Exceptional Afghan Lapis Necklace with Sterling Silver Kokopellis Santo Domingo

Our Natural Lapis Necklace with Sterling Silver Kokopellis is a striking example of contemporary Santo Domingo artistry. This necklace is composed of richly saturated natural Afghan lapis, shaped into substantial disc-like beads and punctuated by hand-worked sterling silver Kokopellis. The result is bold, refined, and unmistakably individual.

Every lapis bead is cut, drilled, shaped, smoothed, and polished by hand. Their slight variations in thickness and contour are part of what makes the necklace so compelling; there is no mechanical uniformity here. Up close, the lapis reveals extraordinary depth, from intense cobalt and royal blue to darker mineral markings that give each bead its own character. The sterling silver Kokopellis introduce sculptural rhythm and connect the piece to the visual language of Southwestern jewelry.

Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan has been prized for thousands of years for its extraordinary depth of blue. The great deposits of Badakhshan supplied the ancient world through far-reaching trade routes, carrying lapis into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Long associated with royalty, wisdom, protection, truth, and the heavens, the stone was already revered across civilizations centuries before Alexander the Great entered Bactria in the fourth century B.C. In our necklace, that ancient material is given an entirely new expression through the hand of a Santo Domingo artist.

Jean Marie has developed a particularly close relationship with this artisan over the years. Her work has been shown at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and Jean Marie continues to seek out her pieces because they combine technical mastery with a deeply personal sensibility. She learned bead making from her mother and grandmother and has told Jean Marie that she prefers to work only when she is in a happy frame of mind, believing that something of her own spirit enters the jewelry she creates.

Measuring approximately 27 inches long and weighing 77 grams, our necklace has substantial presence while remaining beautifully wearable. The long strand allows the lapis to fall with an elegant, uninterrupted rhythm, while the sterling silver Kokopellis provide a distinctive sculptural counterpoint to the deep blue stones.

Entirely handmade and one of a kind, our Natural Afghan Lapis Necklace with Sterling Silver Kokopellis is not a piece that can simply be reordered or duplicated. It is a work of Santo Domingo jewelry made slowly, bead by bead, by an artisan whose knowledge has been passed through generations. Jean Marie sees pieces such as this as future heirlooms—jewelry to wear now, cherish, and eventually pass on.

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Length 27" weight 77gr

Made in New Mexico, USA