I have had this necklace for a few years and I wear it often. Do you think the turquoise beads may have been native American made? This necklace is small. Just over 16 inches length, and all the beads are small too.
Reasons making me think not native made: tiger tail, cheap spring clasp, pinched tube melon beads.
Reasons I think it might be: The careful graduation in sizes of the beads, and the careful shaping on the edges of all the beads in the middle section and the ones at each end of the solid turquoise sections. Also, I think I will be restringing it myself soon, and I will be replacing those cheap parts, so they may have already been replaced. Some of them appeared to be plated and the plating has worn off.
My questions for the group are:
I am trying to learn what to consider. What else am I missing when I’m looking at this? Do you think this is a real turquoise? Do you think it’s native made?
I appreciate all your expertise and experience and I’m looking for even more ways to look at turquoise and jewelry. Thank you in advance.
In my opinion the beads in your necklace appear handmade. Interesting that both simple cut turquoise beads and chamfered beads are used. It wants to be NA…with the interspaced heishi between the chamfered beads etc., but I agree that the spring clasp is somewhat atypical. Although I have seen this clasp used in known NA necklaces, I always worry when I see them.
It’s hard to reconcile the nice handmade beads with the plated melon beads and the clasp. The beads could have been restrung with addition of the melon beads and clasp….one of those mystery pieces😊
Maybe it was restrung at some point? I have a battery bird necklace that was old, so I had it restrung, and it has a clasp like this now, although no way to know for sure regarding this one. I also think the turquoise looks handmade; they are not all exactly the same width, and I think it looks real.
It’s good to learn as much as you can on here, although I think these types of necklaces can be difficult to discern, and your best bet is to buy them from legit good stores or the artist directly.
Sorry about the colors folks. The colors that look correct on my phone look horrible on a larger screen. It is more blue that it looks to me now. Now I need a third screen to see which is correct.
I agree that buying from the artist or a good source is best, but that would mean only online shopping for me. I love the necklace whomever made it, or made the beads.
I have been planning to restring it, so it makes sense to me that someone someone else might have done it first. If I do, I have to figure out what to replace the melon beads with. I am tempted to make a few tiny silver beads myself, but realistic about my lack of skills, and the fact that might take me a year. (I am currently working on the second attempt of necklace I started last year, so I am not kidding about that.)
I figured if it was an import I would have seen more like it, but I have not yet.
