Old Navajo Ring of Silver Set with Natural Spiderweb Stone

Maybe you've heard of the Japanese art of Kintsugi where broken pottery is lovingly repaired with a gold or silver seam on the cracks. After the repair, the value of the once broken piece of pottery increases. Because these repairs with precious metals take time, effort and money, it's usually only worth repairing vessels that hold important memories or or meaning. 

This old Navajo ring is the jewelry equivalent of Kintsugi. The silver ring is set with a fine natural turquoise stone. One of its past owners said he was told it comes from the Lone Mountain mine. Notice, though, the line of silver stretched diagonally across the stone. It's an old repair to this valuable and special piece of turquoise. If the stone wasn't important, it would have been removed and replaced. Instead it was repaired with this silver slat and gained rarity and character. It's the Kintsugi process on a piece of natural turquoise.

Every so often, you'll find an amazing old Navajo or Pueblo ring that was deemed worthy of a similar repair. In fact, sometimes contemporary jewelers will create a support of silver across an intact turquoise stone simply as an homage to this wonderful old repair technique. 

The symbolism behind this ring (and Kintsugi) is heartening - we can emerge from brokenness even stronger and more beautiful than before. Wear this ring as a reminder.

It's a size 9, but it can be sized up or down). The face measures a hair under an inch. It last lived in the California desert where its owner liked to keep it looking shiny. You might prefer to allow it to build a little bit more patina in keeping with its actual age.