Hand-rolled Jet & Turquoise Beads Necklace - 18.25"

Kewa Pueblo jeweler, Delbert Crespin, hand-rolled these jet and green turquoise beads.  You can roll your hand along well rolled beads and barely feel the individual beads, if at all!  The beads end with larger size sterling silver lobster claw clasp. More about hand-rolled beads below.

Size: 19.75"

Hand-rolled beads are made by chipping out pieces of stone or shell.  A hole is drilled into the center of each chip.  The chips are strung on a wire and rolled, and rolled, and rolled until they are all the same width.  Sometimes they are graduated – a difficult task!  They are then polished until smooth.  There are hand-rolled necklaces from Kewa Pueblo that are over a thousand years old.  In the “old days”, the holes were drilled with a hand-pump drill, strung on handmade string, and rolled on sandstone.   There is nothing quite like hand-rolled Kewa beads!