Alot of my designs are based on the old style of Santo Domingo Pueblo Jewelry and jewelry pieces that were found at ancestral Pueblo ruins, like Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and other ancestral homeland ruins. I recently found these old 10th century spiney oyster shells from Peru at a Gem and Mineral show in Tucson AZ. Spiney Oyster Shell was one of several types of shells brought up this way to the southwest and traded with local ancestral people of the time through "trade routes" long long time ago. So that is why you see and associate Spiney oyster shell with Santo Domingo Pueblo Jewelry. It has a long history here in the southwest. I stung the shells with another type of shell associated with our SD jewelry. "Heshi" shell in between the Spiney shells. Each heshi or olive shell that it is also know for is sliced, cut, drilled, grinded and shaped. I also inlayed this very old Glycymeris shell with turquoise stones and Spiney Oyster shell. I inlayed the backside of the shell as well. Glycymeris shell is another shell found in the southwest Pueblo ruins of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, brought through trade routes from tribes of the south coastal regions of Peru, central America and Mexico. On the end of this necklace I tied and braided in the traditional Santo Domingo style and added an Abalone shell piece. It is inlayed on the backside of the shell as well. Definitely a one-of-a-kind and old style necklace handmade by LeJeune Chavez of Santo Domingo Pueblo NM.

Necklace measures: 26 1/2" end to end.

Inlayed pendent shell: 2 1/2" × 2 3/8"