Native American Jewelry - Handmade by Silversmith Ron Henry

Each piece is unique and exquisitely handcrafted from silver and semi-precious stones. Select from our southwestern jewelry gallery or design your own.

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Jewelry Dictionary/Glossary

American Indian noun: a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the western hemisphere except usually the Eskimos; especially : an American Indian of North America and especially the U.S.

Azure Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English asur, from Old French azur, probably from Old Spanish, modification of Arabic lAzaward, from Persian lAzhuward
1 archaic : LAPIS LAZULI
2 a : the blue color of the clear sky b : the heraldic color blue
3 : the unclouded sky
- azure adjective

Bracelet ( brace·let): noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, diminutive of bras arm, from Latin bracchium
1 : an ornamental band or chain worn around the wrist
2 : something (as handcuffs) resembling a bracelet

Coral Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin corallium, from Greek korallion
1 a : the calcareous or horny skeletal deposit produced by anthozoan or rarely hydrozoan polyps; especially : a richly red precious coral secreted by a gorgonian (genus Corallium) b : a polyp or polyp colony together with its membranes and skeleton
2 : a piece of coral and especially of red coral
3 a : a bright reddish ovary (as of a lobster or scallop) b : a deep pink

Gem 'jem Function: noun Etymology: Middle English gemme, from Middle French, from Latin gemma bud, gem
1 a : JEWEL b: a precious or sometimes semiprecious stone cut and polished for ornament

Gold Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German gold gold, Old English geolu yellow -- more at YELLOW
1 : a malleable ductile yellow metallic element that occurs chiefly free or in a few minerals and is used especially in coins, jewelry, and dentures

Hogan Function: noun
Etymology: Navajo hooghan
: a Navajo Indian dwelling usually made of logs and mud with a door traditionally facing east

Indigenous having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment

Jet Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French jaiet, from Latin gagates, from Greek gagatEs, from Gagas, town and river in Asia Minor
1 : a compact velvet-black coal that takes a good polish and is often used for jewelry
2 : an intense black

Jewelry (jew·el·ry) : objects of precious metal often set with gems and worn for personal adornment

Jewel (jew·el)
1 : an ornament of precious metal often set with stones or decorated with enamel and worn as an accessory of dress
2 : one that is highly esteemed
3 : a precious stone : GEM
4 : a bearing for a pivot (as in a watch) made of crystal, glass, or a gem

Lapis Lazuli - Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin, from Latin lapis + Medieval Latin lazuli, genitive of
lazulum lapis lazuli, from Arabic lAzaward -- more at AZURE
a semiprecious stone that is usually rich azure blue and is essentially a complex silicate often with
spangles of iron pyrites -- called also lapis

Navajo Function: noun (Inflected Form(s): plural Na·va·jo or Na·va·jos also Na·va·ho or Na·va·hos)
Etymology: Spanish (Apache de) Navajó, literally, Apache of Navajó, from Navajó, area occupied by Navajos, probably from Tewa (Pueblo Indian language of northern New Mexico) navahu., literally, arroyo with planted fields
1 : a member of an American Indian people of northern New Mexico and Arizona
2 : the language of the Navajo people

Opal - Function: noun
Etymology: Latin opalus, from Greek opallios, from Sanskrit upala stone, jewel
: a mineral that is a hydrated amorphous silica softer and less dense than quartz and typically with definite and often marked iridescent play of colors

Silver noun: a white metallic element that is sonorous, ductile, very malleable, capable of a high degree of polish, and chiefly univalent in compounds, and that has the highest thermal and electric conductivity of any substance

Sugilite (also known as luvulite) is a relatively rare pink to purple cyclosilicate mineral with the complex chemical formula: KNa2(Fe,Mn,Al)2Li3Si12O30. Sugilite crystallizes in the hexagonal system with prismatic crystals. The crystals are rarely found and the form is usually massive. It has a Mohs hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 and a specific gravity of 2.75 - 2.80.
Sugilite was first described in 1944 by the Japanese petrologist Ken-ichi Sugi (1901-1948) for an occurrence on Iwagi Islet, Japan where it is found in an aegirine syenite intrusive stock. It is found in a similar environment at Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada. In the Wessels mine in northern Cape Province of South Africa sugilite is mined from a strata-bound manganese deposit. It is also reported from Liguria and Tuscany, Italy; New South Wales, Australia; and Madhya Pradesh, India.

Turquoise - Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English turkeis, turcas, from Middle French turquoyse, from feminine of turquoys Turkish, from Old French, from Turc Turk
1 : a mineral that is a blue, bluish green, or greenish gray hydrous basic phosphate of copper and aluminum, takes a high polish, and is valued as a gem when skyblue
2 : a light greenish blue