Coral Necklace With Four Strands of Vintage Round Coral Beads

Back in the day when I worked with Martha Struever, we had a great, old multi strand pueblo necklace. It was at least 10 strands of gorgeous natural turquoise with round coral beads at the top. The piece had been much-loved and broke. At the time, we had a collector looking for an all-turquoise necklace, so we had the turquoise beads restrung into a necklace. This left us with some pretty round coral beads.

Beloved Santa Fe artist Brett Bastien restrung the coral beads on wire and added handmade heavy sterling silver cones as well as an adjustable handmade sterling silver chain. In his skilled jeweler's hands, the vintage coral beads became a lovely four strand necklace. Like much of Santa Fe itself, the necklace was created with the influence of multiple cultures - coral beads that had been strung and worn on a Kewa Pueblo necklace and then repurposed into an all-coral necklace made by an Anglo jeweler actually trained at the Institute of American Indian Arts here in Santa Fe. What a neat necklace! Wear it as a reminder of the beauty that results when we embrace cultural diversity.

The necklace measures 25" from end to end, but can be worn up to 2 1/2" shorter.