>
American
Indian Jewelry
Most orders are shipped in 48 hours or less.
.This paragraph is intended as a bit of relevant information about the materials, artists, and terms used in and about our jewelry. The terms silver, sterling silver, and Silver jewelry, and sterling silver jewelry all mean the same thing. Indian Jewelry, Native American jewelry, handmade jewelry, American Indian jewelry, turquoise jewelry, turquoise rings, and sterling silver rings, and some opal jewelry and rings as well as amethyst jewelry are made by American Native Indian artists. The web page order numbers will tell you when a piece of jewelry is not Indian made. Numbers that begin with 'NI' are not Indian made. Order numbers that begin with 'I' are Indian made. There are instances when we are not sure, baring a typographical error we will use 'NI?' for not sure.
The turquoise in our jewelry may be from Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico,
Mexico, Utah, Idaho, California, Nevada, even China; Also possibly from
other continents such as Africa and South America
Turquoise is spelled tourquoise and jewelry is
spelled jewellery in other countries; [most of Europe].
The turquoise stones may be stabilized,
blocked, enhanced, or otherwise treated; rarely completely natural. Natural
untreated turquoise is likely too soft and does not stand up well, it changes color over the years.
We want to assure that ourlucky customers have the
best possible appearance and durability, when purchasing 'Indian Jewelry'
from Brierly's Jewelry.
Some of the stones that may be used used can
be in either a solid cabochon or an inlay style. The possibilities are
many including malachite, lapis, denim lapis, pink mussel shell, black
onyx, jett, mother of pearl, gaspeite, charoite, sugilite, coral, opal, amethyst, and spiny oyster, other colored stones are sometimes used.
Zuni artists traditionally have used only 4 colors
in their inlays, the precise geometric patterns; red [coral], black [onyx
or jett], blue [turquoise], white [mother of pearl]. Some of the younger
Zuni artists have added other colors; green [malachite], dark blue [lapis
lazuli], yellow orange [spiny oyster], several other colors are sometimes
chosen.
Brierlys display and sell opal, amethyst, amber,
blue topaz, and garnets in native American jewelry. Some of these stones are man
made such as the opals, some of the amethysts, and the amber light. To
be sure Indian jewelry has other than stones. A bear claw, coyote claw,
porcupine claw, horse hair, and various hides, fur, and feathers are sometimes
used.
The Navajo artists are many, and very talented, their styles
vary greatly in their endeavors. These artists do inlay that is much more
random in patterns and color combinations. These color combinations and
patterns are usually unique to each piece of jewelry.
Indian jewelry mountings are Sterling Silver,
most will be marked sterling, or 92.5, which is the US required
percentage of silver, in any item, or in the Indian jewelry; this will
certify an item as Sterling silver. Some very thin, light weight, pieces
may not be marked.
A popular color combination of gold and silver
is being used by some the very well know Indian artists. Tommie Singer's
designs frequently feature gold filled and silver patterns. Darin
Bill used gold filled over silver for some outstanding bracelets, Darin
is deceased. Bruce Morgan makes beautiful bracelets of Silver with 14 k
gold inlay.
The styles may be Navajo, Zuni, or Hopi. Hopi
artists normally do not use stones in their jewelry.
Most modern Indian jewelry is signed or has a hallmark by the artist, however some of the Indian jewelry made on the
reservations may not be so marked. A lack of hallmarks, initials, or signatures
doesn't mean it is not authentic!
In past years a large portion, if not all of the reservation made Indian jewelry was not signed and had no hallmark
added.
There are American Indian jewelry artists, from
other tribes, that make southwestern Indian style jewelry. Some of these
Indian artists work in the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni styles. Some of
the Indian artists have their own unique style of Indian jewelry
and southwestern jewelry. The Santo Domengo do mostly bead work.
Our Brierly's Jewelry web site includes
southwestern turquoise from United States mines, such as Sleeping Beauty, King's Manassa, Dry Creek, White Buffalo, Hitachi, Bisbee, Turquoise Mountain,
Kingman, Wild Horse, and Cripple Creek; there are more. Some of the turquoise
is now coming from China; China is the largest turquoise supplier in the
world. Africa, South America, and the mid east are also sources of turquoise
for jewelry.
The colors of turquoise in indian jewelry range
from a brownish green [Nevada, Arizona, or Chinese] to bright blue [Sleeping
Beauty or New Mine] The matrix colors can range from blue to golden brown
to black[ iron], sometimes with 'gold' flecks [fools gold is iron pirates].
Lapis also can have the fool's gold flecks, this is very desireable in
lapis as well as turquoise.
Turquoise from the various mines are commonly
identified by their color and matrix pattern characteristics, however,
there can be turquoise from different mines that have the same colors and many
can be matched with older Indian jewelry. There are reports that as many as 70 different sources of southwestern turquoise have been used to make
Indian jewelry in the past several decades.
In some instances the style and pattern selection
can help identify an unmarked piece of Indian Jewelry. These unmarked older
pieces are very hard to identify. American Indian artists rarely copy another
artist's designs.
The description of mine indications used on this
page are derived from the personal knowledge and experience of the owner's of Brierly's American Indian Jewelry,
along with a lot of research. Opinion and observation play a large role
in the turquoise selection and identification process.