Authentic Native American Rings
Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi
Sterling Silver, Turquoise and Other Stones

About Native American Rings

Materials

Southwest Native American rings can be made from many materials but usually are sterling silver alone or embellished with turquoise, coral, jet, mother of pearl, petrified wood, abalone, lapis lazuli, jasper, gaspeite, malachite, spiny oyster, tiger eye, white buffalo stone, onyx, opal, bear claws and much more.

Styles

The styles of Southwest Native American rings are many and varied including bands, single stone, shadowbox, cigar band, pictorial inlay, cobblestone, corn row and mosaic inlay, storyteller, sandcast and tufa cast, cluster, petit point, needlepoint, snake eye, overlay, feather, leaf, channel inlay and others.

Navajo

Navajo rings are typically a sterling silver band, often heavy and/or elaborate. The band can be silver only or have stones that are set with various types of bezels. For more information on bezels, read my article on types of bezels. If a Navajo ring is inlaid, the inlay pieces are usually separated by silver channels.

Zuni

Zuni rings are usually either stone-on-stone inlays with no silver channels between the pieces, snake rings, snake eye, petit point, or needlepoint.

Hopi

Hopi rings are most often sterling silver overlays with contrasting oxidized and textured backgrounds.

Read more in Paula's blog post: Southwest Native American Rings