Vintage Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Nugget Necklace Santo Domingo

Our Vintage Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Nugget Necklace is far more than a beautiful piece of jewelry, it is a small piece of history, carrying a deeply personal story from one generation to the next. Handmade by a female Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa Pueblo) artisan, the necklace is composed of old Sleeping Beauty turquoise nuggets in wonderfully organic shapes. Their natural variations, subtle matrix, and unmistakable blue give the necklace the character that only genuine, older turquoise can possess. Each stone was individually strung by hand, and the necklace is completed with a sterling silver clasp.

The story of these stones makes the necklace especially meaningful. The artisan discovered the turquoise tucked away in a box that her mother had left her. The nuggets were old and had already been drilled, waiting all those years for someone to bring them together. Rather than leaving them in the box, she decided to string them into a necklace. She told Jean Marie that she felt her mother would have wanted her to do exactly that—to make something beautiful from the stones and allow them to continue their journey. That sentiment gives this one-of-a-kind necklace a spirit that cannot be recreated.

Sleeping Beauty turquoise comes from the famous Sleeping Beauty Mine near Globe, Arizona, named for the mountain formation that, when viewed from a distance, was said to resemble a woman lying on her back in peaceful sleep. The mine became celebrated for turquoise with a remarkably clear, brilliant sky-blue color. Since turquoise production there ended, authentic Sleeping Beauty material has become increasingly difficult to obtain. Older stones are especially desirable because they represent material mined years ago that simply cannot be replaced. Owning vintage Sleeping Beauty turquoise is, in many ways, like owning a tangible piece of Southwestern jewelry history.

Jean Marie has a special relationship with this artisan, which made hearing the story behind these stones particularly moving. She was drawn not only to their rarity and beautiful color, but to the connection between mother and daughter that they represent. Every irregular nugget bears evidence of nature and the human hand, while the artisan’s decision to finally string her mother’s turquoise gives the necklace its soul. One of a kind, handmade, and created from increasingly scarce vintage stones, this is a necklace with a past, and now an opportunity to become part of someone else’s story.

Length 20" Sterling Silver Clasp 

Made in New Mexico, USA