Necklace c. 1930s

This striking necklace was created by a Navajo (Diné) artist with silver and turquoise. I'm drawn to the way the metal has been worked – those simple, silver beads following each other around the neck in a gently rhythmic flow. If you look closely, you can see the tiny marks and patinas that speak to the hand that made it. The metal isn’t perfectly smooth, it has texture, a kind of gentle roughness that almost feels like a caress. And that turquoise! Those little pops of blue are a sharp contrast to the muted silver, but they're also totally harmonious. Look at how they’re placed, they draw your eye around the piece like a little dance. It reminds me of work by Anni Albers, those carefully placed colors that seem to sing out across a woven plane. Ultimately, what I love most about this piece is the sense of balance, and that harmony, between the rough and the refined. It’s like a conversation between the earth and the human hand.