Naja.Silver beads.



Navajo designed silver and turquoise necklaces and chokers.
Photograph by Venaya Yazzie 2013



First, I am going to share my three fav silver jewelry items: one silver necklace and two chokers inlayed with turquoise a stone via the naja pendant. I photographed these items in my backyard in the rock/sandstone garden. After picking out the best sandstone slab I place each piece carefully atop it and the result was amazing!

The middle necklace was strung by my grandmother and the other two chokers were strung by myself.  The importance of these three items concerns the fact that the silver beads featured are family heirloom beads that were passed on to my as an adult. Each bead was hand-made by extended family members from raw silver and shaped into round beads. Each bead is hollow and therefore not very heavy alone, but when strung together into a necklace can be very weighted.

I restrung the two chokers and added the naja pendants to each of them. I have always admired the historical jewelry pieces that were made in the choker style so I made these two pieces in reference to such style.