The Southwest is littered with different styles and tastes from multiple Native American tribes and cultures, coming together to get something new. While many Native American tribes and Southwest artists like to use certain stones, like turquoise, coral, or tiger eye, there are many more that take different stones to create a multicolor piece that is something to talk about. These pieces are known as multicolor or multi-stone art and jewelry. Taking these vastly different stones and arranging them into one piece, like a pair of earrings, can really change the scope of a one-color jewelry piece and make it unique.
History of Multicolor Silver Turquoise Earrings
By no means is the use of multiple stones with different colors for jewelry a new concept. Native Americans have been using multicolor silver turquoise earrings, clothes, and other jewelry for a number of years and the Southwest has loved this concept ever since it was introduced by Native artists and traders in the early 19th century.
Before that, different colored stones were typically strung together with some type of cloth-string and used jewelry for trade or wear.
When the Spanish introduced the art of silversmith and metalwork to the Native American tribes, they started setting multicolor stones into their silver settings to make colorful art. One common use is taking the different colored stones and using them to create an image on flat silver. In this way, Native and Southwest artists have recreated Southwest landscapes and Natives scenes in very intricate ways.
Multicolor silver turquoise earrings are a great example of this art form. Images that appear often are pueblos, Southwest skies, and Native American figures (Kachinas, villages, Native people, etc.)
This skill takes a lot of talent and focus to set the stones perfectly into the metal (often sterling silver). Using this same technique, artists can create symbols, patterns, animals, and anything else that features Southwestern or Native American elements.