Incorporating Turquoise and Beads into Handcrafted Horse Hair Designs
Turquoise has deep roots in western and Southwest jewelry traditions, and its use in handcrafted horsehair jewelry connects the two material cultures naturally. Stone settings in horse hair earrings and necklaces are typically small. A single turquoise bead or drop, or a few stones spaced along a braided section, keeps the horsehair as the primary visual element and prevents the piece from reading as gemstone jewelry that happens to include fiber.
Seed beads and glass beads introduce color variation without overwhelming the natural texture of the horsehair. In seed bead horsehair necklaces, the beads are worked into the braid structure so they integrate with the fiber. The result is a piece where the materials feel like they belong together.