Coral Jewelry

Coral jewelry is widely considered to a staple item in contemporary Native American jewelry collections. Although Native Americans incorporated the red rock, agillite, into prehistoric jewelry, the most famous red gemstone in Native American jewelry did not arrive into the Southwest until the Spanish introduced coral beads through trade. Already experienced lapidaries, the Zuni, Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo tribes naturally adopted the beautiful variants of red coral into their jewelry. While coral comes in a multiplicity of colors including black, white, pale pink, pale rose, blue, and assorted reds, the beautiful orange-red color dominates coral jewelry. The combination of blue hued turquoise with the favored orange-red coral provides a contrast of color that is indicative of Southwestern Native American jewelry.

Coral jewelry comes in numerous forms, including necklaces, earrings, pendants, fetishes, rings, and bracelets, as well as serving as ornaments on Concho belts and belt buckles. Different tribes of the Southwest are recognized for different uses of coral. For example, the Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians, renowned for their beadwork, meticulously fashion coral into miniscule-shaped and drilled beads of heishi. Once completed, the beads are positioned on strings to form a beautiful necklace. The Zuni utilize coral in mosaic and channel inlay techniques, turning a silver bracelet or pendant into a piece of art. Similar to turquoise, the Navajo use coral as the centerpiece of their silver jewelry, working from the inside out. Like their southwestern counterparts, the Navajo use coral in combination with turquoise in rings, bracelets and a plethora of other forms of jewelry.

Historically the majority of coral that was imported into the Southwest during the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries originated off the coast of Italy. Today, because of depletion and high demand, the bulk of coral used in Native American coral jewelry originates in the South Pacific and the Sea of Japan. Because of easier accessibility and overfishing, salt-water coral tends to be exhausted at shallow depths, while the finer and more valued coral grows at a deeper depth. Substitute coral, such as bamboo and sponge, is often valued for its cheaper price, but, because of porosity, tends to show brown patches, swirls and black spots. Nevertheless, coral jewelry, in all its forms, is valued throughout the world for both its beauty and simplicity.