Red Spiny Oyster Outside

You have heard of Mother-of-Pearl (MOP) Jewelry, which is made from the inside of the mollusk shell that can produce pearls.  The MOP is the same nacre materials as the produced pearl.  The MOP use in jewelry has been around for centuries.   The pearl-producing oyster is not the only organic gemstone used for jewelry.

Spiny Oyster Inside with Heishi Strand

The Spiny oyster, from Baja in California or Mexico, was popular
with Native Americans for jewelry.  As the desire for inexpensive or southwestern-style jewelry grew in the mid-to-late 20th century, the Heishe (pronounced Hee-Shee and also spelled Heishi) bead necklaces made from various white and cream-colored shells became popular.  Heishi beads are typically assorted rondelle-shape in most necklace and bracelet strands, but may be slightly tubular in older jewelry.  Spiny oyster is highly desirable  as it comes in natural shades of pinkish to red, medium purple, and bright orange to rusty.  These spiny colors are also popular as cabochons for  southwestern jewelry and to use in inlay Native American styles of jewelry set, which are typically bezel set in silver.

Multi Spiny Inlay with Turquoise

NOTE:  When purchasing an inlay piece or multi--stone jewelry, verify whether spiny or coral was used with the seller as it is easy to confuse the reds and oranges.  Some corals are on the endangered species list, so they too have special harvesting restrictions and are going up in price.  If the jewelry piece has turquoise too, you may want to ask what type of turquoise it is for collectability and pricing  reasons.  If the seller is not the original designer, do not be surprised if they do not know the province or name for the turquoise.  If you like it and the price is right, buty it!

Spiny Turquoise Cabochon

Although spiny started as an inexpensive organic stone for jewelry, the price has gone up as harvesting the shells is now regulated although it is not yet an endangered species.  As a result in the increased price, it became important to save the remnants from making larger jewelry pieces for use in smaller inlays.  Another way for jewelry makers to use remnants was to mix them with turquoise and metal to make a new decorative stone.  This mix process was first developed my Kingman mines to form and color Mojave (pronounced moh-hah-vee and also spelled Mohave) in 1975.  The process was adapted to make Spiny Turquoise, which is very popular and currently fashionable with both Native American and high-end jewelry makers. The mix is usually made with orange spiny and blue turquoise, however other colors of spiny, as well as white MOP, may be present in the mix.  The turquoise and shell materials are infused with a melted metal and then compressed into the new man-made gemstone called Spiny Turquoise.

Other shells that are popular for jewelry making are the Lion's Paw which has both orange and brown, the purplish Tiger Cowrie, and silvery blue Abalone.  Pink or peachy Conch  and other shells have been popular for making cameos for centuries.