Teller Family - Authentic Navajo | |||||||||||||
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Jet barrel beads with turquoise nuggets in between.
Turquoise heishi runs to the ends, then sterling silver beads and hook closure. |
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What is heishi? Heishi means shell and in the past, referred to pieces of shell that have been drilled and hand rolled or ground into bead shapes and strung as necklaces. With the reduced availability of some shell materials, the modern Native American artists also use hand made beads of other natural materials including stones when making heishi necklaces. Read more about heishi here: All About Heishi. Turquoise comes
in all shades of blue, to blue-green, with a possible shading towards brown-veined
greens. Acoma Jet is a solid, durable type of lignite coal that originated from wood. It is mined around the Acoma Pueblo region, among other places, thus the name Acoma Jet, or Jet for short. It is very popular for heishi, inlay and for carving fetishes. Matrix (veining) may or may not
be present in any color(s). It is the natural variations in turquoise that make
it appealing. The color of turquoise in American Indian jewelry ranges from brownish
green to bright blue. | |||||||||||||
