White Clamshell Five Strand Necklace Santo Domingo

Our White Clam Shell Five Strand Necklace Santo Domingo is a study in quiet sophistication, handcrafted in the traditional Kewa manner from hundreds of luminous white shell beads. Five graceful strands fall fluidly around the neckline, creating depth and movement without relying on bold color or elaborate ornament. The soft ivory palette allows the subtle differences in each bead to become part of the beauty, while a single turquoise accent appears almost unexpectedly along one strand—a small flash of blue against an otherwise serene field of white.

Clam shell has a long history in Pueblo adornment, reaching the inland Southwest through extensive Indigenous trade networks that connected communities with distant coastal regions. Long before silver became central to Southwestern jewelry, shell was already being cut, drilled, polished, and worn as personal adornment. Because shell comes from water, it can also carry associations with water in Pueblo contexts, an especially meaningful presence in the arid Southwest. Here, however, its beauty is allowed to speak without overstatement: luminous, natural, and transformed through generations of practiced handwork.

The craftsmanship lies in the heishi tradition for which Santo Domingo, or Kewa Pueblo, is especially renowned. Each small shell blank must be individually cut, drilled, strung, then carefully ground, smoothed, and polished until hundreds of separate pieces begin to flow together as remarkably fluid strands. Creating five strands with such visual consistency requires extraordinary patience and an experienced eye for proportion. The slight variations in thickness, tone, and surface are not imperfections; they are the unmistakable evidence of shell shaped one piece at a time.

Jean Marie was drawn to this necklace for its purity and effortless elegance. Her appreciation for Native American craftsmanship began during childhood visits to the Pueblos with her mother, Philomena, and today she continues to seek out pieces that allow traditional technique to feel completely contemporary. Worn alone against linen, silk, or a flowing Pax Philomena kaftan, this necklace has an almost sculptural calm, timeless, deeply handmade, and beautiful enough to be worn for decades and eventually passed forward.

Made in New Mexico, USA. 

Length from nape of neck 17"