Slowly but surely, the world is warming again, temperatures approaching more usual ranges for this time of year. The sun melts the high-stacked snow at a furious pace, and in the places where we’ve plowed there now run rivers of mud. were it not for the remaining colors of the trees and the angle of the light, it would look like spring.
In this unsettled period at winter’s threshold, the days pass in a continuing clash of opposites, of elemental forces combining in what is less a battle than an intricate dance, one marked by uncertain hesitation and furious power. It’s a time of brilliant sunlight and bitter snows, a bargaining for primacy between fire and ice.
Since we’re devoting this month’s Friday Feature series to the work of the other Native jewelry artisans whose pieces we carry in our inventory, it seems the perfect time to highlight jewelry made from gifts of the earth in the colors of fire and water.
Today’s featured items are by the mother/daughter team of Clarita and Vera Tenorio of Kewa Pueblo. Last week, we brought you their horse-fetish necklaces, an iconic form of Southwestern Native beadwork. Today, we look at work wrought in a simpler, more classic style: simple strands of gemstone beads for neck and wrist, unadorned by carving or pendants.
We begin with the one in the color of fire. Like the work we featured in yesterday’s #ThrowbackThursday post, despite its warm flaming hues, it’s actually made from spirits of the waters: apple coral. From its description in the Other Artists: Miscellaneous Jewelry gallery here on the site:
Natural coral is increasingly difficult to find, due to its endangered status. Many of our Native artisans, beadworkers, and stone-cutters have taken steps to ensure that no bit of coral goes to waste: All the chips and dust left over from cutting and cabbing is carefully collected, then heat-treated to meld all the tiniest bits together into larger pieces that can then be formed into cabochons and beads. And so it is with the coin-disc beads used in this strand, handcrafted by Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo). It’s real coral, treated to conserve and use as much as possible, and the heat that melds it all creates mysteriously beautiful swirls in a dizzying range of hues. Each round bead is ever so slightly domed for extra depth, and the entire strand hangs just past choker length for a classic look. Two substantial sterling silver round beads followed by two miniature ones finish off each end of the strand.
Apple coral; sterling silver
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The Tenorios have also created two similar strands, of earthen stones in the color of the waters and the shades of a stormy twilit sky. Both are made of oval beads of lapis lazuli, slightly chunky, giving them almost a free-form feel.
From the description of the first, also found in our Other Artists: Miscellaneous Jewelry gallery:
The Kewa Pueblo mother-and-daughter team of Clarita and Vera Tenorio have created this single-strand necklace of matched denim lapis lazuli beads. Oval with sculpted ends, the beads are strung together firmly, tight enough to lay each bead flat, or to turn them at random for a chunkier look. The stones themselves range from cobalt to indigo, with mysterious matrices of darker blues, golds, and a wisp of silvery white here and there. Slightly longer than choker-length at 16″, designed to rest just below the hollow of the throat.
Denim lapis lazuli; sterling silver findings
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The second one is identical in style, but with all of the natural variability found in gemstone beds:
Oval beads of denim lapis lazuli, lightly shaped but not quite flat, form this hand-crafted necklace by Clarita and Vera Tenorio of Kewa Pueblo. The firmly-strung beads can be laid flat against the skin for a classic look, or turned randomly for a bolder, more casual effect. Each bead is aswirl in shades of deep blue, with metallic hints of gold- and silver-colored matrix. Three small sterling silver round beads finish off each end of the strand, which hangs a little past choker-length at 16″.
Denim lapis lazuli; sterling silver
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The last item among the Tenorios’ simple, classic beadwork pieces is the last of their coil bracelets, found in the same gallery here on the site. It’s a piece that brings together all of the elements in one: small chunky nuggets of blue-green Skystone, rain fallen to earth and hardened by its heat, anchored by tiny bits of flame-red coral at either end. From its description:
This coiled bracelet is one of the trademark traditional styles of mother/daughter team of Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo). After choosing more than 200 chip-style turquoise nuggets in varying shades of blue and green, lightly polished and drilled in the centers, they string them on a spiraled length of sterling silver wire; the wire’s own tension forms the coil. Each end terminates in a single piece of bright coral paired with a tiny round sterling silver bead.
Turquoise; spiny oyster shell; sterling silver
$95 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a simple, understated piece, yet one alive with the feel of gems finished just this side of their raw, natural state.
All four pieces are spare and subtle, elegant expressions of an ancient Pueblo art, one that evokes the elemental powers in eminently wearable form.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
