Vintage Joe B. Reano Necklace of Azurite Heishi Beads Micro Fine

This necklace is a special one, folks. It's the perfect combination of significant makers and significant provenance.

It's a single strand microfine heishi bead necklace handmade by Joe B. Reano and his daughter Jolene A. Reano of Kewa Pueblo, and it's from the private, personal collection of celebrated Native art dealer Martha Hopkins Struever.

You usually find Joe B. Reano working with his wife, Terry, but this necklace is extra special with its father/daughter energy.

The necklace is made from azurite beads, which magically change color according to the light. At times, in low levels of light, they appear to be deep dark blue, almost black. In the light, they look lusciously variegated in color with green shades as well as blue. 

Joe and Jolene Reano made these teeny tiny beads entirely by hand in a painstaking traditional, old-style process without using power tools. 

The first step in this process is to take small pieces of azurite stone and rub them against a rough block of sandstone in order to level them. Then, holes are drilled in each piece using a pump drill which is made out of wood and string and moved up and down by hand. Pump drill bits are often nails, and before the Spanish contact, they were made out of sharp rock crystals. Once holes are pump drilled into every single little bead, they're strung. Then, the roughly shaped strand of beads is rolled against a large textured stone in order to create a graduated or uniform bead shape. In this case, the beads are all of a uniform diameter. During this extensive process, much of the original azurite material is ground down to dust - the smaller the beads the more is ground away. This is traditional artisanal jewelry at its finest - it can take a month or two just to create a single strand. 

That's precisely why the Reano's beads have a different feel to them. Wear these beads, and you'll know what it felt like to wear early Indigenous Pre-contact beaded necklaces. There's something sacred here that reminds us to slow down and just breathe.

Native American art dealer and collector Martha Struever loved Joe and Terry Reano's work. She featured them in art openings, and she took many a field trip group by to watch Joe and Terry Reano in their bead-making process. Over the years, she sold many of the Reano's necklaces, but she also held on to those that she believed to be especially wonderful. Sometimes, for Marti, it was about the color or the feel. This necklace has both, but even more important is the connection between father and daughter.

The azurite necklace measures 22.5" from end to end and it's hallmarked on the little handmade silver cones. The beads are just 1/16" across. It drapes beautifully when worn alone, but you can also wear it with pendants as pictured.

• Natural azurite necklace by Joe and Jolene Reano
• Joe Reano is a premiere bead maker at Santo Domingo or Kewa Pueblo
• He works by hand in the old style of bead making
• Necklace measures 22.5" from end to end
• Hallmarked on the silver cones with Joe's hallmark as well as Jolene's.
• Vintage piece from Martha Struever's private collection