This cuff bracelet came by locally the other day. It has no stamps and no background information. It is so tarnished that i doubted that it was gonna be silver, but i just tested it and it is silver indeed. I think that the stone is turquoise but i don’t recognize the kind and grade atm. I am wondering if it might be of Native American origin, the bezel and the spiral decorations make me think that it might be.
Because of the amount of tarnish i initially thought that it would be very old, but after some browsing on the site i learned that more recent pieces can have this much tarnish too. Would love to find out more
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It looks like turquoise to me. As far as Native American, I’m not sure. I also think some cleaning would help. It looks like there are some stamps etc. that aren’t showing up. Don’t go crazy on cleaning but I think you should apply a polishing cloth and see if you can bring up any more details.
And yes I know the hoorah about “patina” but that’s just a bad case of tarnish and crud. It happens very quickly here in the southeast.
Overall I think it’s a nice simple cuff. I would wear it.
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I agree that the tarnish is taking away from whatever possible good looks it may have, though it seems to be hobbyist level design and workmanship. There’s no way to firmly assign this to NA effort.
In general it’s good to remember that many people tried their hand at “Native American” jewelry, thanks to its popularity post-midcentury and to the 1971 book by Ben Hunt on how to make it.
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That’d make for a nice, everyday wear cuff. Even I, Patina, would clean & polish this cuff 
. It looks artisan made to me and not necessarily NA made. Please post “after” photos if you decide to clean it up a bit.
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Thank you for your kind advice everybody! I agree with you all. After i took a damp cloth to the bracelet the thing started to look absolutely horrible and all the black goo had to go. No markings of any kind appeared.
It was an 18,- gamble and i’m happy with it regardless, but there are 2 things that i don’t particularly like; the haste way in which the silver has been stamped in order to create texture and most importantly the stone. It just doesn’t pop imho. I think that it might be a low grade stone, color shot with blue resin even. Plus if you look at it sideways you can see the backing material, which i don’t find acceptable. (I am still having trouble with recognizing good quality/ hard stones of lighter color though, so i could be wrong.)
Maybe it sounds barbaric, but i play with the idea to try and set another (imo nicer) stone in the piece. (I’m practicing to become some sort of silversmith anyway at this point)
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From my rudimentary knowledge I would think this is an “older” piece (that’s as far as I’ll go), with a handmade bezel. As previously stated, it was likely made by a student or a “hippie” artisan. I do think it makes a great daily wearer. I wouldn’t change out the turquoise…a better higher polished piece would not fit with the style of the cuff (imho).
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I think the stone is pretty.
Is that an A just left of bottom center?
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This looks so much better. Now I like it. Interestingly the stone looks much darker now, crazy what cameras optimize nowadays.
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Thanks again for your kind advice everyone, i appreciate it! Perhaps i’m jumping to conclusion a bit hasty, it’s been a hectic couple of days (in a good way).
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Thanks, forgot to mention that there is some faded sharpy-type writing on the back, what looks like 25 (center) and 4 (more towards the side). I’m guessing these have to do with pricing
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Amazing how much better it looks with the dirt and grime gone. I like the little half moon stamps. One year during a partial eclipse, the eclipse was filtered through the leaves of one of our trees, and there were little half moons all over the ground. Your cuff reminds me of that.
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Thank you @Ziacat , that is very nice to read, it must have been a spectacular sight to witness!
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Not likely native @Bluegreen. But a very nice bracelet! Congratulations.
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When I get something and feel like that, I just put it away for a day or so or even longer. Then when I come back and look at it with a different perspective, I quite often have a different outlook. I just recently bought a multi stone cuff that had some backing showing on a couple stones. However, the stones look like nice Morenci and they’re not super big so I went ahead and bought it. And I know the guy and I asked him if it was backing showing in his pictures and he told me it was. when I wear it I don’t see it at all.
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Thank you @mmrogers !
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I like it just the way it is. Nice vintage piece. The turquoise is probably stabilized and backed for strength. A lot of it out there and I wouldn’t be concerned.
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I agree @Islandmomma , i’m already warming up to the stone a bit. It’s night over here and i like how it looks when it’s in low-light.
And about the backing showing, that was just me blabbering away. I personally prefer not to see it (or dark host rock) in the bezel ‘rim’, but there’s nothing wrong with it. It seems to be inevitable at times even, according to this very nice post:
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Thanks @StevesTrail !
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I love everything about the cuff
: ) The design reminded me of the rock art of the Anasazi and the Spiral petroglyph at Chaco Canyon National Park and then I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if the cuff’s Turquoise is from Chaco Canyon. Thanks for sharing : )
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Thank you for your kind and interesting post @singing ! That would indeed be very very cool (:
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