Jewelry Bonanza

Some of the most beautiful and refined jewelry in the world is made from turquoise, perhaps among the most exquisite of these pieces is the chandelier earring.  There are various types and styles of jewelry cast with this mineral, but this particular earring shows best the delicacy with which the stones are molded and the artistic ability needed to design and create a beautiful piece of artwork from a simple, colored stone.

Over 2000 years ago, Native Americans found that hydrous copper aluminum phosphate, better known as turquoise, made both beautiful jewelry for trading and withstood elements well for use in cave paintings and mosaics.  The oldest known mine on the North American continent is believed to be approximately two millenniums old and has been mined by Native Americans since its discovery in Sate Fe, New Mexico.  The Cerrillos Mine, and what southwestern natives found there, is believed to be the beginning of a long standing tradition in jewelry and its beauty has been found up to 1400 miles from the mine in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, better known as the Aztec Rome.  Archeologists believe that the beauty found in the Cerrillos mine was passed from tribe to tribe until artisans from not only southwest tribes but to tribes such as the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and various others by the 1850′s.

Early on, the drilling of the beads for jewelry compilation was done with simple tools and the stones were molded by rubbing them against sandstone.  Polishing of the stones was accomplished with coarse sand, clay, or in later years, leathers.  After being shaped, polished, and drilled, the beads were strung on buckskin or sinew, and then rolled on sandstone slabs to coax the beads into the shape of a cylinder.  Still some Natives American artisans use this method of hand rolling.

In or around the 1850′s, Native Americans began to see the “value” of turquoise jewelry as an item that could be sold or bartered to the “white man” for goods, weapons, or money. The pieces created for this purpose were of somewhat lesser quality than their tribal works but appeared to be more elegant as the beads were strung on thin silver ropes and imprinted with die stamps with emblems such as eagles, bows, Native symbols designed to better embody what “Indian jewelry” should look like.  This early tourist jewelry was quite inexpensive but today it is considered to be rare and is a highly collectible item selling for large amounts to collectors.

The quality of turquoise is agreed upon and reached by jewelers in color, luster, hardness, rarity and matrix grading.  However most artisans believe the quality of this stone to be subjective and believe that quality should be decided by the artisan and admirers or collectors.  Typically, however a “good quality” stone can be defined as having a robin’s egg blue color, slightly pale, must be a very hard stone, have a high luster, and no matrix.  Matrix refers to the volume of “mother rock” that can be seen through the turquoise color.  Much of the quality of turquoise jewelry is decide upon by personal taste and, while experts agree upon a measure of quality, there are many that do not use this measurement.

While keeping these factors in mind and deciding what is the best quality for one’s own personal taste, the collector or casual consumer must beware of “fake” turquoise just as with any other gem or stone.  Some minerals such as howlite can be made to look like turquoise and mimics its beauty quite well.  Colored glass and plastic are among some of the most atrocious imposters as they are obviously not mineral based but can mirror the refinement and allure of the art beautifully as well.

Chandelier earrings are among the most delicate and intricate pieces of turquoise jewelry created by artisans.  They reflect the beauty and heritage of the past and offer a look into future innovations.  The tools with which the earrings are made and the dies in which they are cast are of course far more advanced than that of our native ancestors but the beauty and quality still hold fast and can be best seen in this particular piece of artwork.