Heishi Jewelry Guide
Centuries prior to the Spanish arrival in the Southwestern United States, the various Pueblo tribes used natural resources acquired both locally and through trade for constructing jewelry. Years of practice and patience enabled the Santo Domingo and San Felipe Pueblos of New Mexico to master the manipulation of shell and stone into meticulously shaped beads called heishi. Heishi jewelry, fashioned from a variety of shells ranging from spiney oyster to mother of pearl, has evolved into modern styles consisting of imported Mediterranean coral, stones of turquoise and jet, and the metal silver.
The Santo Domingo tribe originally made heishi jewelry for dances and other ceremonial purposes. However, as cultures mingled and the tourist demand increased, heishi inevitably became available in the Indian and western jewelry market. Prior to the 1950s, heishi were shaped into 1/4 inch diameters, whereas the jewelers of the following decade adopted the smaller 1/16 inch diameter method that is preferred and recognized as heishi jewelry today. When making traditional and contemporary heishi jewelry, the process of cutting, drilling, stringing, shaping, grinding and smoothing are arduous tasks divided between different family members. For example, the husband may do the rough cutting and piercing, while the wife places each piece on the cotton or nylon string.
The first step involved in making heishi jewelry is choosing the shell or stone. The jeweler determines the desired color and picks the appropriate resource. For example, olivella shells provide the color white while pipestone supplies the color red. Once chosen, the artist must first cut the natural resources into separate strips using a blade. Next, using a hand held cutting tool similar to a nipper, the strips are further cut into individual squares. Now ready to be drilled, each square is held in place and pierced through the center, allowing the squares to be threaded onto a thin string. Rotated and grinded against a hard surface, the squares are shaped and smoothed into cylindrical beads. The final product of heishi jewelry should exhibit a smooth silky feel with a noticeable visual sheen. Heishi necklaces are available in single to multi-strands, ranging from one to over thirty. The spaghetti sized stands of beads are used in other variations, including bracelets of heishi set on silver, or as a necklace closure on a turquoise chunk necklace.
