What are Navajo Pearls?

Handmade (hand made) Navajo Pearls (sterling silver beads) are entirely hand crafted: cutting, stamping, dapping, drilling, soldering, filing, polishing, stringing is all done by hand. Hand made beads are very labor intensive, therefore much more expensive than bench made beads. Also, when taking the time to make beads by hand, Navajo silversmiths generally use heavy gauge sterling silver, which also adds to the price. Handmade Native American beads are the most cherished and desired by customers. Because each bead is made individually, there might be slight variations from bead to bead. Read more . . .

Authentic Native American Jewelry
Sterling Silver Navajo Pearls
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How Navajo Pearls are Made

The Navajo silversmith that makes beads has two specialized hand tools. One is a dapping block that has concave half domes of various sizes in it. The other is a set of correspondingly sized dapping punches, which have ball ends. Each bead starts out as two flat discs of sterling silver of a specific size. Each disc is domed one at a time by placing the disc over an appropriately sized cavity and dapping it with the punch until the flat disc becomes domed. Each half-bead is filed so that it will fit evenly with the other half-bead. A hole is drilled in the top of each dome. The burr from the drilling is filed off. Narrow strips of silver solder are cut and placed between the halves and with ample flux the two pieces are soldered together. The edge is filed and the bead is polished. Read more . . .