Vintage Navajo Silver Sand Cast Bracelet With Turquoise Stone

Sometimes the eye-catching open work of a nice handmade Navajo sand cast piece is exactly the special touch you need. For more of a statement, you can wear multiple types of silver sand cast jewelry at once - perhaps a ring, a bracelet, and a naja necklace all together.

This vintage Navajo silver sand cast bracelet is massive. It's set with a wonderful turquoise nugget that's left in its organic shape with varying height, depth, and both smooth and rough textures. It's an old trading post design updated with a silver rope accent. All of the silver work is carinated so that it comes to a point rather than being flat across. Both the size and weight of the bracelet are substantial which is different from many you'll find today. Essentially, this bracelet has presence and you won't find another just like it!

To create this wide cuff bracelet, the Navajo maker used a traditional process where they took sandstone, shaped it into a block with a slice through the middle of the block and then hand carved this gracefully curving shape in the inside of the sandstone block or mold. When carved into the sand stone, the design is flat - it will be shaped into a cuff later. Once the design is created, melted silver is poured into the sand stone "mold". When the silver hardens into its shape, it's removed from the mold, excess silver is filed from the edges, and then the piece is rounded into a bracelet, polished up and set with the turquoise stone. You can read more about the process here.

This hunk of a cuff is from the collection of man who traveled the Southwest for many years of his life acquiring quite a few choice pieces of Native American jewelry. He even attended a few of Martha Struever's renowned Native American art field trips.

The bracelet measures 5 1/2" inside plus 1 7/16" opening. Width is 2 7/16" - yes, that's right it's just shy of 2 1/2" wide. Depth is 3/8" and the bracelet is unsigned.