Since some asked, here are a few of the necklaces with heishi that I have made. These were made between 1986 and 2008.
- Penshell heishi, Kingman heishi like beads, imported fetishes of red jasper, yellow agate, turquoise, turquoise tear drop and wood.
Detail.
- Kingman heishi like beads, sterling tubes/beads, hematite, tigers eye, opalite, dyed howlite, dyed sponge coral.
Detail.
- Gray oyster shell heishi, natural red coral, unknown turquoise, sterling silver, spiny oyster shell with jacia.
Detail of heishi.
- 3 strand necklace with penshell heishi, natural red coral beads, Kingman turquoise and mother of pearl beads.
Detail of heishi.
This one took me about 5 hours to make. Some of the heishi beads are paper thin.
Disclaimer. The materials used to make these were purchased at Thunderbird Supply, Gallup flea market, Ebay and Michaels. The items from Thunderbird were identified as Kingman, natural red coral or sterling. The heishi was mostly from the Gallup flea market. I remember huge bundles of it hanging from the sides of vendor tents. It had tags saying made in the Philippines. I still have some unused strands. The fetishes from Ebay were identified as red jasper, turquoise and agate. Everything else is pretty basic to ID.