Contemporary Turquoise Multi-Strand Beaded Collar Necklace

Name: Contemporary Turquoise Multi-Strand Beaded Collar Necklace
Brand: Unknown
Price: 4725 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Turquoise seems to call up images of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings, like her 1958 work, Ladder to the Moon, depicting a handmade wooden ladder suspended in the turquoise sky. Or is it that turquoise brings to mind New Mexico, the “Land of Enchantment,” where the artist made her home and which she depicted in landscapes. If you have ever been to New Mexico, turquoise is seemingly everywhere. But for the Indigenous community, turquoise is not just a rock, it is a sacred being. There are 23 Indigenous tribes in New Mexico, including members of 19 pueblos, three Apache tribes, and the Navajo Nation and their artisans have been using turquoise in jewelry and objects for hundreds of years. This Turquoise Necklace is comprised of multiple strands of turquoise bugle beads, or tube-shaped seed beads, capped on each side with 18K yellow gold fluted bead cones and accented with a flattened 18K gold bead clasp decorated with a fluted whirl pattern. The closure is reminiscent of convex curved patterning or gadrooning in Rococo metalwork, and it gives the necklace a touch of opulence while picking up the texture of the clustered strands. The turquoise has a beautiful luster and even coloration. The length of the necklace is 16 inches (40.64 cm) and adds a vibrant dash of the New Mexico turquoise sky to your neckline. Turquoise is one of the rarest gemstones in the world, rare in that sense that less than five percent of turquoise mined worldwide has the characteristics to be cut and set into jewelry. Finer grades of turquoise are usually blue to blue green and with names such as "robin's egg blue" or "sky blue" to describe these stones. The stone is rated a 5 or 6 on the Mohs hardness scale, meaning turquoise can be easily carved. Turquoise occurs in spots where acidic water comes into contact with copper, forming veins or nuggets of stone. This solidified hydrated copper aluminum phosphate has been found in Russia, China, and Iran as well as across the Southwest United States in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, southern California, and New Mexico. With depleting mines, turquoise, the most sacred stone to the Navajo, has become increasingly rare. Measures approx. 16" in length. Overall weight approx. 82.73 grams, made in 18k yellow gold. Circa 21st Century.

Stone:

Turquoise

Stone Cut:

Mixed Cut

Weight:

82.73 g

Dimensions:

Length: 17.5 in (444.5 mm)

Place of Origin:

Unknown

Period:

21st Century