American Indian JewelryAmerican Indian jewelry ,Native American Jewelry,Find real American Indian Jewelry
There are different jewelry styles in
every American Indian tribe. Some of the components used
to make American Indian Jewelry are beads, shells, copper
and silver, ivory, amber, turquoise and other stones.
American Indian Jewelry was one of the major trade items
long before European arrival in America. After colonization,
Native American jewelry-making traditions remained strong,
incorporating, rather than being replaced by, new materials
and techniques such as glass beads and more advanced metalworking
techniques. There are two very general categories of Native
American jewelry: metalwork, and beadwork. Before Europeans
came native metalwork was fairly simple, consisting primarily
of hammering and etching copper into pendants or earrings
and fashioning copper and silver into beads. After Navajo,
Hopi and Pueblo artists learned silver-smithing from the
Spanish in the 1800's, metal jewelry arts blossomed in
the Southwest, and distinctive native jewelry like the
squash blossom necklace, Hopi silver overlay bracelets,
and Navajo turquoise inlay rings developed from the fusion
of the new techniques with traditional designs. Native
beadwork, on the other hand, was already extremely advanced
in Pre-Columbian times, including the fine grinding of
turquoise, coral, and shell beads into smooth heishi necklaces,
the delicate carving of individual wood and bone beads,
the soaking and piecing of porcupine quills, and the intricate
stitching of thousands of beads together.
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