Sonoran Gold Green Turquoise and Silver Navajo Strand Necklace

Our Sonoran Gold Green Turquoise Navajo Strand Necklace is a striking study in one of turquoise’s most unexpected colors, commissioned especially for Pax Philomena and handmade by a talented female Navajo artisan. The necklace is composed of substantial, individually shaped Sonoran Gold green turquoise beads in luminous shades of lime, apple green, olive, and blue-green, their surfaces traced with warm brown and golden matrix. Small silver spacers punctuate the strand, allowing each stone to retain its own identity. The effect is wonderfully sophisticated, organic and earthy, yet clean enough to feel entirely contemporary.

Sonoran Gold turquoise comes from northern Sonora, Mexico, near the historic mining region of Cananea. Unlike turquoise traditionally extracted from veins, much Sonoran material is recovered as individual nuggets from clay deposits. Its name reflects one of its most recognizable characteristics: brilliant green and blue-green turquoise interwoven with golden-yellow to brown matrix, sometimes creating an almost painterly web across the stone. Fine examples with saturated color and distinctive matrix are highly prized, and assembling enough complementary material for an entire necklace requires careful selection. No two beads can ever repeat the same pattern.

Turquoise has been part of Diné adornment for generations and carries profound cultural significance. Smithsonian sources describe turquoise within Navajo life as connected with health, well-being, and living a good life, while its importance reaches much further back than the development of Navajo silver jewelry. Here, the artisan allows the stone to remain the focus: each piece is cut, drilled, shaped, smoothed, and polished while preserving its natural matrix and individuality. The slightly irregular geometry creates a beautiful rhythm against the polished silver spacers.

For Jean Marie, commissioning this necklace was about celebrating turquoise beyond the familiar sky-blue stone. Her love of Native American jewelry began during childhood travels through the Southwest with her mother, Philomena, and today she especially values working directly with female Native artisans. Bold without being overpowering, this one-of-a-kind strand brings together remarkable natural material, Navajo craftsmanship, and the personal collaboration behind its creation, a piece of wearable sculpture meant to grow more beautiful with a life of being worn.

Made in Arizone, USA.

Stone size 6.5-6.7mm

Length 17.5" with clasp