Exceptional Lapis and Heishi Three Strand Necklace Santo Domingo

Lapis lazuli has been treasured for thousands of years, with the historic deposits of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, supplying the ancient world through trade routes that reached Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Prized by pharaohs, artists, and collectors for its incomparable blue, lapis has long been associated with wisdom, truth, inner strength, and protection. Its rich color was seen as a reflection of the heavens; tiny flecks of pyrite, when present, were likened to stars against a midnight sky. To wear lapis is to wear a material with an extraordinary human history—one that has represented discernment, confidence, and spiritual connection across cultures for centuries.

Our Lapis and Heishi Three Strand Necklace Santo Domingo is a magnificent expression of that history, transformed through the hand of a celebrated female Kewa artisan whose work has been exhibited at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Three beautifully balanced strands of cobalt and midnight-blue lapis create an abundant sweep of color around the neckline. The remarkable continuity of the material, combined with the precision of the handwork, gives the necklace a regal presence that is impossible to overlook. The artist creates only a limited number of necklaces, and a three-strand piece with this depth of color, scale, and refinement is not something Jean Marie expects to encounter again.

For generations, Kewa artists of Santo Domingo Pueblo have been celebrated for transforming shell, turquoise, coral, and stone into meticulously made beads. The process is far more demanding than it appears: every small element begins as rough material and must be individually cut, drilled, shaped, ground, smoothed, and polished before it can be strung. These techniques are learned and refined over a lifetime, often within families, with knowledge passing from one generation to the next. What looks effortless when finished is the result of extraordinary patience, material knowledge, and a highly developed eye for proportion.

In this necklace, the lapis has been transformed into remarkably precise 3.2 millimeter heishi-style beads. Hundreds of individually worked lapis elements were assembled into three harmonious strands, each one falling with beautiful consistency while retaining subtle variations in tone, surface, and proportion that reveal the human hand. At either end, the artist has delicately finished the necklace with tiny 1 millimeter heishi shell beads. Their soft, natural presence provides a beautiful contrast to the depth of the lapis and gives the strand a refined, traditional finish.

Jean Marie has developed a close relationship with this artisan over many years and continues to seek out her limited creations because they combine technical mastery with a deeply personal sensibility. The artist learned jewelry making from her mother and grandmother and has shared with 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 every piece she creates. It is a sentiment Jean Marie has never forgotten. Entirely handmade and impossible to reproduce exactly, our necklace is a true collector’s piece—wearable art to treasure now and pass forward for years to come.

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Length 18.5"  
Lapis stones 3.2 mm  
Heishi shell beads 1 mm  
Made in New Mexico, USA