010. Comment.
As its name suggests, Native American jewelry refers to the jewelry belonging to the Native American people. Every Native American tribe has its own distinct style of jewelry, adorned both by men and women. However, the materials used to make the Native American jewelry remained much the same. Some of the most common items used to make Native American jewelry were beads and shells, metals such as copper, silver, and other precious stones such as ivory, amber, and turquoise.
Even after America was colonized by the British, the Native American jewelry designs did not show any signs of being influenced by European jewelry designs. The only palpable evidence of European influence was in the materials used for making Native American jewelry. The jewelry making materials now included items such as glass. Also, due to the advent of Europeans on the American mainland, Native Americans learned new methods of metalworking.
Native American jewelry can be broadly classified into two groups, namely, beaded jewelry and metalwork jewelry. Before colonization, the metalwork used in Native American jewelry making was fairly simple. The craftsmen would mainly hammer metals such as silver and copper to make jewelry pieces such as pendants, earrings, and even necklaces. They would then etch the design on the surface of the metal. It was only during the 1800s that Native American tribes such as Navajo, Hopi, and Pueblo learned the art of silver smithing from the Spaniards. This led to a revolution in the Native American jewelry design, especially in the Southwest regions of America. This resulted in the creation of unique Native American jewelry pieces including Squash Blossom 
necklace, the turquoise inlay ring called Navajo, Hopi silver bracelets in overlay style.
The bead work done by the Native American people, before colonization, was already quite advanced. The Native American craftsmen knew the art of fine grinding stones such as turquoise, coral, and shell beads in order to make Native American jewelry pieces such as heishi necklaces. But their skills were not limited to just this. These craftsmen could make delicate carvings on the surface of bone and carved wood. They knew how to stitch over a thousand beads together, and to soak and piece together a quill made out of a porcupine. Today, while most of these skills are extinct, some of the art forms are still being practiced by people. Some young artists have taken it upon themselves to revive the porcupine quill work.
Filed under Native American Jewelry by on Feb 2nd, 2010. Comment.
A Squash Blossom Necklace is one of the most individual and stylistic of the Southwest Indian jewelry designs. This beautiful, unique jewelry was not traditional until after the Europeans, especially the Spanish arrived in southwest territories. At that time the Navajo silversmiths copied the crescent-shaped "naja" of the Spanish into their own artwork. This is also called the 'horseshoe" of the necklace.
The earliest southwestern Navajo squash blossom necklaces were almost all made completely with silver. The familiar turquoise inlay patterns now commonly seen on these necklaces were a Zuni innovation in the 19th century.
It is unknown where the name "squash blossom necklace" originally came from, since neither the Navajo, Zuni nor other Pueblo Indians call the necklace this in their own language. Possibly it was a mistranslation between English, Spanish, and one of the Southwest Indian languages, or perhaps someone thought the shape of the beads looked like squash blossoms at some point.
The squash blossoms are the parts of the necklace above the naja and do not really look like actual squash blossoms, but they are very beautiful all the same. The similarity is not especially striking, but it could have happened. The necklace design is not a traditional stylized depiction of squash blossoms in any Southwestern Indian culture that we have found.
Filed under Squash Blossom Necklace by on Jan 17th, 2010. Comment.
But wait, there's more! It's not just about selling you jewelry… You see, I want this to be the most interesting shopping site you have ever visited! So, yes, I'd love it if you would buy some of our beautiful Native American Jewelry but I also want to tell you a little bit about the great American Southwest. Why you ask? Because I love it here. And I know people the world over love to travel here and visit us. So I thought, why not make this a fun site as well? So in addition to offering you some of the most beautiful Native American jewelry that you will ever see, I plan on entertaining you some too! Weave in a little Southwest lore, talk some about the colorful history of the mines, stuff like that. So come back often, our selection will change frequently since it's all handmade original stuff!
Filed under Native American Jewelry by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
