Curious to hear your thoughts about 3 possibly Native American items

Can you take a close up photo of the clasp? Doe a magnet stick to it?

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I have quite a few pieces with stabilized turquoise that look just fine, none with resin blobs. My understanding is that blobs of resin just mean it wasn’t done well. My piece has one stone completely broken in half, so I don’t think stabilization would mean there would never be any chips. But don’t know about yours; there does seem to be some color variation in your stones. I’m definitely learning also. Hopefully someone else will jump in!

I’m not bothered by stabilized stones (if it’s done well on a piece I like). Of course I love it that some of my things have natural stones. But I generally paid quite a bit more for that (not always, sometimes I was just in the right store at the right time :grin:).

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A magnet doesn’t stick, here’s a close-up:

Thanks @Ziacat , your post clarifies a lot.
I oftentimes prefer more natural stuff (e.g. food) and somehow belief that Turquoise ‘works’ nicer if it is able to breathe, so to speak. And i’m beginning to understand that there’s ‘good and bad’ stabilization. So a little strengthening with some kind of wax or something sounds fine with me too.

And i can only imagine the types of shops you encounter in your area :smile:

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The cord already looks a bit tired. Looks to me like a piece of heavy gauge copper wire cut and formed into a clasp. I’ve seen NA items with copper. Also, we can’t be sure it’s not a replacement. In a pinch we use what we have lying around.

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Thanks again @StevesTrail , that is very clarifying.

I appreciate everybody’s help a lot

Great necklace. The only thing I question is the perfect look to the spacer beads. I would expect a little more irregularity.

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Thanks for the clasp photo. I have used clasps like this since the 1960’s. They are still available today.

Some of the older clasps like that on my necklaces were silver plated to start. They are now copper colored. Some clasps were copper to begin with.
Sorry, not much dating help here.

Does the cord appear to be either natural or synthetic cat gut?
The fraying looks like what some of my cat gut necklaces have.

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Thank you for your interesting comment & compliment @JW !

You’re welcome @fernwood , and i find your comment about using clasps like this since the 1960’s very interesting. After closer inspection i also think that the clasp is copper. Because where the wire is attached, the wire has a little green discoloration. Plus the clasp has a smell that i associate with copper.
I’m not sure about the cord. I pulled a little fiber and burned it, but it didn’t give off any distinctive smell. The cord looks and feels natural to me, but i have little to no knowledge about fabrics.

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Since I live in the Midwest, I still have to travel a long way to find the best shops!

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So, i’ve decided i need to restring the necklace. Part of me wants to frame it and hang it on the wall or something, but i just like wearing it too much. I’m collecting materials atm and will choose the nicest option (for now i’m gearing towards 0,50 mm beige natural silk cord).

There are 3 things that i’m having trouble researching and if anyone could offer some direction then i would be very grateful:

The type of knots generally used on the clasps,
the glue or wax generally used to seal the knots.
And, traditionally, would the 2 spacer beats around the missing tab (foto 3) be removed to balance out the necklace, or would all stones be restrung exactly as-is?

Again apologies for so many questions, but google keeps coming up empty on this. Also books on NA jewelry & Turquoise seem to be very hard to find where i live.

I think that sending the necklace overseas for repair would be the best option, but a couple of factors keep me from doing so (mainly the chaos with the various couriers over here in my area, with items regularly dissappearing).

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I would use a light blue silk to match and place the two spacer beads at the top on either end if it works. I use clear nail polish on knots. Below is my favorite knot (disregard the clip it’s on. I used it on my stunt kite). I think it’s called an improved clinch knot (used in fishing).

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Hi @StevesTrail thanks so much, that is actually a brilliant idea that i hadn’t thought of, to add the 2 spacerbeads to the top part. And you know what, that is the exact knot i was considering, know it from fishing back in the days :smile:

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So, i managed to restring the necklace. There were a few difficulties along the way (mainly the silk cord stretching out wayy more then expected) but overall i’m satisfied with the result. It’s just so nice not having to fear the necklace falling apart on me.

In the boxes with ‘leftovers’ that came with the purchase I found some silver ring & clasp plus some (presumably) shell heishi which i thought would work well.
I also bought some cheap glass beads to make a couple of necklaces to practice.

Thank you for all your suggestions and help everybody, i very much appreciate it!
Still a very happy camper over here (:smile:


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Great Job :clap: They look really nice :grinning:

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Thank you @CyanideRose18 :smiley:

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Well done @Bluegreen ! They look great.

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@Bluegreen
Wow! Great job on the restringing!
Looks very professional!

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Looks great, and they’re nice and long! I thought they were shorter.

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