Mark Stevens Pottery Sherd Necklace of Silver Ha-ta-weh

This necklace is such a wonderful way to honor historic Laguna Pueblo culture with wearable art. It's entirely handmade by Laguna jeweler Mark Stevens or Ha-ta-weh in a very special almost sacred process.

To make his jewelry, Stevens uses old pottery sherds that he's found when hiking in a particular Laguna Pueblo location. He recreates these sherds in silver by hand-tooling the silver into the shape, size, and designs on each sherd. He only makes one piece of jewelry for each pottery sherd motif.

Once a year, Stevens returns to the special canyon in Laguna and buries the shards back in the place where he found them. 

It's a really unique method of preserving the past, and Stevens says that he was inspired to do so after he heard the voice of "God the Creator" telling him to make his found potsherds into jewelry. How cool is that!

It's important to note that other people are making jewelry with actual old pot sherds that are set almost like a cabochon. Mark Stevens doesn't consider that to be appropriate or culturally sensitive, and that makes perfect sense. 

This necklace is made of black leather with a handmade sterling silver clasp. The star of the necklace, of course, is the pot sherd pendant, which hangs from a shepherd's hook and can be removed and worn on other types of necklaces too.

The one-of-a-kind pendant measures 2 3/8" long x 1 1/2" wide. The leather necklace portion is 16" long. Signed on the reverse.