Earrings

Native American Earrings

Styles

Earrings are probably the most collected and worn of all of the jewelry types.  Ours are all Native American USA made – no imports here!  These are created in many forms and styles, including all silver, set with one to multiple stones, created as posts, post dangles, French wires, and clips.  All of the major jewelry making tribes create all of these styles.  We will clarify these earring classifications.

Posts

Post earrings have the silver post soldered onto the silver plate that is the front body of the earring.  The post is secured to the ear using an item called the ‘clutch’ that slides onto the post.  The front might be a small silver half bead or can be as elaborate as a larger stone or stones enhanced with fancier silver side work.  Any type of stone or stones might be used according to the eye of the artist.  The form can be anything from a flat plate against the ear to a hoop that can be a quarter, a half, three quarters or even a full sized hoop.

Post Dangles

Post dangle earrings will have a soldered post that connects to the ear with or without a stone as above, but then will have an additional element of another one to several drops connected to the post, generally by sterling connecting loops.  These may again be all silver to various stones or combination of stones.  The length of the earring can be from a short dangle to a very long set of dangles.  These longer dangle earrings may have several recurring bars that might be set with stones in a cascading arrangement.  This type of earring is called a chandelier style.

French Wires

French wires look something like a question mark that connects to the earring body.  These wires are not typically soldered, but the stiff small loop is connected to the earring body, which is free to move.  The form of the earring might be all silver or made with a variety of semi-precious stones.  The earring might be a simpler one piece to a larger and or longer multiple layer chandelier style.  All will connect to the ear by the wire, not a post.

Clips

All of the above styles of earrings can have a clip soldered to the back of the earring body, or might be of the clip dangle style.  These clips allow a person to wear an earring that does not have ear piercings, and can be made in any style.

Stone Settings

All of the tribes do make all of these styles; however some tribes are most noted for particular styles.  Navajos are the major producer of cabochon earrings. Zuni Pueblo Indians are the major producer of the inlay, needlepoint and petit point earrings.

Cabochons are more naturally shaped stones that have silver work to enhance the stone.  Needlepoint stones are cut to have sharp points on each end, like a needle, and are placed in a designed shape or shapes of silver.  Petit point stones are cut and are smaller round, oval, rectangle, triangle, and pear shaped or even small squares called chicklets, placed in a designed shape or shapes of bezels.  Channel inlay has dividers between the stones of thin slivers of sterling silver.  Stone on stone inlay has no silver dividers between the stones of thin slivers of sterling silver.  These stones might be turquoise, or other semi-precious stones, or mixtures of these stones.  All of these stone styles are commonly made in posts, post dangles, French wires and clips.

Our Promise

Offering sterling silver Native American jewelry handcrafted in the USA is the fundamental “business mantra” of SilverTQ, LLC.  Imported or imitation jewelry of any kind is not what we sell. No matter the style or styles of these expertly handcrafted pieces of wearable art, you can be assured complete satisfaction.  Individually made, one at a time, each piece to be cherished and worn proudly.