Turquoise Open Heart Earrings
Silver Sun

Created by Navajo artist, Bonnie Sandoval, for Silver Sun. Open heart design features Enhanced Sleeping Beauty turquoise, wear with matching Open Heart Necklace Style #3260.

About the Artist:
Bonnie Sandoval, a Navajo artist from Tohajiilee, New Mexico was raised in a traditional Navajo family, where she learned to speak Navajo fluently. She learned silversmithing from her mother in 1986 and began making plain pieces with a simple bezel. Now she makes elaborately designed rings and other jewelry for Silver Sun. Because she has worked with so many pieces, Bonnie says that she does not remember her first piece. Bonnie says that the best part of her job is that she gets to work at home and spend time with her family. Bonnie signs her work with a single capital "S".

About Enhanced Sleeping Beauty Turquoise:
A Note on Enhanced Sleeping Beauty Turquoise:
The Sleeping Beauty Turquoise mine is seven miles outside of Globe, Arizona. Its turquoise is noted for its solid, light blue color that lacks matrix. The host rock is usually granite. The owner and miner of the Sleeping Beauty mine, says that the mine produced about 1600 pounds of turquoise every month. Of that amount, only 4% was hard enough to remain  unaltered. Another 80-90% of that amount is altered in some way, mostly enhanced. The enhancement process is more expensive than stabilization. Enhanced Sleeping Beauty is often sold to large distributors in the United States and Europe. Today very little is coming out of the mine. In the past year the production of the mine has slowed down, only small pieces have been coming out of the mine.

Shipping, approx. 3 oz.